《The World We Do Not know》 -1 The World @@ **The Current World** ? Has 14 Dimensions until.now. Only 5th and 8th are mentioned. ?There is only one small continent on Earth. ? No use of Martial Art is allowed to use or teach on the earth. The only known Martial artists are possessed by Noble''s and Royals. And are enrolled into military. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. ? The only Self-defense art used in this day is called Military arts. fight with the Use of different kinds of weapons that are enhanced by elemental stones. **Elemental Stones** ?The stones that posses the nature itself inside them. After the Earth lost its resources. The elemental stones were discovered in other Dimensions. ?Red Elemental Stone - A garnet that has bombarding or explosive nature. ?Green Elemental Stone - A green sapphire gem like stone that consists air element within them. Any green stone user can control and manipulate and produce air from this stone. ?Purple Elemental Stone - A Ruby gem like stone that consists lightning and electricity. ?White Elemental Stone - A transparent like crystal that enhances physical strength of human body. ?Black Elemental Stone - The Use of this is still unknown. There are no black stone users as well. Only has been seen using one in the entire Earth.@@ 1 The World We Do Not Know The world has a constant need to show supremacy, the Rich get richer and the poor grow more poor. Right now, there''s a war between two nations. The cries of people involved are heard throughout the cities. Desperate cries, screams and wails were causing sleepless nights. This war isn''t only fought with guns and massive destructive war heads like all the wars we have ever heard of. It''s a war fought with the support of elements of nature herself. Weather controlling, which is out of the ordinary science theories, was causing man-made droughts or floods and many more. By any means it''s only massive violence, a straight massacre, strategic bombing, genocides, premeditated deaths from starvation, diseases and use of nuclear weapons. The aggression and demise of the war left the poor people in distraught more than ever, as they were the ones cleaning up large numbers of lifeless bodies laying on the war field. They were also forced to hold a gun in their hands, which had only held work tools before,to defend and fight in place of the Nobles who started this bloody war. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Amidst this battle field, is a border between the two nations. It looks like a lonely lane that had cut its ties from the rest of the world. It was protected with fences and barricades on either sides and filled with armies of each nation on each side. The whole sky was devilishly red, as if it was tainted with the ongoing bloodshed. Thick contaminated smoke merged with the air spread above in the sky, with the never ending war below it. The whole lane of the border appears to be covered by thick smoke as a result of a bomb. Every soldier on either side is waiting for the smoke to clear as they steadily ready their gun to aim at the enemies opposite to them. It is silent, like the eerie calm before a storm, but before the front line soldiers of each side could shoot, they noticed a strange dark shadow inside the smoke and it started forming the shape of a human. Its arms stretched outward on either side and before the soldiers realize what was happening, their bodies started falling apart piece by piece. Every limb of their body was cut off out of nowhere and their heads started to fly in the air as if they were sliced smoothly in one swing. The soldiers behind them are below ground level in the sewer like lines connecting the war field. The guns in their hands are shaking and they are having a hard time putting their swollen finger on the trigger. They trembled in great fear with their eyes wide open, to process the picture in front of them. What they saw was beyond comprehension. Blood squirted from what resembled a torso with no limbs or head. It trickled down to form a pool of blood on the ground. They realize that their front line soldiers were getting slashed but were not able to see who was attacking them. "You all have done enough..., now embrace death" - a soldier in despair faintly heard a male voice say, his voice filled with hatred, deep as the sea itself. "Disappear!"- the body from within the smoke uttered fiercely. *Whoosh~~* The entire war field area of 10km consisting of tanks, artillery, the fence, the barricades, the life, the dead, everything within the 10km radius disappeared instantly in a blink of an eye, leaving a huge trench on the ground. Only a trace of the man''s extraordinary power remained on the border where the guy stood upright. Even the land that was soaked with blood has disappeared, as if someone has erased them forever from motherEarth. "Maybe I overdid it" - said the voice softly to himself as he crosses the borders of one of the nation that is involved in this awful war. No trace of remorse could possibly be seen on his face as he walked out, like a body with no soul or feelings. . . . The people in the HQ(Headquarters) are desperately trying to contact the front lines but none seem to be responding. During all the chaos inside the HQ, the door to the entrance opens and a soldier can be seen standing at the door with despair and fear written all over his face. His eyes were wide open as if he has seen a horrific ghost, that he couldn''t erase from his mind. "What''s the status? Idiot!" the head of the HQ yells desperately towards the new soldier who came back from monitoring the situation. The soldier gathered up all his strength to speak as he snapped back to reality from the shock and he replies, "The whole front line soldiers, including tanks and war heads have disappeared" "Disappeared?"- the head asks in a puzzled voice. "Ye-yes, even the war field. The very land is empty all over and no trace of blood or a soldier''s body is found." cried the soldier as his voice shook. Suddenly, out of nowhere an alarm goes off. "EMERGENCY!!!" "We are under attack by someone- he- he doesn''t seem normal !"- a report came by fast through a speaker from the camp nearby. "What is happening here? Under attack by whom? I want the surveillance camera right now! Let me see what''s happening!" - the head yells in panic. "A stealth drone is dispatched to the sight now, sir" a soldier in the HQ room replies. The view that the HQ sees as the drone arrives to the camp is beyond horrific. No one could have described the graphic that they witnessed. The soldiers were getting cut down into pieces, some of them seems to be firing their guns at a man walking towards them, yet none of the bullets reached him. They all started to feel desperate that they have to live through this day and they clueless-ly keep firing endless bullets repeatedly at the strange attacker as their last hope but it was to no avail. The HQ were just helplessly staring at a massacre. "30 soldiers followed by a small battalion are rushing to our quarter to provide us with back up sir!" - a soldier smiles, filled with hope. He informs his captain of the camp which was under attack by the mysterious guy. "DON''T! Tell everyone to retreat. No wait, just order them to run for their lives, tell them to go and pray to God with everything they''ve got to save our nation! T-tell them to.. Te-" the captain says with furious voice as he keeps losing every bit of hope left, each time a soldier of his falls down to the merciless guy causing the captain to lose his mind. The only thing that comes to the mind of captain is the photo of his wife and his two children. "To stand and face this extreme foe requires the god himself to be behind you. We are all going to die. " says a soldier eyeing the captain with sadness in his eyes as if he seems to know that no one will return to their homes. Soon a backup troop of the 30 soldiers arrived with questioning looks written all over their faces. The backup soldiers didn''t know about anything until they feel a chill behind their backs. A very murderous intent made them freeze for a second, but they decided to ignore it since it was a normal feeling on a battlefield. Every soldiers arrived and started to take positions, but before they could even make any decisions, a man suddenly appears in between the 30 soldiers in the blink of an eye causing a great stir in the hearts of the soldiers. The time seems to be slowing down. The person who was between the 30 soldiers with blood stains on his hands looks up at them slowly, with a devilish smile surfacing upon his face as his eyes appears to be swallowed in striking red blood, completely making the soldiers think that they are not fighting a human here but some monster. "May the bad be dead, good be left alone, taint me with your blood" - the guy speaks calmly as he spreads his arms out snaps his fingers. *The world suddenly became silent as if nothing is moving* "Actually..." the strange guy says as he look up toward the sky and his eyes turn blood red and his smile turns creepy. "Let the good and bad and everybody die, it''s 2 or 3 people less on the planet that way. " He finishes in a sadistic tone. Without a second thought, the bodies of all 30 soldiers were cut diagonally from their belly to chest, and their upper bodies fly in the air as the blood sprays all over the mysterious man. His face is covered in blood, his eyes glowing mysterious. The white part of his eyes is blood red in color, with bottle green colored cornea and black pupil, truly looking like a demon. The way he kills people without any hesitation is as if he is loving the despaired and helpless faces of the soldiers, and loving the blood showering upon him. *"He is definitely loving the feeling of the blood and the odour that it is emitting"* everyone at the HQ thinks while watching, with extreme fright taking over each and everyone. After he annihilated the whole camp, the mysterious guy walks over in the direction of the stealth drone camera as if he has nothing to do with the killings he has just done. He opens the Palm of his left hand and the drone which is supposed to be stealthy and flying 20 feet above in the air instantly appears in his hands while he keeps walking. Its as if it the drone is teleported in his hands. The guy then clears his throat. "It''s time for your nation to repent for what you have done" - says the guy in a low and kind voice asks he cracks his neck seemingly getting ready to kill the rest of the soldiers in HQ. "Telepo - Hmmm, no, I can use three of them(powers) at once for now, let''s see if I can increase it to 4 or 5 at one time" The guy talks to himself and leaps forward "Time....." 2 Mindoro Mindoro - Year 5062 Mindoro is a remote village with a subtropical highland climate, set among beautiful hills and mystical woods. A golden shrine stands atop of the four hills surrounding the village and the whole area is covered with grassy terrains folded inwards, leaving wide fertile plains to build houses. All the houses are supported as well as connected to each other, and are built in the middle of all the mountains. The village only consists of groups of houses built nearby each other in a circle with lanes dividing them and painted in different colors. The village at night is the most beautiful sight to watch, as the street lights illuminate the roads and the light then merges with the colors of houses. It takes upon the form of a flower bud shining in spiritual light blue color. Each shrine built of gold on each hilltop, glows bright yellow and takes the form of golden petals. These colors at night when viewed from the tallest hill a little far from the village looks like a Divine flower from heaven. (Mindoro is also a home to rich natural heritage.) The dense forests and its flowers which bloom at night release their wonderful sweet fragrances. The snow glows with neon-like colors when the moonlight falls on top of the mountain peaks that exist in Mindoro. You can always feel the mysterious vibrant feels like tons of energy passing through you that sends chills to your spine near the shrines situated on top of each hill that are always guarded by the villagers. As you enter the woods in the village, you can see various kinds of animals and rare birds such as crimson horned pheasant, marble tailed ducks and Red neck, blue colored birds that resembles a red peacock. They are known to be in nearly extinct out in the world, and can now only be found inside of Mindoro. Taking care of all these endangered / rare species of trees and animals, is a kind old doctor living with his grandson while treating animals and trying to protect Mother Nature from getting destroyed by the hands of other humans in the real world. His grandson, whom he adores greatly, is one of the main gifts he has ever received. He feels proud for raising his grandson, more than any achievement he has received throughout his entire life, because after all, his grandson is the only family he has. "Grandpa Gus is a very kind hearted person. He has long hair and prickly beard hair, which poke me like thorns every time I try to hug him and grab his beard in wonder, but I still love everything about him including his beard. " says 8 years old Faust, the grandson of the old doctor. The house or chalet where Faust and Gus live, is built on top of the mountain crest in order to offer an amazing 360¡ã view. The chalet consists of two floors where the first floor consists of the small animals that Gus takes care of, along with the two beds for them to sleep in, where as the living furniture and the egg incubators are placed on the second floor. The rear of the house is sheltered by the cliff and forest while the front cantilevers above the hill with full height glass walls, exposing them to the views of the village underneath them. "The village is as pretty as ever grandpa", says Faust to his grandpa as he looks out from the glass wall at the same time he is getting ready for story time. "Grandpa I want a superhero story again!, super hero!, super hero!" Faust shouted excitedly with a cheeky smile surfacing upon him and he laughed while he wonder as to which story his grandpa will read to him tonight. Gus starts reading him the story, As soon as Gus starts the story, Faust is imagining himself in the lead character position. Saving people in dire and tough situations while being praised as the hero and achieving his dreams as he slowly falls into deep sleep soundly. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Faust really admires people who have a dream of their own and those who work towards making their dreams come true, especially his grandpa Gus. He admires his grandpa so much that he wanted to be like him when he grows up. Like saving all kinds of animals, but of course he mainly wanted to save and help humans more than anything else. In the early morning, little Faust wakes up rubbing his eyes feeling lazy and starts playing with his husky, Bella who have been sleeping right beside him. *"Ehhh- grandpa said Bella and I are about the same age as we grew up together since she''s little but look at her now, all grown up into a huge puffy ball and me still little, skinny and weak body...sigh."* Faust complains, but stop as soon as Gus told him to get ready for school. As Gus and Faust start for school while climbing down the mountain on a scooter, Faust imagines himself riding alongside his grandfather with the scooter as his grandpa was giving him a lesson for the tricks for riding a scooter. He visualizes himself racing with his grandfather''s scooter as he performs various stunts in the middle, such as jumping high from the trees and dashing at inhuman speed. At the school "Again! today, I''m going to do the tasks I have been given. I''ll make a name for myself and be on top of the school''s rank. I will crush the students and shock the teachers with my answers and even solve the grown up math problems without any problems! muahahaha!!" (Faust laughs with a mischievous evilness to it, while thinking to himself. PS - you''re not gonna see him laugh again XD) "So here you are, strongest kick boxer of this school and..... My rival heh heh", suddenly a tough looking kid appears with his arms crossed, a sly smile on his mouth and huge nose like every silly villain appearing in a story. He gives a cocky little smirk to Faust, while his eyes are half-closed and head slightly tilted. 3 Faust and the gang "Ah Nincompoop" - Faust said, with a raised eyebrow and his face filled with surprise. "Uh...." The kid who called Faust his rival watches in shock. "It''s Nicholas troop not nincompoop oi Faust, how dare you. You never call me with my real name" -Nick starts to whine and complain. Faust, who barely have friends at school is a calm and shy kid so when it comes to making friends for him, it takes weeks and months to even talk to the person sitting right beside him in class. He doesn''t like to get himself involved in any of the quarrels that normal kids at his school usually do. So much for being such a big dreamer at home, but a quiet and shy kid at school. To say more about how quiet of a kid Faust really is, he never cry. When Faust do need to cry he did it in low and squeaky voice since he was a baby. It was the strangest thing that the child didn''t even make a noise as an infant and cry out like any newborn child would, but Faust is special after all in the eyes of Gus. And so our little Faust ended up having only 3 friends in the whole school including Nick. "Jumping to a backstory* "how Faust and Nick met" Faust''s ears perks up as he hears a kid shouting very loudly behind his back while he was having his lunch as he sits at the very corner of the cafeteria''s table seat. "I''m a black belt in karate, I will just sweep the whole floor with you if you don''t stop bullying other people" says Nick in a angry tone to a bully who was bullying a timid girl. Nick really wants to scare the bully and impress the girl at the same time, but before he can show off his heroic image, he suddenly gets beaten up to a pulp and bruises starts to show up on his body at several places as he was hit so badly by the bully who didn''t show Nick any mercy. This is the first time Faust looks at Nick. "What a weird kid" Faust mumbles to himself and ignores Nick, who was by this time, seemed like a goner. The next day after Faust encounter the incident, He was having his lunch all by himself in his usual spot and again he heard the same kid from yesterday started shouting again and to his surprise, this time he also hears an adult voice along with him. Faust stands up to see what''s the commotion is about. *Ah it''s that weird kid from yesterday* Faust realizes *But who is this big thug beside him?* Faust thinks to himself. The adult next to Nick is Nick''s dad. His dad is one of the village''s security, but he has really thick eyebrows and a scary face, which leaves an impression of him being a thug and makes the kids think he istruly a thug but not a security officer. The next thing Faust sees is Nick''s father shouting and yelling at the bully directly in his face, he was so enraged that his son got beaten up so badly and he was ready to pick a fight with the bully. At the same time the bully was really scared to his wit and all he wanted to do is run and hide but he got no where to go since he''s pretty much being backed up against the wall like a prisoner. "Wa-wait, he is not stopping with just the bully?" Faust sees more people getting yelled at by Nick''s father. "Who are the people trying to defend the bully? That must be his parents and this thug is yelling at them too??" Faust says while being so hyped and his fists rolled up tightin excitement. "Whoa, here comes the teachers. This old dude will stop now tsk tsk" But to Faust''s surprise... "He is still going and is shouting at teachers too??? Wow, AMAZINVVVV! this old dood is really amazinvvv!!" Faust really wants to reach out to Nick''s father and tell him how cool he was yelling at everyone to defend his son, but he is too scared to do that as Nick''s father continued to yell at everyone that is approaching him, he was really unstoppable. Faust was really scared out of his wit by Nick''s father, but he figures out a way to approach Nick''s father and that is through Nick. "Yo! You are so coollll" says Faust with admiration written all over his face. Nick upon hearing this, is very happy, *if not the girl admiring me, then a guy admiring me for my coolness is enough* Nick thought to himself. Nick who was grinning happily replies to Faust, " thanks for the compliment, want to eat together?." Faust who thought his plan is working says, "sure, I would like that." Then both of them started eating together from that day and Faust who became Nick''s friend with a secret intention to learn how to be a Savage like Nick''s father, now really thought of Nick as his real close friend as they continue to get closer as each day passes by. "Back to the present of the story" "So poop(referring to Nick), let''s go to our base and discuss about how we deal with these monsters" -Faust says with a bright smile on his face. Faust, Nick and their two other friends love to play the hero''s of the school with Faust being the best kick boxer, Nick the Karate Master, Roy(a Noble''s kid) being the space hero and Tim the higherclass men and 2 years older than the three doesn''t like to play any character. He just like to be a normal kid and cultivates his land and grows vegetables and the monsters which they are referring to are the bullies of the school. Faust and his friends are currently good at dealing with level 1, level 2 and level 3 rank monsters who are bullies from 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades. The kick boxing, karate and every other martial arts are ancient techniques in this modern world of 5062. No one ever saw or heard of someone using these skills. However, there is a belief that very few people in this entire world can use ancient martial art techniques. But no one is allowed to teach or learn fighting arts. If anyone is seen using them in public, they are hunted and killed instantly by the government. And so the ancient martial arts nor the healing arts were passed down through generations. So the only fighting arts used in this age is military arts. It involves the use of weapons that have special attributes and technology that does the impossible which we will learn about soon. Faust and Nick are friends from the start. However, they met Roy and Tim during a brawl between the high schoolers and middle schoolers on one fine day. On one fine day of spring The taunts between the middle schoolers and high schoolers grew intensely which led to a huge brawl between both of them. Two sides were angry and are just pushing each other while yelling loudly enough to resonate around the whole school where every teacher and student can hear this ruckus, yet no one passing by cares. Because these particular students have been having a brawl from past three years and never once in three years they hit each other. All they do is cause a huge ruckus, raise some dust off the groundand disperse like a scripted fight. They only want the 10 minutes attention and want people to realise that they are the hard boiled bad guys in the school. But the reality is thatno other kids or teachers are willing to spare their time to stop the fights and resolve the issues Yet, there are four kids who watches the brawl of these two mobs from the school balcony, standing next to each other and with excitement filled in their faces and the happiness they faced when they saw the high schoolers running away from the fight because the middle schoolers overcame them with numbers which happens every time. The eyes of these four met each other and Nick start to talk to them. "So you guys came here to have a fight with us or what?" Nick asked Roy and Tim who he has just met with an rather arrogant tone. "We''re just here to watch the brawl" Roy and Tim answers at the same time with surprised faces as they didn''t want to start any trouble. "So you guys came here just likeus? To watch and learn? asks Nick. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Indeed" Roy and Tim nods their heads. With just that the four of them starts talking and their conversation led to one thing and another. Theyeven get to know about how all four of them shared the same interests and goals with each other and became closest friends to on another. 4 The First Figh Faust, Nick, Roy and Tim all have same kind of thinking. That it is so cool when you fight a higher class men and make them run with their tails in between their legs. They hoped that after they beat the high schoolers, all the people in school will fear them and rush to come see them and bow down to them respectfully as they walk in the middle of a corridors, where people form two groups and crest a path for them to walk through. To make their dream come true, they had hangout together and always make several plan to beat the high schoolers. And the day they have to fight, they were prepared to bring it all out. Nick came running to Faust. "Faust we got to go, come with me" Nick calls out Faust while breathing heavily as he was tired from using all his strength from running. "What happened?" Faust asks casually while sleeping on floor and reading a comic not glancing at the exhausted Nick. "Just come will you" - Nick''s grab onto the unprepared Faust''s wrist by force and forced him to sit on his bike and rides away as Roy and Tim joins them along the way on their own bikes. "So are you really telling us the truth?" Roy asks Nick with a serious look on his face. "Of course! He really is arrogant and fearless and strong and is picking fights with everyone and he never lost a fight too. We need to teach him a lesson today" - Nick says with an evil grin. "If he is as arrogant and strong as you say he is, then we definitely need to take him down" says Roy Roy strongly feels that the bully needs to know his place and it''s a nice opportunity to establish the power of these four among the bullies. Faust doesn''t really get what is happening but he can see that they are going to have a fight and Faust is dead scared to go into his first fight he realises his hands are shaking and his heart is beating fast. Faust looks at his friends to see if he is the only coward one, but to his gladness he noticed that they all feel the same as him. "This is really a serious atmosphere, but I''m gonna do it for my friends and myself." Faust whispers to himself while gathering up his courage to take on anything that awaits him. As they finally reached the place, they all started changing their expressions to a tough and arrogant face to scare the bully. But to their surprise, the fearless and unbeatable kid that Nick had tell them about is a 6 years old cute kid standing in front of them with his arms on his hip. Roy cannot express his feelings, he is too disappointed to even let his emotions seen, he just stands there and thinks to himself *find me a glass of water, please bring a glass of water no not glass I''m gonna find a building and jumped down the roof. Guys don''t stop me now. I''m going to the roof* Roy fights with his inner self. "Is this even the kid you talk about Nick?" Roy asked Nick angrily. **Roy is beyond disappointed and even death can''t save him from this embarrassment. A normal death by drowning is too easy so he wanted to embarrass himself even more by wanting to drown in a glass of water which is not really possible. It''s a way of saying Even death can''t take away the embarrassment he felt in that moment.** On the other hand Faust is way beyond relaxed when he realised that they are going to fight with a kid. He sarcastically smiled without realizing it. Nick steps ahead, and gets closer to the kid and starts introducing his friends who are standing behind him with pride and honor as if he is introducing the weapons in his artillery and as if his friends are know as legendary in his whole school. "Faust is a brown belt in kick boxing" - Nick yells right in Kid''s face. *Silence...* The only martial art Nick was ever exposed to is karate and he doesn''t even know what kick boxing is, he thinks the karate rules apply to every other fighting involved techniques which of course is not always the case. Faust looks at Nick with surprise and admiration as tears started streaming out from his eyes. -*nachos poop you.... YOU even know about kick boxing and belts, you even estimated my strength with brown belt which is way higher than black belt didn''t you?*Faust thinks to himself while crying. Faust himself doesn''t even know what kick boxing or karate or what the freaking belts are, he still thinks that in karate the belt with more exquisite color is powerful of all. According to him, Plain Black colored and most commonly used belt is the lowest level and a multi colored belt, which never existed and will never exist and if already exists I(author) hope it is cursed and is in the depths of hell and no one can ever reach it. ~~Break Time~~ According to Faust, multi colored belt is the highest level of all. He compared strength with fashion. Nick continues on with his yelling not even caring if it''s right or not. "Roy, Purple belt in space hero" - says Nick. *Awkward silence* "There is only one belt for space hero''s with a button in the middle of the belt where we join two ends. Which, when pressed gives us wings(a reference to his space hero toy)" Roy tells Nick in a low embarrassed voice. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. No words to explain kid''s innocence. stupid little kids. Cute stupid little kids. Shitty cute stupid little kids. Dammit all kids shitty kids. Kids.kids.kids kids kids.kidssssss. ~~Intense break time~~ ~notes; author crazy frustrations to explain the innocence of kids :3~ Nick looks at Tim and yells to the kid - "The higher class senpai!"And he seemed to stop just there since he didn''t know what else to say and awkwardly feeling bad for Tim. "you still wanna fight?" - Nick says while giving a rough flick to the kids forehead. Tim was so disappointed and was left in shock that everyone can see his soul leaving the earth. In the meantime Faust steps up ahead, cracks his fingers and stares at the kid with a scary face and the rest of his friends followed Faust in doing the same. The poor kid who couldn''t even talk properly is overwhelmed by the four and tears gathers in his eyes. Especially with scary Nick who keeps flicking the forehead of the kid until it becomes red. ~No kids were harmed during this~ "MOMMY, THESE BIG GUYS ARE BULLYING ME!!.... wahhhh" the kid starts to cry in a very loud and leecherous voice. The adults, villagers and even some beautiful high school girls gives a cold look to Faust and his friends. "Whaa-- dammit you better remember this and cry a lot and tell everyone in your school not to mess with us!" Nick yells as he grabs his bike to make a run from it. Faust and the rest follows after Nick quickly and they happily ride back home cheerfully, thinking their first fight is a huge success. Most of the kids don''t pick on these four, because of the higher classmen Tim who look serious all the time, Nick who is 4 feet 3 inches at the age of 8 and with big buff body like his dad and Roy because he is a noble. Where as Faust at 8 is less than 3''5" with thin arms and tiny body. After reaching home, Faust plays with Bella and he checks on all the eggs in and out of incubators and help his grandpa with preparing dinner and enjoys the view of the village while sitting on top of the hill with Bella and as he waits patiently for story time. "Grandpa, Nick is so knowledgeable" - Faust starts talking to his grandpa while both arranges the animals in their places for the night and his grandpa tuck him in bed after finishing their job neatly. "Really? What did he do to gain your recognition?" Gus asks while kindly smiling towards Faust. "He knows that there is a brown belt in kick boxing, and also purple belt in space hero. I wish I was that knowledgeable." Faust replies while he pulls his bed near the window so he can watch the village as he sleep. "Hahaha" Gus starts laughing and asks a question curiously "so you like these ancient martial arts that Nick told you about?." "Of course I do! People can do anything with martial arts" Faust replies with a smile. "Anything huh..." Gus mumbles to himself with a little unseen grim on his face, as if he knew that martial arts that can help people to do anything doesn''t really exist. "Come now Faust, I will tell you a story about a superhero with a sword that can cut mountains and air as it change it''s colors" Gus surprises Faust with his words. 5 A Hero And The Sword What happened on earth before 5062 - The earth is a little different, there used to be a lot of countries, a lot of nations, lot of wars happening significantly and lot of power struggle. All the countries started to dig, mine and burn the mother Earth for the resources to make weapons and continued until they ended up using everything and the mother Earth started to crumble as fragments into the thick and dark space as if it''s not being held together as a sphere anymore, causing tsunami''s and volcanic eruptions and many other weathering occasions. The atmosphere became dense with all the polluted particles in air making it hard for humans to breathe and massive earthquakes which were never measured or recorded in the history ever before. It was the worst nightmare of the mankind ever. Many countries were flooded by their natural heritage of mountains and seas. It is estimated that all of the land went underwater. And only 1% remain surfacing on earth. The tectonic plates movement started to happen leaving the earth with only one continent divided by a huge rigorous one big ocean. And some of the earth''s tectonic plates were left as small islands scattered around earth and became abandoned and uninhabited. Mindoro is one of those islands bigger in size which wasn''t discovered by the world, because of harsh nature surrounding it acting as a barrier without letting any human to even discover this island with the advanced technology they have. There are two more villages on the island along with Mindoro. Even though Mindoro is casted away from the rest of the world, the people who used to live at that time has preserved the language and farming and field cultivation and many cultures and literature and later passed them down to their younger generations. After the earth has settled from the catastrophic events. The global leaders of every nation came together and discussed about forming a single country, a single rule and a single government to avoid making same mistakes over and over that ate the earth to bits. This is the dream of all the leaders who has fantasized about world peace. All the Nations came together and formed a single giant country and everyone thought there won''t be any fights anymore and that everyone could live happily and peacefully. If only this was true. The single country would have to take up on all of the languages and cultures and history from the past thousands of years and absorbing them is isn''t as easy as they thought. Currencies and democracy didn''t have singular opinion on which one they should decide upon as there should only be one currency on the entire planet. However, there is a better side to it as everyone came together united to tackle the problem the earth has faced with climate changes and greenhouse effects. Every country shared their own technologies, the acts of war is eliminated, quality of life in this giant single country has become very balanced and having only one global currency across the country, reduced the economic power and the need of currency exchange was erased. Resulting with every human being able to afford for his own health. However, again, there are many who opposed to this and the reasoning is about a wrong person being put in charge of the entire planet and this caused massive revolution. Some leaders forced their political ideologies into the minds of people under them, making them into thinking that there is no other democracy greater than their own, which has lead to genocides and religious issues and erasing the democracies by wars and force is the option that people choose. The people split in two with different agenda''s and thus the two nations Aztec and Agartha has formed. . . . . "A sword?" Faust asks in surprise. "What? didn''t you know about any sword fighting martial arts? you heard about kick boxing but never heard about a sword?" Gus asks as he thinks with a paining expression showing on his face. *"What happened to the weapon and culture of the one, who used to hold a sword and who set principles to their own life and who used to fight by their principles by putting their lives along with their honor on only sword and no other use of weapons or no back hand plays, what happened to those brave warriors who thinks dying in a war is a great honor than fleeing from the enemy like a cowardice"* Gus feels in his heart as he feels flustered and sad because the legends of such brave swordsmen has and is being erased from the history like it never existed before. Breaking the silence, Faust tells Gus what he knew - "well I just heard about most of the martial arts names that involves fighting, but I never heard of any fights with a sword, what is a sword?" - Faust asks with curiosity. "well, you know about the kitchen knives right? A sword is the same but have a longer blade and a grip to hold on to and its intended to thrust and slice whatever that comes in its way and this superhero I''m going to tell you about has immerse respect and love towards swords, but somehow the sword that he uses is a little curvy and has been crafted by the gods in heaven from what I heard." Gus replies to Faust. "So Faust, outside Mindoro there used to be one huge land and a giant country." Gus tells Faust. "Ehhhh I didn''t know... A huge land? Without ocean surrounding it? " Faust is surprised, for him Mindoro is the only land he knew. He didn''t know something so vast existed outside Mindoro and he has never thought about it either until his grandpa mention it to him. "Yes And the giant country broke and became two, both of the Nations suffered huge loss, the weapons and artillery became to be made once again, the taxes are increased way high to make weapons of war." *"War? People suffered? The people outside must be so bad"* Faust thinks to himself "The earth itself at that time when two nations just formed has gone through many changes and the technologies of both nations accomplished new heights and during this, the people of both nations suddenly got their hands on infinite amount of resources." Gus continues on with his story. "Electricity, air, atmosphere and power to change the reality. Both the Nations have achieved these things within their grasp and as anticipated, both nations started a war for power struggle with the newly found resources and enhanced weapons. A new world war took place." "During this war a small band of 5 soldiers were washed away to the shore of a small village surrounded by mountains and hills, which no one knew existed before. However, even after being washed off to shore from the ocean, one of them seemed conscious. He was also badly injured, but for some reason he was still standing very strong and compelling." "The soldier looked like he''s between 18-20 with long hair tied backwards. He was holding the four soldiers who washed to shore with him tightly, one in each of his hands, one in between his legs and the last one he bite the vest that the soldier was wearing and was carrying him using his teeth and neck muscles." "His hands were tightly holding onto the bullet proof vests that the soldiers were wearing. His grip on the vests from both of his hands were so tight as if his hands were tightly locked to the vests as he was holding them. The vests were even shredded and ripped at the spot he was holding them, that is how powerful his grip seemed. It''s almost like he could crush rock Boulders with his bare hands." "The weight he carried with his body would be around 400 - 500 kg as the soldiers were well built. The solider that was being carried by his teeth would weight around 80kgs, and he held them tight in this harsh ocean and whirlpools and got here?" The villagers standing before him are watching in disbelief. Gus continues on with the story. Back in 5015 The man carrying them is very much determined to save the lives of his friends, he carried them and drag them to safety onto the shore. Then he filled his lungs full of air and shouted -"please save my friends" with a very loud and clear voice that resonated the whole village. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. He was standing tall as a proud warrior who prefers death over dishonor, and as the people are approaching him, they can see every fiber in his muscle is twitching and soaring as if they''re crying. He seems to be feeling a sharp pain in his bones as if someone is carving his bones while he is alive. Yet he still stands tall as his body is letting out hot steam made visible as the rays of a setting sun hit his body and his blue eyes were black as if he was knocked unconscious long ago and as though his body is just moving on his sheer will. He really seemed like a true warrior who never gives up no matter what and keeps fighting the oceans, enemies and even gods until he changes his fate himself. This was the first time something hit Gus hard on his lazy and unmotivated life. He realized that humans with inhuman capability exist and that is the power of ones sheer will. The body of the warrior who seemed stronger than anyone in the village has ever seen suddenly started to fall as though the body is assured that the 4 soldiers are safe and the task given to the body is completed and fell onto the ground as if the life stopped inside the body completely. 15 year old Gus know something was wrong so he rushed toward the soldiers and caught the falling body. As soon as he held the soldier in his hands, the hairs on Gus body stood up as if he witnessed something incredible. *Is this the pride of a warrior?* Gus thought to himself. 6 Ares Year 5015- Mindoro in the past . Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. . . . Captain Ares!, Captain Ares! ... Wake up, Ares!"- The four soldiers saved by their captain stand beside his bed with their arms and legs wrapped up in bandages, as Ares tries to opens his eyes "Aryyyyyyy!!..... You are finally awake after 3 weeks of sleep, I was so worried about you" A very fair female soldier, with sparkling eyes, long eyelashes and an exquisite nose, says worryingly in the face of Ares while being awkwardly close to him. "What the..." Ares (age - 20) confusedly tries to get up, but his body does not respond to any movement he make. "What happened to my body?" Ares asked in surprise. "All of your muscles and tendons got torn apart. 7 broken ribs, and multiple fractures." Gus (age - 15) replies while he is preparing medicine few meters away from Ares sitting at his desk. All the soldiers were living with Gus in his house on a hill, a little far from the village. "As the kid says, Captain, you were badly hurt and been on bed for 3 whole weeks. The villagers and this kid took good care of you and us. Tanya, move your goofy face away from captain''s!, let him breathe." Says another soldier with glasses, he seems to be a very smart, yet nerdy person. "I''m not a kid oi, I''m almost the same age as you all, just a little short.... arghhhh!" An annoyed Gus shouts to the soldier who called him a kid. "Among the 50, only five of us survived. The enemy ships were assisted by storms and whirlpools. We lost our soldiers. This shows what happens to a squad if their captain is a young lad. Almost every squad has experienced people as their cap''n and just because you were considered a genius, we are now stuck with someone who is the same age as us. Some genius who managed to get his entire troop killed." A soldier with a tattoo of Chinese letters on his right arm belittles Ares with a rather arrogant voice, filled with hatred. "You are right. I''m sorry that we lost them because of my incompetence"- Ares replies with a grim and gentle look on his face. He is ready to take the blame and shoulder the weights of the dead as his sole responsibility. He feels it was his fault that they had died. Gus seems surprised and could not digest the fact that Ares saved 4 men without a thought about his own life and brought them to safety all by himself and yet, he blames himself for what happened? This triggered Gus and he was about to speak up for him, but was stopped by what he heard from on of the soldier. "No-not at all Ares. If you haven''t ordered us to sail the ships into the storm, we wouldn''t have gotten rid of the enemies on our tail. If we kept continuing to fight, none of us would be alive here. I''m deeply thankful to you for saving me" - the youngest of all soldiers, Alex (17), replies with hesitation and gratitude while bowing his head down with utmost respect towards Ares. Hearing what Alex said, Gus really didn''t have anything to say and his heart settles down. "Also someone else might still be alive just like us. I''m sure of it" - Tanya (19) the female soldier adds soothing words along with Alex. "Alex, Tanya, thank you for your kind words, but it doesn''t change that everything happened because of my orders, I''m the one responsible for the lives of my subordinates." Ares replies bitterly. "Not at-" Albert, the soldier with glasses (21), tries to say something but was interrupted in the middle by the soldier with the tattoo. "As far as you remember what had happened, you are making our party a weak one, with your ideals, inexperience and feelings." Yang(21) the soldier with the tattoo says, storming out of the room angrily. "What did he say? Does he not even have little gratitude for the person who saved his life?!"- Gus yells after Yang and tries to follow him. "Please, why are you getting mad at him? That is how a military personnel should behave" Albert says while holding onto Gus''s right arm stopping him from going outside to confront Yang. The soldiers looks down as if they don''t have anything to say to Yang. The military soldiers shouldn''t and aren''t supposed to show any emotions or feelings, showing any is considered being weak. Ares always treats his subordinates as his own friends since they are all of same age, but for Yang, it is weakness and weakness is intolerable for him. He believes being cold and cutting off emotions from the heart is a better way to treat one''s subordinates, only then can a person truly become strong. Not only Yang, but all the soldiers in modern-day were trained and raised that way since they were young children, they never experienced a motherly or fatherly love before. "Oh Ares!, We still have two nano restoration syringes. If you take two of them you are definitely going to recover instantly." Alex excitedly reminds Ares as he takes out the syringes. Nanoresucts or nano restoration syringes are heals for soldiers. When these syringes are injected directly into the nerves, the nano particles combined with a healing element(mixture of a healing substance that is available in main country) instantly start repairing the cuts, internal bleed and even fractures. No matter how much one is near death, when one injection of these nanoresucts is given, it will keep them alive at all costs. "Huh? Recover instantly? But his whole body is damaged, it''s gonna take him at least 8-12 months for his whole body to heal. Even after 12 months there is no guarantee that his body will go back to the way it was-s....." Gus starts uttering words without a pause. Ares want to explain Gus about their heals, but it''s a military secret, so he just changes the topic. "Ahhh.... By the way Gus, I heard that you guys took care of us when none of us were able to move. I really owe you and your city big time. Let me meet the mayor." Ares asks one last favor from Gus politely and appreciating him at the same time. "But Ares, its not like a city.... I don''t really know how to tell you"-Alex, the another nerdy guy in the party checks and inspects around the island after he gained consciousness and strength to walk, and now he wants to show off his knowledge and nerd skills and impress his cap''n, that his nerdy behaviour is nothing less from a badass soldier''s. "What''s a city?" Gus interrupts in the middle - "And what''s a mayor? If you want to meet someone important, I can take you guys to the Village chief who lives at the foot of the mountain in the village, but there is no one called mayor here". "Village?" - Ares says in surprise "That''s what I was going to tell you about Ares, this village is situated on something we studied in our books. Something which we did not anticipate would exist. It is an island, an island with three villages which are 20- 30kms apart from one another. Also, one of the village seems to have some good weaponry too, It seems they harbour craftsmen and strategists in their village. I can tell by having a glance at their armors and barricades they have around the village. I have concluded this much." Alex proudly explains everything in a hurry and fear, that someone might interrupt him again. "Yes, we got raided by a village 3 years ago. They are well equipped in heavy armor and raised hell, we tried to defend ourselves but in the end we lost everything. They have taken everything precious to me and the villagers." Gus says in a vicious voice. The unnamed island has three villages situated on top of it with each village at the each corner of the island. One of the village is Mindoro, the other one called Caracus and the last one is Sable. Caracus is a village which chooses weapons over cultivating lands and seeks blood more than water. Caracus has been raiding both Mindoro and Sable from past 4 decades. Whenever the village goes low on resources and food, they raise a war over other villages. A recent raid happened 3 years ago on Mindoro and it took both of Gus''s parents and ever since then Gus have been left alone, which is why he despises Caracus to the core but he couldn''t do anything to take his vengeance out on them. "An island you say? That is impossible. Did you really scout the area well?" Ares''s face seems to be brightened up with what he had heard. Hearing about an island is nothing to get excited about, but Ares and his party is living in the 51st century. After the catastrophe, the earth only had one continent and no traces of islands has ever discovered by humans. Ares have only lived on a giant land which consisted, desserts, snow and spring all at once and they have only heard and read about the islands in history classes and books. Nobody living on the main land ever came across an island, so this is pretty much new and adventurous to Ares. "Alex, fast inject me with the nanoresucts but only one is enough. We need to save the other one for ourselves if we get into trouble on our way back from here" Ares smiles very brightly and starts planning excitedly on what he should do on this island as he beckons Alex to give him the heals. "Oohhhhhh... Cap''n, even after you are on bed without being able to move an limb, you still chose to take only one nanoresuct to save the other for us in future. You truly are our kind cap''n" Alex starts tearing up happily. *"if we run into trouble my butt, if I took two nanoresucts now, I will be fully healed and you guys will bug me to start going back to the mainland. We will be in war before we know it. If I took only one, it will be hard on my body, but I can stay here on this island until my body heals completely. Now it''s time for me to run around this island and have a perfect holiday, heh! heh! heh!"* Ares laughs mischievously inside his mind Alex takes out one of the nanoresuct, it is an injection but the fluid inside is green in color. The liquid is sparkling because of the presence of the nano particles inside. As he inject the nanoresuct into his median vein forearm, Ares is able to get up and sit on his own in mere 20 seconds and is freely able to move his left arm easily, however his right arm feels piercing pain when he try to move it up and down. This makes Ares unable to move his arm well. When he gets out of his bed to walk, his left leg is not able to bear his weight. *"Hmm my right hand and left leg are in really bad shape, this is worse than I had imagined. Howeveerrr... heh! this island is lifeee!!!* Ares thinks to himself cheerfully... 7 People and their kindness Ares walks out of the house with the help of clutches and his right arm in an arm sling. He instantly gets blown away by the sight his eyes are met with. He finds himself surrounded by grassy terrains all around him with hills, and a small village in the middle. A beach could be seen faintly across the mountains. There are small, steep trekking steps to get down from the hill that Gus house is located on and the stair way is curved. There is room for only one foot on each step. It really looked like a stairway to hell. It could really become one if they were not careful enough. It is certainly not for the weak hearted. One needs to be careful of the slippery wet steps. And with strong winds blowing in the midway, it is naturally hard for a normal person to crawl down and even harder for Ares to get down as he cannot use the strength of his two feet completely. "Mr. Ares, would you prefer going down with a rope way?" Gus asks with consideration. The rope way is good for two people at a time and a person needs to pull the rope to make the wheel move. The cart will travel in any way they chose to move it. "No no, no need for you to use any force" Alex tries to speak, but before he could - Out of nowhere Yang suddenly takes a long leap and jumps down the hill from the peak without any hesitation. For Gus who has no idea about the superhuman strategy of advance technology panicked and worried at the sight of seeing Yang jumping down the mountain. "What?? Mr.Yang! Oh no, this is bad!!" Gus is greatly in shock at what Yang has done and rushes to the cape to see what has happened to him. Yang is wearing two leather gloves which seem to be reinforced with steel near the knuckles but what draws our attention to it is, there is a red stone on the palms of his gloves which started to emit a red aura, the red mist like aura swirled around his arms like a snake coiling around branches. Yang seems like he is getting ready to aim at the ground by drawing one of his arm behind him and his other arm in front of him. *Oomph!" he threw a punch in the air as he approaches the foot of mountain. It''s nothing different from him punching the air. Following his punch, a strong gust of wind is created around Yang, as though he has blasted a canon, which decreased the falling momentum of Yang. In mere 5 seconds after Yang jumped off the mountain, he landed on the ground normally as though he is hopping on the ground. "Wh... what in the world did I see just now?!" Gus panicked upon seeing such power and strength displayed in front of him. He was of all more surprised and curious of the gloves that Yang was wearing, as Yang''s gloves are now back to normal with the red stone looking dormant and the aura disappeared into thin air. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "pfff, yeah, what a show off. Doing a little circus trick to impress people. So mature of him." Tanya says with an arrogant and smirking smile and none of the soldiers on top of the mountain standing with Gus seemed surprised. In fact the look on the soldier''s faces shows displeasure. "Oh! So our tools are fixed this fast? No wonder having you with us is a big relief" Ares praises Alex with his words and starts to climb down off the hill using the small steps. Even though the winds are strong and the steps are too small that it is hard to climb down for a normal person and for people like Ares its almost impossible. But to Gus''s surprise, Ares and the rest are comfortable getting down the mountain without any problem. They do it while talking to each other about different things. Actually, it''s Gus who is being left behind unable to keep up with the soldiers as he keep rushing down to catch up with the soldiers. "Oooof! It was easier than I thought it would be, eh? Now, my saviour Gus, let''s go see and explore the island" Ares is moving all around in excitement and jumping around like a kid, as if he wasn''t hurt at all. "Cap''n are you really hurt?" Albert asks with a smirk and suspicion written all over his face while Ares nervously just laugh it off without saying a word. As they continue to walk, the soldiers comes across the dogs and hens that welcomed them on the streets. The people too started recognizing the wounded soldiers that were washed ashore. Everyone started to greet them and wish them to recover soon. Each of the villagers tried to grab and take the soldiers to their houses as guests, to introduce many things to the soldiers as they walk by. "We also have guinea pigs over here." A women says while pointing her finger towards a fence and a little garden with a little house built for guinea pigs. "Guinea pigs? Oh wow guinea pigs, I see them in the garden." Ares face lit up as he see guinea pigs in the lady''s garden. "You don''t see guinea pigs in cities and concrete jungle nowadays." Alex says. "But why Guinea pigs? Are they just your pets?" Tanya asks the lady who showed them. "Yes..." The lady replies with a smile. "Oh wow! This lady also has some vegetables and mint leaf growing in her small garden" Ares talks excitedly like a little child. "Are you cultivating on this land?" Yang asks the lady. "Yes, me and my sister Tisha(age-18) cultivate and grows vegetables in this garden. The chicken eggs help us earn a little money and our dogs here guard the garden and guinea pigs" Rissa (age -22), the lady who invited them over to her garden explains to Yang. "Who is the person hiding behind you all this while?" Tanya asks Rissa with curiosity and she peeks over Rissa shoulder to get a better look at who''s behind her. 8 Wrong Move "Oh! this is my sister Tisha,whom I was talking about. She''s a little shy, so don''t mind her." Rissa says with a grin. Yang felt a little tense as his and Tisha''s eyes meet for the very first time. His heart-felt as light as a feather, almost floating, he couldn''t take his gaze off from Tisha. Tisha is a shy and timid looking girl. She has very soft and fair skin that looks very delicate. It''s so creamy white that it seems if her skin ever comes in contact with anyone, it will make it dusty. Tisha''s fair skin has more pink added to it now as she sees Yang''s gaze fixated on her. She hurriedly looks down trying to avoid his gaze as she blushes and her round amber coloured eyes sparkles. It attracts Yang, who had never felt anything like this before. His heart is racing fast not allowing his feelings to settle down. He has never seen a girl who could stir up his heart and soften him up completely. "Ahem... Yang let''s move on now?" Ares says to Yang before things get more awkward. He has seen what was going on between Tisha and Yang. "Oh why... I wish someone would look at me too with their blue piercing eyes ahhhh~" Rissa playfully says as she gets closer to Ares and leans on his shoulder referring to how Yang looks at Tisha. "Ah, how much I wish someone would hold my hand too" Tanya furiously says under her breath as she holds the other arm of Ares and glares at Rissa. Ares can feel that Rissa and Tanya are pressing their chest against him as if they''re competing against each other. "Whaaaa!!! well.... We.... ooooooooo ummmm" Ares face turns super red at this situation unfolded and he have a really tough time to utter words out of his mouth. "Ta-Tanyaaaa!!!!! Ares, you popular bastard!. Alex give me my weapon. I''m going to incinerate these creatures!." Albert cries out loudly for Tanya while hating Ares for his popularity among women, as he shouts at Alex, asking for his weapons. "Haha, I just like to tease young boys. Well, all of you are welcome to come buy eggs and vegetables from us anytime. I only sell vegetables to people who are special to me" Rissa says in a seductive tone while she runs her finger on Gus''s cheek. Gus shivers at her touch and he backs away quickly, tilting his head down as it got red and hot. "Ahhhh, Alex kill me please Alex I don''t want to live anymore!!!" Albert shouts while he grabs Alex''s neck and suffocates him. Albert is beyond disappointed that even a 15y/o gets more action than him and he curses his very own virgin life. "Ahhhhhh, Albert I will hold your hands if you want just don''t kill me pweasee!" Alex annoyingly said to Albert and frowns. I will do anything you want, just don''t take your anger out on me and choke me to death is what Alex wanted to say. "We need to leave now, we will come for dinner sometime later" Ares says and runs out of the house without even wanting to look back at what he has just experienced. Yang looks around and comes back to his senses. He takes his leave quietly but as he leaves, he sneakily looks back at Tisha who was still hiding behind her sister. Tisha who was brave enough to look up after the soldiers left, caught Yang is still looking at her when he is about to leave and she smiles at him shyly, but sweetly at the same time. A smile that rivals the beauty of cherry blossoms that instantly melted Yang''s heart even further. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. As everyone heads towards the house the village chief lives in, no one has noticed how Yang was suddenly acting strangely, except for Ares. *"So a woman can do this to any kind of man huh"* Ares smiles in secrecy at the reddish face of Yang, who was just a cold-blooded soldier a while ago inside Gus''s house. As they enter the chief''s house, Gus notices a pair of shoes left in front of the door which was never seen by him in this entire village. He quickly realized that something is wrong with the noises and unfamiliar voices coming from inside the house. Gus suddenly rushes towards the entrance, the soldiers realizing the unusual seriousness in Gus''s behavior, follows him as he opens the door hastily. "WHAAT THE HELL..!!!! What are you guys doing in our village??!!" Gus yells with rage. And he takes out his scalpel and rushes towards the person sitting in front of his village chief and point it at him threateningly. "No Gus, hold on!." The chief of Mindoro village, Mars, shouts in surprise of the action taken by Gus. Gus is just overtaken by his rage, he couldn''t listen to a single sound n the room, because in front of him are the people from Caracus village and his long time enemies. But they seemed to come here to talk to the chief about something peacefully. *"It''s legal as long as it''s not our men who drew the weapon first."* One of the guards from Caracus village feels the meeting is useless and takes this as an opportunity to attack the villagers and dashes towards Gus with his blade which is longer than an arm of a person. Gus could not even see a person coming towards him to take his head, the rest of the guards from Caracus that are in the room realizes the blood lust of one of their guard who is charging towards Gus with a huge blade. The guard was about to swing his huge blade to cut Gus vertically into two, but suddenly a person appeared in between him and Gus. He stopped Gus with his clutches and halts the swing of the blade by holding the sharp edge with his finger tips. "Ow ow, a huge blade for a scalpel? This is a little unfair, don''t you think? Hehe". Ares playfully said to the soldier with a mischievous smile. *"Wha-what..! who is this person!, I cannot move my blade inwards to cut him nor can I retract my blade. His hand isn''t even budging!"*The guard thinks while witnessing the power difference between him and Ares. *"Is he even human?!!"* "I suggest you to refrain from your violent thoughts." Ares says to the guard while his bright smile starts to fade away slowly and turning into a killer expression. Ares is emitting a strong aura. The guards and the soldiers in the room can feel his aura from a distance, his eyes are turning cold and sending chills down the spines of the guards of Caracus. It''s almost as if they are looking at a demon that they cannot be comparable in strength. The atmosphere inside that single room became greatly tensed and every guard in the room automatically drew their weapons out as their pure animal instinct is telling them that death is coming in their way in the form of Ares. "Why don''t we talk first? I want a cup of coffee if possible, my whole body is so sore hah! hah! hah!." Ares suddenly changes his presence and laughs in a goofy voice. "Gus, soldiers, please calm down." The village chief speaks up trying to calm his people down. "Stand down!" the official of Caracus orders his guards in a commanding tone. The official looks like a strict and serious person. Ares loosens his grip off the huge blade and the guard with the blade steps back from Ares like a helpless hyena backing from Lion''s vicious strike. The soldiers and the chief are relieved, but the official from the Caracus village and his 4 guards were not relieved by a bit at all. All of them are shocked and scared, they did not expect Mindoro to posses such strong kind of people like Ares. "Chief Mars, what are these people doing here?" Gus asks the chief bitterly. "We got attacked.... by outsiders, they annihilated our village. They have different weapons that blew away our barricades, pierced through our armor, we suffered a huge loss" the official from Caracus replies. "That''s what you ge..." Gus was about to add insult to the injury, but before he could, he was interrupted. "They said we were hiding 5 soldiers" The official said to Gus. Gus and the soldiers were dumbstruck. Ares and his party are the only 5 soldiers on the entire island. Did they get tracked down and are now being hunted? 9 Its Time To Kill Or To Be Killed "They said we were hiding 5 soldiers in our village. And they claimed we were lying after they destroyed our whole village" The official of Caracus villager said. Gus and the soldiers were dumbstruck. "The official came to warn us about some uninvited guests into our island, who carried weapons of destruction that can wipe our whole village in a single blow and so they came to ask for our help in fighting these foes," Mars said. The whole room was filled with silence. Everyone in the room other than the Caracus villagers and Mars were confused with endless thoughts and doubts running in their heads continuously. "We conveyed our chief''s message. We completed our mission and will be going back to our village now. Those who have attacked us are going to show up in 5 days and asked us to surrender the 5 soldiers we were hiding. Since we are not hiding anyone, our village is going to fight them to death. We will be waiting for your answer." The Caracas village official left after saying those words. A war in 5 days, one needs to prepare a number of things to go into a war. Mindoro is a village that has only produced doctors and farmers, not a warrior. Things really got out of hand. *"They are the soldiers from Agartha, our enemy nation, but how? How can they find us so fast? Our ship sank into whirlpool. There is no way they could anticipate what has happened and come here in search of us. And these are the mythical islands no human has ever seen before"* Ares wondered to himself and suddenly something struck him. *"Islands that no human has ever discovered, yet we have an expedition unit back in the mainland, which searches for islands and studies about them in our government. The unit only consists of Nobles and people that sit in higher positions. But how? Are they keeping islands a secret from the rest of the nation? But in reality, they have come across many? And they even have technology which can locate the islands and create an easy path into it? Have we been deceived all this time?"* Ares felt betrayed and lost. If the government really have the technology and methods to locate and enter islands concealed by harsh nature, he wouldn''t have lost his ship and his soldiers. This made Ares so angry as he kept thinking about the soldiers who lost their lives to this ridiculousness. Agartha is one of the two continents and an enemy nation of Ares''s. They are the enemies that hunted Ares and his ship and somehow they learnt that a small squad of 5 soldiers survived the attacks, came into this island to take refuge. They chased after Ares persistently to put an end to Ares and his friends. While Mars, the head of the village and Gus were in deep thoughts- "Chief, first of all, I really thank you and your village for helping us so much while we were wounded and in need of nursing. Even now while we were walking in the streets, your people still show us so much support and the amount of love shown by you guys is immense. Honestly, we of the military people don''t deserve the love we have been receiving. We work for people and expect nothing in return. When the people are in danger we lay our lives on the line." "Please leave it to just us 5 soldiers. We will go on behalf of your village and we swear on our lives that we will not let a single person come for your throats." Ares spoke like a leader, with words full of pride and honesty. For Ares, this is his oath and repayment to the villagers for helping him and his soldiers when they needed it. When Ares said he swore to do something, he always succeeded in finishing those things. He sets his own goals and would never fail in achieving them. "Hmmm, brave young soldier, please follow me," Mars said thoughtfully. Mars took the soldiers out to the streets for a walk. When they reached the stage which is used in the village to announce important matters or to pass on a message to all the villagers, Mars rang a huge bell, that was on the side of stage, three times. This was to address the whole villagers to gather for important hearing events. Slowly one by one, the whole village gathered in the place. Mars and Gus stood with the five soldiers at the centre of the stage. Mars took a deep breath. "As you people have all noticed, we have been visited by the people of Caracas. I appreciate that none of you made a huge ruckus of it and left it alone, for me to deal with." Mars started by thanking the people, which helped the people to clear the doubts from their heads. The villagers nodded their head happily in approval and they started paying one attention to the chief speaking, as they recognized how loyal he is to them. "Caracus was attacked by some military from outside. Their whole village was destroyed and many lives were lost. The reason they got attacked that attackers thought the people of Caracus were hiding a group of 5 soldiers in their village." "These five youngsters on the stage ( Mars is referring to Ares and his four soldiers), are for some reason being targeted. It is evident that after the attackers are done with Caracus they will come after us too. The attackers don''t have any means to negotiate at all, they only want to destroy and take what they came searching for. " Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "5 days from now they will come back to Caracus, Caracus are fighting for their lives. In fact, taking our place. We are the ones who need to help and support and aid the people who come to us, Is it not what we were taught all these years?!" The chief asked in a loud voice. "Yes... " "These five are our responsibility." " So what if they destroy us?we will rebuild the village over and over again!" "We are not new to wars, are we, chief?!" People from the crowd vigorously respond one after the another. The soldiers were speechless. They did not know how to respond to this massive positivity and support. In the mainland, soldiers are nothing but tools that need to keep the country safe. They were nothing but guards, that guarded the gates of Nobles at nights like dogs. That was how Ares and the others were treated, until they came here. This village really moved the hearts of every soldier standing on the stage. A tear dropped from Yang''s left eye and he didn''t let anyone watch his soft side.Tisha who has been watching Yang from the start from the crowd took a notice of his soft side, and was surprised to see that Yang wasn''t what he seemed to be at all, from the outside. Mars turned to face the soldiers. "We people are also training with arms from some years since our village always get plundered with raids. So please soldiers, help us fight for our homes." Mars asked the help of Ares and others, in a very polite and humble voice. "Of course chief!!!! it would really be a great honour fight alongside your people" Ares said while tears rolled down his face. How can he turn him down when these people love and respect soldiers so much. They are even willing to fight for them. For them, who are merely lowlife soldiers in their own country. "We either kill the enemy or die by their hands! Get ready for the war!it''s time to kill or to be killed!". Mars shouted and let the villagers hear his war cries. Everyone left and started preparing for the battle. Ares and the rest followed to discuss the strategies. "There are four units in our village." "First - The guards, they will guard our rear and stands in front lines with spears and their bodies as armours." "Second - The archers, they can hold a particular position and can also snipe far away from people." "Third - The medics, they are well versed in medicine and can save and help the inured people on war ground itself. They are also familiar with weapons to support the troops and." "Lastly the "Supporters", they will be the ones conveying messages and reports from front lines to mid-range fighters, from them to the archers and from archers to base camps. They''ll also risk their lives to discover any hidden enemy units or traps. In short, they are our communicators and messengers." "Let us all find a way to do the impossible" Mars explained his village power to Ares and the soldiers carefully. "I''m going in too." "I will hold the weapon and nurse the injured ones." Gus who was standing beside the soldiers all this while, said with a pretty confident tone. 10 A Frog In The Well "Gus, all of us in the village are as passionate and dedicated as you to fight the enemies and protect our homes, but each person has a specific role to play. You need to guard the village, while the most elite adult guards are out." Mars said to Gus. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Chief, I can fight. I have been training with a sword for 3 years, all for this moment. Please let me join our village in the war. I want to fight for my friends, I want to find my goal, my purpose. Most of all, I want to discover myself, please. I beg you" Gus earnestly asked Mars, telling him about how he wants to change his self and help the villagers. "Gus, I understand your admiration but...." Mars tried to make Gus understand the situation. "Chief, leave Gus to me. I assure you he will listen to you in this matter. Gus comes with me for a walk" Ares cut in shortly and assured Mars that he will be the one to convince Gus in this matter. "I guess I can leave it to you guys," Mars said as a token of trust for Ares. Mars thought Ares can change Gus''s mind, since they were almost the same age as each other. He left with peace in his mind. "Alex, I want you to bring Masamune along with the white and red stones, to the hill behind Gus''s house. Rest of you, go do the preparations and get enhancements from Alex. Prepare to go all out." Ares ordered the soldiers with a commanding tone. Everyone left to collect their suits and gear from Gus house. *"Huh? Masamune? Who is that? There''s is no one in the village with that name"* Gus thinks while he and Ares head towards the hill behind Gus''s house and into the woods. *"Hmmm, Gus definitely has his body in good shape that is required for a swordsman, "* Ares thought to himself while evaluating the well-grown and ripped muscles of Gus. "Gus, grab two waster swords or logs that you practice your swordsmanship with, we might have a need for them after reaching the hill". Ares told Gus. A waster sword, usually called ''waster'', is a practice weapon. A sword made of wood or plastic and in Gus''s case, he uses a wooden one he got from the guards and trains with them using the waster. After Ares and Gus reached the peak of the hill with grass and open area, which seems to be a perfect place to test each other''s abilities. Ares stood 7 feet away from Gus. "Now, come at me with all of your strength and try to hit me with your sword," Ares told Gus without a hint of playfulness, as he dropped his clutches and takes off his arm sling. "What? But Ares you didn''t take your sword yet, here let me give you" Gus has both the wasters on his belt around his hips and as he was about to take and give one of it to Ares, Ares stop him. "I don''t need a stick, you can keep both. You can attack me with both wasters if you are willing to, I don''t mind." Ares said while he gave a faint arrogant smile from the corners of his mouth. "What? No, that is unfair, you need to have a sword with you too. Only then it will be equally fair." Gus righteously said. "You are not fit to stand on the battlefield." Ares said out loud and clear to Gus, with a mocking tone. This suddenly hit Gus like a lightning bolt out of nowhere. Gus stands still. He doesn''t know what to reply to what Ares just told him. *"Did I say something wrong? Did I do something wrong? Why did Ares just say that?"* Gus got lost in thought with all the questions he seemed to be having, as he was hurt by what Ares said. "Whether you have a sword or not, whether you have a gun or not, these things don''t matter to your enemy who stands before you in the battlefield. A single moment of hesitation will get you killed, and hence you are not fit to stand in the battlefield. If I tell you to strike, you need to strike" Ares said in a cold voice. "Again! come at me with all your strength!." As Gus heard the words coming out of Are''s mouth, he now understood why Ares was being harsh to him. He composed himself back together and took his sword out, held it with both hands, raised his arms up above his head, intending to slash Ares. He rushed forward with great speed. "What happened?..... I thought I told you that you need to hit me didn''t I?" Ares whispered in the ears of Gus. Gus was confused. Ares who was before disappeared and reappeared beside him standing closely while Ares''s left arm was on Gus''s neck, gripped tightly. Ares was inside Gus''s defence. Gus''s arms were still raised in the air, holding the stick but he couldn''t swing it. The index finger of Ares''s right hand was on Gus''s ribs from the left side. If it had been a sword rather than a finger, the sword would have pierced Gus''s heart through his ribs. Gus couldn''t utter a single word out of his mouth. He had never experienced anything like this. The battle was over before it even began. 11 Sword Arts - Unholy Sword Gus had his whole body trembling in fear, Ares was nothing like how he was until now. To Gus, Ares seemed like a cold-blooded killer with a different type of personality. It was as if there were two individuals living inside the body of Ares. *"Is this how Ares carried the soldiers and still be able to stand in a stable state even after being hurt badly and even after he was unconscious?"* Gus starts to imagine the monster strength of Ares. Ares distanced himself from Gus by jumping 7 feet backwards, he even took his waster sword from Gus and clenched it near his waist, as if he sheathed it into his imaginary scabbard. He stood tall with his right foot stretched forward and left foot, fixed behind him. There isn''t much gap between his feet nor is there any form of stance in the way he stands holding the sword. Ares seemed like still water, without showing any movement and just waiting for Gus to come at him again. "Come at me" Ares invited Gus to take another shot at him. Gus is really fearful of Ares, now that he saw how fast Ares is. So he decided to play safe and took a defensive stance. He held the wooden sword with two hands tightly across his chest in a crossing manner. *"He won''t be inside my defence easily with this"* Gus tried to reassure himself while slowly taking short steps towards Ares, calculating every move carefully. "Hmm, seems like you learned a little, but since you won''t be coming...." Ares suddenly disappeared again while he was conversing with Gus. "I have to come for your head then," Ares said with a voice that echoed in Gus''s head. *"Huh? What? Ares? But how? My defence form is clearly on point. I had anticipated his move and yet... Why is he...."* Gus speculates to himself, panicking as his own waster is on his neck and the handle side of Ares''s waster is pressing against Gus''s stick from the front. Ares is not inside his defence but outside this time. Ares didn''t disappear, he rushed towards Gus while leaning forward. His elbows almost touched the ground, in a very rapid speed avoiding the eyesight of Gus, almost like he misdirected Gus''s eyes. He approached him while dashing from below Gus''s waist-level, where Gus''s eyes can''t see. As he approached Gus, Ares acted like he drew out his sword from the imaginary scabbard and slashed from downwards to upwards onto the tip of the stick that Gus is holding. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Gus held his sword tightly, expecting to stop any kinds of attacks with the middle and strong part of his waster. Little did he imagine a powerful slash on the tip of his sword. And before Gus could realise what was happening, his sword is not in his control. The sword is turning around along with his wrists due to the slash on the tip. As the Gus''s waster is in line with his neck, Ares quickly sheathed his sword and thrusted the handle in the middle of Gus''s sword ,which is impossible to push back due to his uneven grip on the waster. Gus ended up hitting himself on his neck with his own waster. This is what we call trick shots in normal sports. "You would have been dead if we were holding real swords, a hilarious death by your own sword" Ares made Gus realize how low he in, in the area of strength and techniques. Gus gritted his teeth in disbelief, as tears roll off his eyes to his weakness. "Um Ares, I bought Masamune" Alex who just got here suddenly says with an awkward face as he doesn''t know what took place here, but Gus and Ares seemed so serious. As Gus watches with curiosity. Alex throws a shiny katana sheathed inside a scabbard towards Ares. "This, Fukitsuna Masamune (translates to - Unholy Sword) is a katana. A real sword." Ares told Gus as he drew and displayed his sword in front of Gus. Fukitsuna meaning Unholy (not evil), was crafted by the last bloodline of Masamune family and hence got the name Fukitsuna Masamune, resembling a Japanese Katana. "Th-that''s a real sword," Gus said as his eyes got wide in disbelief, but with admiration. "This is not just a sword. This is a Katana, katanas have curved blades and were once used by samurai''s. Ares explained to Gus. "Gus! I want to teach you the sword art that was passed down to me by my father." Ares said excitedly, In a friendly tone to Gus. Alex and Gus could not process what Ares has just said. "Ar-Ares! Are you for real? You are not supposed to do that." Alex warned Ares after realizing what Ares had said. "I''m not allowed to pass down my art taught to me by my father which was taught to him by his ancestors? On the mainland, I''m not allowed to, but if it''s this village it can be passed down and live on forever. Keep this a secret for me, Alex. Pass me the enhancers and leave. I will come by dinner time with Gus." Ares said with determination on his face. Alex handed two stones in a small black box with transparent glass which looks like a jewellery box and left with a disapproving look on his face. For Alex, Ares is a genius with swords, there is no one in the mainland that can rival Ares. And he chose to pass down such a golden skill to a village boy? He thought with an unpleasant look on his face. "Gus, the sword art I''m taught is "Unholy sword". As the name suggests, it''s purely to kill the people who stand in front of you." "It doesn''t have defensive blocks or any particular stances. Everything this art focuses is pure animal instinct and to land a blow without hesitation. But you should remember; when we draw the sword out and lands a blow, it is instant death." "You are only going to target vital points, be swift, search for loops in the opponent''s stance and take him out. All of this should happen when you rush to make a move. I really want this skill to be passed down in the future. I can only teach this to you, as I consider you my brother, who has exchanged blows with me. Would you accept this? You can choose not to if you don''t want to." Ares asked Gus for his opinion. 12 Gus The Drama Queen "Even though it is an art that is used to kill people, I want to become strong like you Ares. I want to be able to protect what I cherish, especially people who are close to me. I swear I will learn this skill and will never use it for personal grudges. I will use it to fight only for what I want to protect." Gus honestly replied to Ares who had waited patiently for an answer from Gus. Ares seems to be in deep thought for a second. He then grabs a stone out of his pocket. The stone which was handed to him by Alex was a small 6mm red stone that looked like a Garnet. He inserted it inside the handle of his sword on one side. As soon as the stone is immersed and merged with the sword, the ridges of the blade suddenly start to shine as if Ares had activated the stone, just like Yang''s gloves. A red mist-like aura slowly started to spread and flow on the ridge of the blade fiercely. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Ares then swung his arm normally, his swing is fast yet looked like he is getting the dust off his sword but the amount of power and strong gusts released from that one swing is incomparable. The clouds above him were separated. It looked as though the heavens were slashed into two. Gus stood in disbelief as he stared at the sky. "This is the weapon of the mainland. The destructive force from the elemental stones." Ares explained to Gus about the stones calmly. "There, heh heh, you can do this too. Let''s start training." Ares urged Gus, who could barely comprehend what had just happened. ; He wanted Gus to start his training, without even considering the shock on poor Gus''s face. Gus too knew that he can''t dwell on this event, so he listened to Ares and they started off their training, from the basics of the unholy sword arts, since they only have a limited amount of 5 days time. After training until the sun had set, Ares and Gus head towards home. Gus seemed exhausted and tired, whereas Ares looks like he just did a simple exercise with his sword. "Welcome back! What would you like to do Ares? Take a shower? Grab your bed and go to sleep? or maybe - take - me for yourself" Tanya says in an appealing seductive voice. "Tanya dammittt!!! Can''t you just be quiet for a minute when Ares is back?! Ares, you are the one who made Tanya act that way.." Albert cries while grabbing and squeezing the neck of Alex who was standing right next to him. "No thank you, we were hungry. What''s for dinner?" Ares asks. "Ohhh, yes, dinner... No wonder I have felt hungry for a while" Alex says with an awkward and happy face, smiling brightly. Even though Albert is squeezing his neck, he acted like nothing happened to him, while making the most innocent face in the world, screaming *please save me from this pervert* inside his head. "Ahhh yes, dinner..... But Ares, none of us can cook. If you are hungry you can take my body as dinner and be rough, hard and so..." Tanya says as she leans forward to Ares with a smirk on her face. "Huh??? Dinner is not done yet? I''m so hungry dinosaurs are running inside my stomach. Ahhhh, mom and dad, I guess I will come to you guys soon. I''m dying because of these soldiers." Gus suddenly becomes a drama Queen, while falling on the ground holding his stomach like a little kid who didn''t know any better. Everyone in Gus''s house knows that only he can cook and he just wanted to avoid getting asked to take the responsibility of cooking. *"You can''t expect me to cook after a long training my body is sore, you shit heads. Which soldier cannot cook? Are you guys even soldiers dammiitttt!!"* Gus thought to himself angrily and he becomes more frustrated by this bunch of useless soldiers. "It''s alright guys. Yang and I made the preparations. We asked Miss Rissa to help us with dinner, we''re going to go to her house for dinner" Albert said with a poker face, while not noticing blood dripping from his nose, as he imagined a picture of Rissa in his head. Yang and Albert both had plotted for this plan. Yang wanted to see Tisha again and Albert was planning to see Rissa, to hitch a hike on her. Ares and the rest visit Rissa''s house as planned and eat the dinner with lots of talks, jokes and songs with good wine like they are having a party. And after everyone is done with their dinner Ares, Albert and Rissa passed out due to drinking alcohols, Gus passed out due to the exhaustion and so does everyone else as they sleep soundly. Yang was the only one that was really sober, he comes out of Rissa''s house to sit on a hill and stare at the black, starry night sky that lit up like a lamp. He sits on the stone, breathing in the fresh air that he hasn''t been able because of the continuous war happening in the mainland. "Do you - um, do you like watching the night sky?" Tisha suddenly emerged from behind and asked Yang with an innocent smile. She crouched beside him, wearing a long sky blue coloured gown with a lace yoke around the neckline. 13 The Blossom of Love Seeing Tisha in that dress under the pleasant moon light, made Yang speechless. Her amber coloured eyes instantly soothed his heart. Tisha came and sat beside Yang, a few feet away from him, wanting to gaze at the sky. "Ummmm.... Do you want to take a walk with me?" Yang asked casually while clearing his throat. "Yes, of course!" Tisha replied with a cheerful, beautiful and bright smile surfacing on her face while her soft cheeks turned red. Yang was shocked, an arrow of love striking him in the heart. Yang did not even realize what he asked her, the words just came out of his mouth naturally without any conscience. *"What? Do girls here agree to go to a walk with a stranger so quickly? She did not even think about it. Or... Maybe? Just maybe¡­ she is also interested in me?"* a small seed of hope was planted in Yang''s heart. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. *"this is not possible, maybe she is just trying to be nice to me"* Yang didn''t dare to have any hopes and writes it off as, Tisha being kind to him. "Well then, shall we take a long walk at the shore so we can introduce each over again? and maybe get to know each other a bit more?" Yang asked Tisha again with a hint of doubt, but hopeful. *"She wouldn''t agree to this right? Since it''s a little unfair to people who just met each other."* Yang nervously pondered. Somewhere in his heart, it felt like Tisha also nurtured feelings for him, but he didn''t agree with his heart, as he didn''t want to get hurt until he found out the truth. "Um.. of course, we can!" Tisha replies again with the same bright smile resurfacing on her face, as if it''s nothing. *"Is she stupid or she really likes me? She''s willing to come with me that far?"* At this point of time, Yang started writing a love story in his head, but he was still unconvinced. 1% of doubtfulness was still alive in his heart. "Well actually, let''s go see the island tomorrow from morning to evening. Tell your sister that you can''t be at home all day. Does that work? Can you do that?" Yang asked again trying to clear his doubts. Yang really wanted to know what Tisha was feeling, no girl stayed out all day with a guy she has never met before. "Sure, That''s no problem..." Tisha replied again, with a hint of smile but shyly this time, as if she''s telling Yang that she knows why he''s asking these questions. And that, she agrees to be with Yang. She too shared his feelings. Yang jumped out from his seat in shock that Tisha had accepted everything Yang asked for, that too, with a smile. It''s like she''s happy to do anything if he asks. *"It''s really confirmed now , she definitely has feelings for me. If she wants to spend a whole day with me it definitely means she likes me"*. Yang smiled back at Tisha, with an excited and happy face. He came back to sit beside her, but this time he sat really close to her. There was only an inch of gap between the two. Tisha doesn''t seem to mind or be bothered by it. "You know, my heart always beat without a purpose in my life. I was always lonely without a family. I was arrogant, short-tempered, crook and all kinds of a bad guy. I''m also a jealous type, and I''m selfish but most of all no matter what, I really want to treat my girl as a princess, make her happy and give her the world. I want to make her the happiest girl in the Universe, I will tell her that having her makes me feel like I too, have a family if I''m with her." Yang explained to Tisha. "Well, she will be the luckiest for sure. I''m not confident about myself at all, and I feel like I''m ugly, that''s why I never made any friends and is always hiding behind my sister but I swear, I will never stop loving my husband if he accepts me for who I am." Tisha said to Yang as their eyes meet. Tisha also liked Yang from the very first time she met him. No one had ever liked her eyes from her childhood, she has been called all kinds of unwishful names. She decided to distanced herself from everyone and always hid beside her sister in front of strangers, but Yang had taken a liking to her eyes when he just met her. It felt great to have someone who appreciated her, for one thing that everybody hated her for. She also knew that Yang is a soft person inside and he will treat people he loved with respect. And now, on hearing how Yang really feel about her as a family with an intention to marry her, she liked him even more. Tisha averted her eyes from Yang''s and shyly turned away from him, her curls falling over to hide her blushing face. Tisha''s breathing gets heavier with Yang moving closer towards her. She felt his warm chest pressing on her back, feeling his breathe on the back of her neck. Her long black hair tickled Yang''s face, along with the cold breeze and he closed his eyes taking in her sweet scent, nose slightly touching her soft skin. Yang gently caressed her hair to a side and leaned closer. His lower lip grazed Tisha''s earlobe, and he whispered in a low husky voice; "I love you Tisha. Be with me forever" Yang gathered up his courage and confessed to Tisha. Tisha''s face turned more pink upon hearing this. She suddenly shivered and rushed back to her house, her heart is racing fast, upon hearing the magical words from Yang. The grass under her feet was shining from the moon light as she ran towards her house. Nothing compared to the smile on Yang''s face, as he could now finally get to have a family of his own, and Tisha is part of that family. A new love had blossomed just before the deadly war, where people had a very less chance to make it back home. 14 The Start of The D Day Ares taught most of what he could, to Gus for four days straight and put him through skin and bone, without a break. At the end of the fourth day, Ares wanted to talk to Gus about the war they were going to tomorrow, on ''the fifth day'' which was approaching them very quickly as days passed by. "Ares, I improved a lot with your style of fighting didn''t I? Now I''m strong enough to defend myself on my own and I''m all ready for the war tomorrow." Gus asked Ares with a cocky tone. "Gus..." Ares took a long pause and seem reluctant to speak out, "I-I want you to stay in the village. Do not come to war with me." He told Gus who doesn''t seem to be listening. Ares doesn''t really want Gus to go out to the battlefield. He broke all his military codes and passed down his ancient sword art to Gus in hope that it will be passed down and live on, but now this fool Gus wanted to go to a battle ground and die? A mere four days of practice is nowhere near as mastering the skills. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Gus however is so excited to show off his skills. He was like a little kid who gets thrilled when they have new toys to show off in front of their friends. He couldn''t contain his excitement and only kept thinking of showing his sword skills in front of everyone and win the war all by himself. "You need to stay and protect the village Gus." But Gus was hit by sadness when he heard Ares saying these words. His sorrow turned into anger in an instant. He wanted to be out there and be able to help Ares. He was imagining himself as Ares''s sidekick already, how can he want to stay home when they were in war? "I want you to be in the village and pray for us. For I will definitely win and come back alive" Ares convinced Gus somehow to withdraw from the war even though Gus was still mad about this. Finally the day of the war, the fifth day came by. Mars, the village chief already sent a word out to the Caracus village saying that Mindoro is willing to aid Caracus against the war with outsiders. However, Mars received a word back from Caracus that only a group of his 100 best men were enough to aid them in the battle. The four units of Guards, Archers, medics and supporters along with Ares and his soldiers are sent to the war with the cheering of people, but sadness was hidden behind their smiling faces. They do not know if their fathers, husbands or sons who are heading out will come back alive from this war. Yang dearly held a bangle presented to him by Tisha as his good luck charm, and he set out with everyone else to aid Caracus. As the Mindoro villagers travel for 20km on their horses and animal pulleys. They did not believe their eyes. There were broken and burnt down houses everywhere, smeared blood marks and unnatural landscapes. It was the Caracus village, which was in a very devastating state. As they get closer to the village, Ares and the leader of Mindoro army noticed some armors shining at a distance deeper in the village. A number of 500 soldiers were arming themselves and sharpening their weapons, getting ready for a war. "Ahh there you are, you must be Edward." An old man who seems to be in his mid forties, is walking towards Ares with his greetings as the chief of Caracus village. "You must be honorable Mr.Nero, the chief of Caracus. Pardon me, I''m Edward, acting leader of Mindoro army. We''re here to lend you a hand" Edward (age - 32), a guard and a medic with a sword on his waist introduces himself to the chief of Caracus. "I''m really happy that your village had decided to help us on this matter, even though we have done many awful things to your village in the past. We realized how stupid we are after having a taste of our own medicine. We don''t even have any creative leaders like you all do in your village to rebuild our houses, from the terrible shape they are in right now" Nero (age - 47) asked for forgiveness while kneeling down and bowing his head on the ground in front of all the villagers of Mindoro with a very sad smile on his face. After witnessing how it feels to be plundered, looted and slaughtered by others. The old chief now, knows how it feels to lose everything. Hence they reached out to Mindoro for their aid, betting all of their lives on this battle that they didn''t choose to fight. "Please chief Nero, don''t embarrass us anymore. We both have experienced the loss and pain of having everything taken away. Also we are hoping to find a little benefit for our village in this aid. That is, strengthening the bonds between our villages and holding the enemies here, so they don''t come to Mindoro next to raise hell." Edward speaks. "Thank you for forgiving me, now let me introduce you people to my army and we can have a plan on how to win this war. The sun will be coming out any moment now and we can expect the enemy." Nero says to Edward. Nero introduces General Gideon to Edward and his army. Gideon evaluated Edward''s army strengths and weaknesses, and started assigning them to their positions and squads. Caracus had a massive amount of 500 soldiers on their sides already, from which 200 will be on the front lines with barricade walls and heavy shields that can defend against heavy fire. Following them will be 50 guards with spears from Mindoro and 100 guards and raiders from Caracus with swords and hammers and axes. Behind them are the archers and mid range fighters. And the rear will be protected by 150 soldiers consisting of again Guards from Caracus and medics from Mindoro and on a completely different unit are 100 soldiers along with the supporters and communicators of Mindoro, will be concealing themselves behind the hills to ambush if the opportunity is created. And the four soldiers along with the general of Caracus will be leading this massive army standing in between the barricades. "Ah by the way, It don''t seem like there is someone from Sable village here, did they not come?" Edward asks with surprise. "Yeah right, they said they would rather try to flee the island if they were attacked, but said they won''t be standing along with us in a fight. It is expected since we have been attacking their village from a long time." General Gideon spoke without a hint of remorse. "But I''m not ashamed of what we have done. Our village suffered harsh climatic conditions and droughts. Our ancestors were kicked out and thrown rocks at by both of your villages when asked for some roof and food after the great calamity. They even had to feed the dead to their kids to keep them alive. It was what shaped us into war freaks. We didn''t want to suffer anymore, which means we have to take from you guys. We did what we had to. Now I look forward to work with you guys to protect my people." Gideon said compassionately and was determined to do anything for the sake of his village. And Edward doesn''t even know what to say at this moment to Gideon and was left in a shock. He cannot completely agree to what Gideon said as it is the ancestors of Mindoro that treated the people of Caracus like animals. Whereas Mindoro now, is a changed village which always gave help to anyone in need. The war siren has been given by Caracus as a message to the warriors to standby in their respective positions. All the soldiers started taking their positions. The rear guards and medics equipped with basic armor and weapons. The archers have been given the finest of bows made by the best Craftsmen of Caracus village and the four soldiers along with Edward and General Gideon had taken cover inside barricades waiting for the enemy to show up as the first rays of sun hit the shields of the warriors near the sea-shore. 15 What Happened To The War? *"Why is everyone waiting near the shore? Are they expecting the enemy to show up? Do they know where the enemy is going to come from, or are they expecting them to show up from the same entrance as last time?"* Ares stands in between the barricades wondering as the whole area is silent. Only the sounds of wind blowing can be heard as no man standing is uttering a word. *"As someone who came to the island from outside, I know how hard it is to enter the island through the whirlpools and giant storms that always lurks around the island. Half of your forces will get wiped out before they reach the shore"* Ares started to have a really uneasy feeling about the air around him. It''s been hours since the sun has come out, all the soldiers were still being put in the positions they were offered to. The sun now reached above their heads. Some of the soldiers were getting impatient little by little. They had been standing here for 6 hours already, and the heat of the sun was taking a toll on them. However, the waves of ocean were very pleasant as there are no visible objects in sight. Nero, the chief provided water to the men at shore with the help of the women of his villages. It was eve already, the sun was setting down. Every villager was too tired to even move their limbs, they were standing on the shore all day. Even the supporters had been searching other places to see if the enemies are coming from other parts of the island. Yet, no signs of enemies were found. Alex who was looking inside the island on his own for the traces of enemies or enemy camps, could spot nothing. "This is quite a situation isn''t it?" Gideon, the General of Caracus village nervously asked Ares while he repetitively gripped the handle of his spear over. "It is indeed an unexpected situation, we don''t know what to do from here on out either." Ares replied while smiling. "I don''t see one of your friend anywhere" Gideon asks about Alex with a hint of suspicion on his face. "Ah, he is actually the youngest of us all. The younger don''t have much endurance so he went to back to camps to rest, but be assured we will be the one fighting. He is someone who repairs our weapons and upgrades them to be useful in battles" Ares told Gideon to avoid him from suspecting on them. "I see." Gideon said while his eyes scanned around, counting the soldiers and villagers from Mindoro. If anything, Ares and his gang do not want to anger the Caracus village. After all, Mindoro will be the one that would have to take the responsibility for any misdoing done by them, since these four are from Mindoro. Alex comes back from searching all over the island but nothing abnormal came into his sight. Ares realized this with one look from Alex''s disappointed face. The sun has been set down and the waves of the ocean became rough as soon as the moon is up and it started showering snow. The cold is biting the bones of the soldiers that are still on the shore. Nero decides to call back the villagers since everyone is tired, sitting on the shore and staring at the ocean will just make the villagers more tired. Meanwhile Ares''s heart is beating fast and he can''t help but feel uneasy. If the enemy showed up as they''re supposed to and get into fight, things would have gone smoothly. They would have a chance to win, but now the enemy is not showing up like they said they would. Are they plotting something elsewhere? Or are they going to attack at night? Or hiding already on the island? or is the enemy near Mindoro as they keep waiting for them here? Ares have been bothered by these doubts in his mind. Meanwhile in Mindoro, Infants'' cries are heard, the air was violent, Gus had a serious look on his face and holding only his wooden sword with a despaired face while he stared at something burning near the shrines on the hill. Are the shrines and village on fire? . . . . . . . . "Achoo~~ " a villager of Mindoro sat with Gus beside him guarding the shrine on the hill with a campfire. Gus is staring at the campfire while reminiscing Ares''s words. "Gus, knock that look off your face already, brother. Just because Ares didn''t take you to war, you have been staring at the fire for a long time. It''s creeping me out. Anyway, why would we have to guard this shrine at night too? We only have a tent here and it''s too cold." A villager complained while getting impatient. "We can''t help it. The other day when Ares and his friends visited the shrines on each of these hills, they told us that our village will be in grave danger if a foreigner is to find about these shrines. So we need to guard it at night too. We shouldn''t let anyone who is not from our village to approach these shrines." Gus replied to the villagers with a serious look on his face "Ehh, but these shrines are in bad shape, I wonder who would want these stupid shrines. And why are those infants from that house at the foot of this hill crying all night??? I can hear them from here. Gosh, feed them something, stupid parents" The villager mumbles grumpily. "You heard what Ares said, there is some energy flow and oscillation here. I didn''t understand what they said, but it must be important. I have never seen Ares that surprised, so we better do our jobs correctly." Gus told the villager patiently. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Gus had been ordered to guard the village and he was carrying his job out well. *At caracus* The war however, didn''t seem to happen any time soon, no enemy was showing up. All of the barricades and shields had come down. The whole army is in deep sleep, while villagers from Mindoro are guarding the sleeping warriors of Caracus. "Why did you accept to guard these people voluntarily Edward? We could go back to let our chief know." A villager asks Edward. "It can''t be helped. They have been carrying barricades and heavy armor all day. And they''re hurt from defending their village already. Let us be the guards and I have sent 5 messengers back to Mindoro to relay what happened here. If this is how it will be and the enemy doesn''t show up. We can go back to our village and live peacefully."" Edward replies to the villagers. "Oh right, how old are your two daughters now?" The villager asks brings up about Edward''s daughters. "They''re two years old now, they never go to sleep without me and cry a lot if I come home late. Hope they''re not giving trouble to their mother." Edward smiled slightly to himself as he recalled his daughters who would call out to him happily each time he was home from work. In Mindoro, "Ahhh, calm down, daddy will be here by tomorrow. Please calm down the whole village will get mad at us for not letting them sleep" Edward''s wife, placed at the foot of a hill near the shrine, tried her best to calm her crying children, while she herself was crying inside, worried about her husband. "Man, these kids are never going to sleepppp" The villager guarding with Gus, yelled out loudly with frustration. 16 Hungry For Power And the next day after acknowledging from the reliable messengers that no enemy had the temerity to show up at Caracus, Gus stormed out towards the war field. "Good Gracious , what do we do with this kid now? I hope he will be ok. You guys can go now and aid to Caracus and see if there are any signs of war today or tomorrow. If not; we will withdraw from Caracus in a week." Mars narrates the message of whole planning to the five messengers and sends them away on their way. In Caracus, "General Gideon, a young boy has arrived claiming he is from Mindoro and wants to meet the villagers." One of the warrior of Caracus informed Gideon about the unusual thing. "Take him to wherever he wants to go. We''re not confiscating anyone here. Moreover tell him to find his people, himself." Gideon roared agitated while Gus is standing near the door listening to all and at the same time despising him and Caracus. Even though the villagers of Caracus changed. It doesn''t mean anything for Gus, it''s not like his parents are going to come back even if Caracus repents or mourn for the blood of people. So he will keep hating them more and more, gradually bubbling the poison within him. "Ares! I''m here. How have you guys been doing?" Gus casually strides up towards Ares and his friends and tries to initiate a talk with them like it was another normal day in his village. "Yo Gus! Did you sleep we.... You BASTARD! what the hell are you doing here?" Ares growled with half surprise and suppressed anger. "Gus you stalker, pervert, pedo. I''m older to you why did you come all the way for me?" Tanya says with a grossed out expression. "What? Why would I come for you? Wait and Eh how am I the pedo here? I''m the younger one among all of us. And no- I actually came for Ares." Gus replies explaining and defending himself gulping the insulting words. "Ahhhh. I see forbidden love." Alex chips giving a smirk. "Ohhhhh Ares, how can you? Is this the reason you are not accepting my love all these years? Are you into boys, perhaps?" Tanya questions Ares while her face becomes hot red as her imagination ran wild about boy love (her secret fantasy). Gus and Ares are both astonished . "Knock it off guys, I''m not in a mood to laugh at your jokes."Ares says with an angry irritated tone. "Hai hai let''s leave them both for a while guys, they got mad that we''re disturbing them" Albert adds fuel to fire while him and Alex try hard to control their giggles. This is their chance of getting back at Ares who is ridiculously popular among girls. "Ah Gus, did Tisha ask about me? Did she tell you anything to pass onto me? Did she give you anything for me?" Yang inquired breathlessly to Gus ,curiously while leaning forward. "Umm.." Gus doesn''t know what to say since he ran out of his village and without telling anyone about his whereabouts. Everyone around Yang gives him an odd more likely grossed look. [Spit] "We''re going, thu thu blehhh." Albert spits on the ground before leaving. Albert used to look up to Yang with the way he deals with other girls. He is the known cold blooded soldier, but got whipped bycold hearted Yang.All this time he acted like a tough rigid guy and that was just a bluff after all. "Umm.. it''s ok to love another man.. I also lovemen. If you guys have free time you can come to have a drink with me." An old man from Caracus with a white tanktop and pot belly offers to Ares and Gus while blushing. [ Ares and Gus dies internally] *"Ah no I''m wasting time. I came here for a reason"* Gus thinks to himself scolding inwards. "Ares, train me more in the way of unholy sword. I want to learn more and more. I''m still no good in sword arts. Isn''t that thereal reason why I was left behind in the village? If I had learned everything and if I was good at the art of sword, I would have been by your side in the war field. So- teach me more Ares. I want to learn -everything." Gus sounded like a warrior hungry for power. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Ares becomes delighted to see Gus with full energy, but he also knows that lust for power sometimes leads you to a wrong path. So Ares wanted to lead Gus in the right direction and make him strong. "Ok let''s go, I will train you more." Ares and Gus walks along the shore a little far from people, heading towards train. Ares teaches Gus about the rule of strike and the basics. Getting inside of the defence against the opponent is the most important thing. The unholy sword got the name from it''s free style manner, the techniques are not fixed of any particular forms and stances. It''s all freestyle and hitting at the same time while defending and the most important thing is having the sword closer to your body and feel the sword as if it''s saying something and merging into one. The sword that doesn''t follow any sacred methods or forms hence called unholy sword arts. "My sword, Fukitsuna is a rare blade passed down to me by my elders. This sword has a soul of its own and chooses its masters. So unless this sword chooses you as it''s master, you need to keep training hard to be it''s worthy. And if this sword doesn''t choose you in any case as it''s master, then it''s going to get rusty and oldeventually fading away. This is because the sword needs to be wielded by it''s master when swinging it. So try and make upto the desired level on your guts and hard work." Ares advices Gus in a serious tone making him aware of how long path he needed to stumble upon. Edited by - Aysel Inaraa. 17 Blinded "I was still unable to summon the divine power within it and couldn''t get it to accept me. Another failure like previous times. It used to shine bright, glittering divinely with golden colors along with radiating celestial energy, it''s incomparable power -while it is in the strong hands of Ares, but all the enchantment faded away and slowly lost it''s charm and power. It was no more than a normally wielded , cheap and dull sword in my hands. I wanted to gain that power of sword no matter what, it can make me strong I''m quite positive."* "Got it. " Gus replies while he kept reminding himself that he needs to become stronger in order to be get chosen by the sword. Ares and Gus continued the exhausting training for another five days. And after that specific time of strenuous bodily exercise Ares as a token of appreciation handed a book over to Gus which consisted of the teachings of Unholy Sword and inquired him about- to leave the warfield. "It''s been five days already, if the enemies won''t show up until tomorrow we will head back to the village. So you go ahead of us now and forward the message to Mars." Ares assigned a task to Gus who nodded at first. "Ok. I will be waiting for you to teach me more Ares." Gus took off with a smile yet with a hint of disappointment that Ares still doesn''t want him on the Warfield even when there is no enemy to fight, probably . [Yawn] "Guarding Caracus while they''re sleeping for five days straight is taking toll on all of us, isn''t it Ares? If it isn''t for you and your friends, we wouldn''t have gotten those 2-3 hrs of sleep." Edward appreciates the work Ares and his soldiers did as to guard Caracus and letting the Villagers of Mindoro to take naps as well. People from Mindoro slept for 2-3 hours while Ares and his party watched over them, to oogle for any peril. This shows the amount of hard work they had gone through to stay awake by going without sleep for days and be cautious at the same time rather than drowsy. But If there is any chance for enemy to show up while they''re in this bad situation, the enemy might get an upperhand on the two villages effortlessly. "Yes it is, I really want to go back to the village and sleep for a week straight ,haha." Ares replies to Edward with a hint of playfulness half laughing and yawning. "I really thank your village for not only guarding us but also for help rebuilding our village, Edward. And I see you guys will leave after tomorrow. If no enemy shows up until that time, let''s have a toast tomorrow then. Again I really want to thank you warmly for coming here to our help." Nero chips with grateful eyes. "No no let''s not do a toast ,haha. We agreed to help you so we are not going to accept anything in return. Let us all get along together for tonight. We will be leaving tomorrow evening anyway. " Edward declines his frank offer with a smile. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Ahh I see. Too bad... but It''s ok." Nero replies crestfallen with a disappointed face and heads back. [At night] "Looks like some dark clouds are heading our way, we will get soaked haha. Let''s search for a hill to take shelter for tonight." Edward''s looks up above the skies while commanding his units. Predicting a fierce storm at hand. As Edward keeps watching, the sky seems to be lighting up slowly. He is confused as to why the sky seems to be burning up with anger. As he realises gradually he could see huge fire balls falling from the sky highly aimed. And they were bigger in size too as much as the size of a two combined cannon balls. "Fu*k it''s ENEMIES! Bring the barricades. We''re gonna get hit by Mortars!" Ares yelled loudly panicking for everyone to wake up from their slumber. Suddenly the ground that everyone was sleeping began rumbling and shaking vigorously as soon as the cannon balls hit the shore of Caracus. The shockwave shook everyone who was deep into slumber. The cannon balls were leaving huge trenches wherever they made contact. Every warrior rushes to the scene with their barricades, shields and their weapons. No one is following theformation that they did on the first day. Every one was horrified and is standing at whatever location they found to stay rooted , they are standing together ready for a huge battle that is about to take place. Two huge battle ships can be seen from the mist, slowly approaching towards Ares and the villagers. There will be at least five hundred soldiers in those both ships combined. Numbers wise, Caracus and Mindoro are a hundred more but the people in the battleships are elite soldiers, deadly trained with highly weaponry compared to normal villagers who were braced with ordinary ones. Out of nowhere all of Mindoro villagers and Ares party is standing inside surrounded by Caracus warriors that rushes and positioned outside with the barricades and shields seeming to protect them from the enemies. *"What is this uneasy feeling? Something is not right"* Ares keeps hesitating while trying to process what was happening in front of him. Suddenly the barricades and shields which are supposed to protect them from the enemy attacks are turned inside. It''s like Caracus is not holding barricades to stop enemy, but holding it inside surrounding every villager of Mindoro as if they have made a cage of barricades with Mindoro inside. What is this new turn of events when everything is already in chaos? 500 warriors of Caracus surrounded the puny 100 Mindoro villagers. As everyone from Mindoro is perplexed. An old guy with an evil smile walks towards this mob while his hands are crossed behind him as if he is pulling something. And literally behind him are the corpses of supporters and messengers who belonged to Mindoro Village being dragged down by Nero and the rest of the Caracus villagers. Every villager standing inside the cage of barricades realised they were tricked!.They were betrayed and trapped "simply blinded by trust" and everyone lost hopes on their lives. "WHAT THE F*CK ARE YOU DOING NEROO!" Ares shouts on the top of his lungs while watching the villagers who helped him, came to fight for him were now lying lifeless while Nero is laughing like a maniac- a madman. Edited by - Aysel Inara 18 Ritual The battleships were docked at the shore and a whole battalion of 500 soldiers are walking towards Ares and the handful of people, the sound of the movements of the cluster echoed like a thump of giant causing the ground to shake while reaching the party who was supposed to fight against them. The looks on the faces of the enemies filtered the arrogant smirks as if they had already won this battle, as though they had anticipated this would happen from the very beginning. . . . "Oh Ares ! We''re supposed to do this on the very first day you came . If it isn''t for you to show your power to one of my loyal warrior which made us take extra care of you." "And if Mindoro didn''t show us that they are training villagers to wield weapons to fight us, this would have happened long before on the first day itself, heh." Nero chuckles with cocky voice eyes at Ares and Mindoro like an eccentric. Ares belong to the nation called Aztec, Aztec''s foe is Agartha. Both the Nations have been at war for more than a decade. The war being fought was not for resources or food. But for the war for power struggle, supremacy, democracy and religious feelings. The soldiers from the battleships of Agartha have stationed at the shore and the captain of the two ships walks up to Nero with 10 soldiers following his lead, trailing behind like loyalists . "We are almost done cleaning them here. It''s just like you said hahaha! They are weak when we make them guard us at nights for five days straight." Nero narrates how he tricked them in order to pave way , to captain Zoilas who just arrived there with his jury . It was all the plan of Zoilas from the start to send Caracus to Mindoro asking for help and drawing out wounded Ares to war along with the villagers of Mindoro sleeplessly guard Caracus at nights. "The captain of their''s, is it Ares? I have been told by my higher ups to not take him lightly. But seeing him in this shape, we are ashamed that we brought an entire battalion of 500 soldiers and battleships to wipe him out." Captain Zoilas chips while mocking at Ares''s current condition. And sarcastically eyeing him. "Nero, please spare me. I have two daughters waiting for me at home, I will run away with my family. I won''t ever show up in front of you, please let me go." Edward pleads Nero for mercy half yelling with a crying face, fear settling in heart while on his knees-begging. "Hm, kids huh ? I can understand if you have a family but everyone here have a family of their own. Everyone would ask me to forgive them won''t they? Hah! hah! hah!. However, you are the best fighter in your village and I wanted to have you in my army since I first saw you. So let''s say, if you swear loyalty to me and help me slaughter Mindoro then I will consider letting you go. How''s it ?" Nero challenges to Edward testing his loyalty which was perhaps already lost somewhere. Edward became confused as he rapidly have many thoughts crossing through his mind, many colors coming and fading on his face. He was being asked to kill his friends and family and burn the village he grew up in, but for him his life was also important. He wanted to see his daughters grow up, he wanted to provide them with a good living rather than leaving them alone for the rest of their lives in misery. So he made a very selfish decision to survive. "I pledge you my loyalty, please let me fight with your soldiers and spare my life for that." Edward surrenders lowering his head with eyes full of regrets. He shamelessly switched. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Then prove it to me" Nero smiled evilly. "cut both of your thumbs from your hands, so you won''t be able to swing the sword you are known for and become an errand boy in my army for the rest of your life." Nero orders Edward with the most psychotic look on his face as eyes bulge out in hunger for blood. Edward is rained with insult one after another and he was treated like the most useless human and now he is asked to cut off his thumbs which means he can never hold the sword in his hands which he loved, growing up with. "Edward don''t do it, you wanted to become a swordsman from your childhood. It was your ambition and dream to serve the village and protect it as it''s guard." "Please don''t do it Edward, it is better dying a honorable death than living such a plight." "Don''t give up your talent for such a life Edward." All the villagers of Mindoro started shouting to stop Edward and to make him realize what was right, in desperation. For Edward however, watching over his two daughters growing up happily was more important than his dreams, he cuts off his thumbs wincing in pain while people continued telling him what was better.He shut their concerns and looks up at Nero with determination. "Eehahaha, awesome Edward, you really wanna live badly don''t you hahaha. Ok you are free now. Let him out of those barricades." Nero says with excitement as if this is the best entertainment he ever saw. A narrow way opens up for Edward to walk out from the soldiers and Edward starts walking his way out slightly feeling happy that he is going to see his daughters from here on out. His thumbs are bleeding. It''s as if his heart had been crushed completely yet he felt happy because he was doing this for his family. Nor does Ares say or do anything. Until last week, he hasn''t been able to move his limbs freely if it''s not for nanoresucts. Yet he kept pushing himself for the village. And now he is in even worse state with no sleep and high fever. He just keeps looking down helplessly and keeps breathing heavily. A spear suddenly struck and pierces Edward''s Adams apple from the side and out of nowhere. Edward falls down to his knees hard on the ground going limbless. He couldn''t even prepare himself to die in this horrible way, but he seems to be still alive while his body whispers with all the blood gushing out "The blood from your decapitated thumb has dirtied my shoes, so this is your punishment! DIE! you worthless piece of shit." Gideon yells happily to the lifeless Edward on the ground. Gideon''s face clearly grimaced with disgust and everyone of Caracus and Agartha starts laughing loudly. The old man Nero never intended to let Edward go free, he just want to see him struggle like a fish without water and strangle while his heart was filled with hope to live. "My wif....e and daughters.." Edward leaves his last breath while tears rolling off his eyes regretfully. "Hahaha you deserve it you worthless scum!. I hate your village to the core of my body!. And don''t you worry about your wife. We will **** her over n over until she dies." Nero yells with a most evil pedophile face as he licks his lips like some pervert was ready to catch their prey and at same time his eye balls are gauging out and his crooked teeth show up as he laugh insanely like a crazy person. All the villagers are triggered instantly and rushes to the soldiers with their weapons. Albert and the rest also runs forward with rage filled faces. All the barricades are closed and the soldiers started to Pierce the flesh of villagers with the spears through the gaps between barricades. Mindoro people were getting slaughtered mercilessly. One of the spear was shove into the gut of Ares, multiple spears pierces through Alex''s body as he tries to save Ares shielding him, and the same happens with every villager that are trapped in the barricades. The ground is soaked wet with blood like a sacrificial ritual is being taken place. "Ahhhh! this is so fun to watch!. Now let''s go slaughter all of Mindoro and erase them from the island now!". Nero orders his motive out loudly as his eyes glint dangerously flickering with hunger. Edited by - Aysel Inara 19 A Demon Is Awoken Yes.These five are our responsibility." "We will rebuild our village as many times as we can than letting these five go." "Please soldiers, help us fight for our lands and our lives." The words pleaded by the villagers echoed in the ears of Alex, his subconscious mind could hear people screaming, woman crying, children wailing. His eyes are closing slowly but yet glaring upon a body lying lifeless in front of him. Alex with the last strength gathered in his body reaches out to his bag on the hips in desperation,extracts an injection and injects It into Ares who was lying unconscious in front of him, not dead yet. "Ares, I''ve always wanted to ask you for your help to train me and make me stronger. But I felt like I don''t deserve to ask you of a favor, hehe." Alex chuckles gently as saying his lastwords. "Ares, can you do me one last favor of keeping the villagers alive? I want to pay them back somehow for being very kind to us." Alex muttered while he holds the hand of Ares with little strength left in his. The face of Alex displayed a sign of relief and hope as he realised that Ares is gaining his consciousness and feels that the villagers will be in good hands now and they will be protected. He smiled as his eyes were closing slowly into a deep silent never-awakening slumber. Ares thought he was in a dream and is shocked by what Alex is asking from him. And he struggles to open his eyes and feels like his body has been put through lot of scissors as if he was hit by the thunderous rain of arrows and spears right through himself. He slowly gets up on his knees, without having a single clue of what has happened. The sight in front of him is unrealistic to him but undeniable . The whole ground is red in color as he looks around him recognizing the faces of his companions and friends. "Alexxx!!! What ha...." Ares halts while uttering and roots frozen in thoughts, he gets the glimpses of everything that happened that he forgot for a moment, the massacre that happened when he was passed out came back into his memory like a cloudy mist. Ares forgot previously the tale of bloodshed that has happened while he was passed out due to the stress on his head and injuries. He bursts into tears and wails loudly as he sees the dead bodies in front of him. His friends and villagers all dead -gone . The cries of Ares pricked the ears of one of the Caracus warrior, who then called out for his chief and captain Zoilas and informed them of this situation. "He was up and unscratched? It must be the nano resucts." Captain Zoilas tells to a soldier who came to report to him, predicting the possibility. *"But we were informed that they doesn''t have any more nanoresucts left with them by our person from Mindoro. How can they possess one? Anyway it''s just one weak captain. We can take him down easily."* Zoilas thinks to himself as he joins hands with Nero without letting one mere soldier stop him from showing off his own pride moment which could earn him medals and promotion for what he has done for today. Ares is still looking at the ground while on his knees and sobbing frantically. "Uwahaha this isquite a surprise Ares, I was a little sad all this while that I couldn''t torment you the way I did to Edward hahaha." Nero says arrogantly to Ares reminding him the insult as he stands behind with 30 of his warriors, 20 feet away. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Ares stops sobbing recalling about what he heard and saw. What has happened with Edward right in front of his eyes. He is scared of remembering those moments yet his memory flows back in-in a worse way. Tears keep falling off his sockets, he keeps trembling and grasping for air, in a panicking state. "That greedy bastard asked us to spare his life for his wife and daughters hahaha, but no worries we will send them to where he is now." Nero keeps adding salt to the injury and wounds. The memories keeps flashing back in Ares''s head like images one after another of Edward and how he told Ares about his two daughters, the way he smiled, the way he was proud to see his daughters grow up, the way he cut his thumbs for them, the way he was laughed upon by the Caracus villagers and Zoilas and the reason he was killed for gets imprinted on his mind. It was all traumatic to Ares as he mourns louder with the helplessness his eyes which starts turning darkall of a sudden as his anger rises like an erupting volcano, about to burst with fire of hell. "We will kill all of Mindoro, we will kill the children and infants! After killing the men in the village the women becomes our public property, uwhaha!" Nero laughs insanely as he kept shouting out his atrocious plans. While Ares remains rooted listening to him standing still as if he is about to unleash like a beast set free. "We will ra*e them with different number of our men and make them bear our children! And later the child will grow up and kill their dirty mothers! Yesss! Yes this is a perfect plan to have our revenge..." Before he can finish his sentence, Nero gets interrupted while he was screaming out the sadistic ways of wiping out Mindoro with such a pleasing and pleasuring face. Suddenly, a sword is in the face of Nero out of nowhere. His face is cut into half from his nose to the back of his head as if someone split half of his face with a slash of the sword. "Ahhh~ such nice words from your mouth, but you''re not supposed to act psychotic in front of a real one ! " Ares murmured with a really creepy smile while he kneels down on the badly butchered body of Nero. "Such a nice person like you isn''t allowed to live in this world at all Nero." Ares utters sarcastically with an evil grin and slowly shoves the tip of his sword down into Nero''s heart. "Huh? Oh you miss your villagers and warriors? And who? Oh also the soldiers from battle ships? Aww~ it''s ok Nero I will send them... RIGHT BACK TO YOU!" An aggressive Areswith a rage filled expression on his face adds, his voice toochanged completely more like the sound of a psychotic demon looking down upon this mere useless toys like people. His blood vessels are bulging from temples in rage as he keeps gritting his teeth, swaying the sword playfully. All of the villagers and soldiers are in shock to see the abnormal behaviour of an average person like Ares, and nobody understood how he killedNero who was 20ft away in between the thick cluster of soldiers in an instant. Ares attached a red and a green stone onto one side of his sword handle calmly and he attaches another black stone on the other side of the handle and grips his katana tightly. His katana seems to be vibrating vigorously. Only one person knew how big threat Ares became the very moment. Zoilas clearly had fear engulfing his heart as black aura starts to radiate from Ares like a combination of Yin and Yang. "No fucking person told me that he is the only black element user in the entire FUCKING WORLD ." Zoilas utters in disbelief as he stands there completely in shock. Edited by - Aysel Inara 20 God Arts - Heavens Arsenal "Warriors from Caracus, hurry and move away from him." Zoilas yells at the small cluster of Caracus villagers on a small slope who surrounded Ares for killing their own chief. "Move away? He will not be able to fight back if all of us attack him at once." A warrior amongst them speaks "He will pay for his wrong doings." In a proud and arrogant tone. Ares calmly starts walking forward as the warriors around him aims their weapons at Ares yet hesitating to attack. "Sword arts - Iaido of the demon" Ares flicks his sword guard making the sword to draw out from the scabbard but immediately replacing it back in his scabbard before the blade of his sword is exposed. Nobody understood what sort of technique it is, his sword didn''t even come out of his scabbard. Yet Ares seemed filled with air of confidence and with a smile curling from the corner of his mouth. "Teleport." As Ares mumbles and it looks like he is about to take off, light and gentle cuts starts to appear above the bodies of the warriors around him. Cuts on this arms, chest, across the face... Nobody seems to swinging any sword. Yet more cuts were appearing on their bodies. Even though the cuts don''t seem deep the blood is creeping out enough to evoke panic in the warriors. Ares teleports from warriors to the foot of the slopes and walks towards Zoilas and his army completely ignoring the cluster of warriors around . The cuts which seem not deep suddenly starts digging into their flesh and bones. As if the attack of Ares has an delayed effect. Within seconds all the warriors are cut down and becomes meat sack. Maybe Zoilas knew this would happen hence he warned the warriors who were arrogant and did not heed his advice. "It''s definitely the black elemental stone. How are we going to deal with him? No captain can maintain more than two elemental stones of different attributes in one device and yet - He used three of them in one go !? That is a general class feat. He is a mere 20 year old captain of a naval ship.. how can he..."Zoilas muddled nervously while witnessing Ares striding towards his direction and the soldiers. All the 1000 people soldiers of Zoilas and warriors from Caracus takes their positions in an order in front of Ares, aiming for his head. "It is 1000 Vs 1. You better give your self up and surrender. I will make sure you will walk out of here alive." Zoilas utters words of a cowardice to Ares. "Uwahh!" Right after uttering big words Zoilas gets startled by the sudden start of his ship''s siren. "So you think 1000 of you can stop me?" Ares is still walking towards the 1000 people with the same arrogant smile as his armour clacks against the wind. Ares starts to cut down one soldier after another repeatedly in a really close combat, he cuts their necks, Pierces their hearts and decapitates their heads off their bodies without any emotion of mercy visible on his stone face. It is too graphic to even watch him and the gruesome bloodshed. He just seems to be moving at a very fast speed, he does not even seem to be swinging his sword against his enemies and yet the soldiers on either side of him are getting cut down by blades. Their limbs and their body parts flying above him like a blood shower as it rains down on him. 200 soldiers are down in a snap of 5 mins. Ares hands have been adorned with blisters yet he seems not to feel any pain. "Give me my weapon! get our elites to back the Caracus villagers. Bring the snipers and push with the best fraggers we have. We are going to take him down!" Zoilas gives orders to his soldiers in desperation as snake of fear crawls into his heart. The elite snipers comes to the front, there are two types of sniper rifles, one is emitting purple color and the other is emitting green color, resulting of the purple and green elemental stones that are placed in their rifles. The sniper rifle have two small turbo fans, one at the handle that they hold onto and other one at the middle near the stones. "I got him locked in the scope, ready to fire at anytime!." A soldier holding a purple colored rifle shouts out. "Take the shot." Zoilas says to the soldier. "HURRY!" Suddenly the dark clouds from the sky starts to gather above the land sheltering Ares as he keeps moving in a flash. "Zap!!~" an astonishingly lightning with thunder bolt from the cloud emerges and hits Ares in a blink of an eye and hitting all the region which becomes misty with dust and turned black like charcoal carpet spread throughout. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. The purple colored sniper rifle locks on to a target, when the trigger is pulled the purple stone forms a small cloud in the atmosphere through which a thunder bolt gets launched onto the person the gun is locked on to. And the green colored rifles manipulates air by compressing and gives air bullets that are invisible and at a long range making them perfect guns for stealth kills. The assault rifles on the other hand emits red color which packs a lot of destructive force, the size of the bullet to be fired is up to the wielder. You can shoot something of the size of a small magnet ball to the size of a cannon ball. "It''s a hit!" The soldier shouts out proudly. "Great... We got him for good" Zoilas starts to celebrate happily and his fears starts to settled down. The dust clears out and everyone is ready to have a look at the burnt body of Ares. While is on his knees, though the attack was incomparably violent, the lightning didn''t just strike on his body but the electricity entered his flesh and bones burning his skin and evoking acute sharp pain to his bones. The burns leaves visible marks on Ares along with smoke. "He is down! Fast! The archers finish him!"Zoilas face is lighted up, he rub his eyes in disbelief. The man who was going around like a crazy monster , slashing everything that comes in his way was down because of one lightning sniper? Great, this is his moment now for Zoilas. The archers takes their positions and releases arrows enhanced with green stones on the head of the arrow. These arrows are faster , the spin and trajectory is less compared to the real ones. "Gasp~" Ares swings his sword powerfully when the arrows are close into his zone. All the arrows that were heading his way in a fast pace have suddenly stopped in the mid air, they lost the momentum and their flight and just dropped down as if they lost their force. The strong gust release from the swing of Ares with his sword cancelled the momentum of the arrows. *Clack~. * An arrow Pierces the flesh of Ares. "How do you like it? Don''t underestimate me kid, I''m a captain myself." There is a bow in the hand of Zoilas with three green stones. A captain can handle stones of same attributes which boosts the power to greater lengths but stones of different attributes is not a feat that a captain class can pull off. The bow Zoilas holding itself is shiney green in color and long with a steel like bow string and the green stones are situated at the front of the bow. Ares eyes gets wider in surprise as Zoilas draws the empty bow string as if he is about to release an arrow, small winds twirls like a very small cyclone forming near the bow and the bow''s string of Zoilas. The air takes the form of a solid arrow, an arrow of compressed and pressured air pierces Ares again and this time strongly. The weapons of soldiers and Captains are in different league. That is what differentiates a captain from his squadron, Ares bleeds as his chest is pierced with two arrows, he breathes heavily and stands still without moving a muscle in his body. The dark clouds in the sky started to rumble in thunder as if the gods were angry, right on cue the rain begin to fall from the sky, small bands of rain drops felt warm to Ares as he gets drenched it''s as if he is being hugged by the warmth of the heavens. Zoilas draws his bow string back to shoot another one of his arrow. *"Please hear my wish Ares, protect the village"* *"My daughters can''t live a day without me, I will go back to them soon and there will be no further raids from Caracus, my daughters can have a peaceful life unlike me"* *"You guys are our responsibility, we will go to war with you"* Ares remembers the words of Alex and Edward and the villagers rushing back inside his ears as he is exhausted. Zoilas shoots his arrow which pierced the rain drops in its way creating a path to itself into Ares. "AARGH!!!" Ares''s whole body is filled with rage, his eyes turns red and he lets out a cry as he swings his sword that is emitting green colored light. The power released from that one swing of Ares''s sword nullified the arrow that Zoilas shot, let alone the arrow the rain itself is delayed for a moment with a very strong wind released from the spot Ares is standing. "Sni... Snipers fast!" Zoilas shouts without wasting any moment. Another shot of lightning sniper is fired at Ares. This time the lightning traveled from cloud to cloud gathering more electricity all concentrated at one spot, above Ares. The sniper and Zoilas instantly knew that this lightning from the steel dark clouds is 10 times more ,powerful than the previous one and they are assured this will be an overkill. Ares removes the stones from his sword''s handgrip, which is covered in white cloth, the whole sword shines divinely as though the soul of sword is visible. "God arts - Heaven''s Arsenal" Ares utters the words calmly as the lightning drops on him. Edited by - Aysel Inara. * * * * [Iaido technique- Japanese art of sword drawing technique which involves in drawing the sword out, killing the enemy and replace the sword back inside your scabbard.] [Fraggers - assaulter''s with guns who are good at aiming and pushing onto the enemy with strategical methods.] 21 Good Bye "God Arts - Heaven''s Arsenal." Ares says with a calm and cocky voice. "~~~!" Without a warning a spear shaped thunderbolt as if it was made of a soul appears beside Ares and goes upwards piercing through the lightning made from sniper rifle, right above Ares in an instant. The huge lightning fired by the sniper is scattered throughtout the sky which was in wrath, to fragments and even the dark smoke like clouds in the sky were scoured like dust dispersion . It was an unimaginable power, the spear is as powerful as the lightning bolt of Zeus, with enough energy to split up the earth. It''s not over yet, the katana that Ares is holding seems to be shining brightly aming the bleak atmosphere while emitting pieces of soul fragments. Those soul fragments are taking the form of weapons, after a while the sword in Ares''s hand disappeared completely leaving an insane amount of weapons of every kind a spear, straight sword, trident, arrows, dagger, staff, bident which is a two-pronged version of trident, hammer, crescent axe, scythe, spiked cudgel, mace, Dacian Flax, club, javelin and many more other weapons around Ares. Glowing and aimed, seemed to be made of the soul of sword and are emitting heavenly aura as if the Gods granted Ares those gifts, bestowing their blessings in white radiance of divine weapons. It''s almost like all the weapons used by heaven''s guardian surrounded Ares assembling in a sphere like structure around him. Zoilas is more than scared at his wit end. His pants are wet like he peed himself as he witnessed the power that resembled the Gods. -*"Wh- whaa- what i-i-n-in the world is this? Are all those weapons made of his spiritual power, all alone?"* Zoilas stuttered terrified as his mind tried to process out what he just saw. "NOT EVEN THE FIVE STAR GENERAL WHO IS HAILED AS THE ONLY MORTAL THAT CAN RIVAL GODS, POSSESSED SUCH POWER!" Zoilas shouts loudly as he trembles and whimpers in fear acknowledging his end. *Swoosh~~* all the weapons around Ares out of nowhere are released and are shot toward the soldiers at a very fast pace. The weapons travelled piercing the air at an enormous speed like a huge storm of light sweeping away an entire city. Before Zoilas could grab a hold of the situation , all the soldiers along with rest of Caracus villagers have been cut down, thrashed and decapitated like something invisible slaughtered them all. Zoilas is the only person now standing alive in the entirely vast stretched cemetery along with Ares. Zoilas immediately runs towards Ares like a coward, without any pride he kneel and begs Ares to spare his life. The arrogant man ran for his life, turning from a lion into a mouse. "Ares, Ares please I have a family. I never wanted to do this from the first. I was forced by the higher up''s I''m from Aztec not Agartha, really. I''m one of the ground support regiment. Please let me live Ares... please" Zoilas keep blabbering Ares all sort of excuses that came into his mind repeatedly, to make Ares take mercy on him, but Ares whose heart had completely turned into a blood pumping machine devoid of emotions, gazes down upon Zoilas with a grin- dark expression and no emotion can be sense from him at that moment. "Cut your neck off by yourself, it will be an easy death." Ares mocks Zoilas as he did with Edward, without any trace of softness. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "You won''t get away with just this! you will know how big of a mistake you are doing! You don''t even know who is involved in this." Zoilas threatens angrily once he was so sure of dying a horrible death, setting a symbol of terror for generations. A spears runs down on the head of Zoilas from his temple and comes out splitting his body into two. while he is on ground with a thump. "GoodBye" Ares says as he looks up at the sky, thinking about all the villagers and his friends that died here. And also the thought of soldiers crossed his mind that he killed mercilessly. He looked sad as if he didn''t wanted to kill anybody, as they too had their own families. *Meanwhile in Mindoro a couple of hours earlier* "Mars! the skies rumbling and I definitely heard something big, I doubt a huge bomb is dropped at the shore in the direction of Edward and our men, the place they were camping at." A guard from Mindoro wakes up Mars by jerking him ranting with a rather surprising news. "Chiefff!!! Chieffff!!!!! I saw a blast , heavy smoke and I saw the trees and woods withering after the huge blast. Something wrong is definitely going down there. Let me go chief!" Gus who has run here worrisome requests to the already surprised Mars in paniced state. "Guards! prepare for us to leave, gather all the men in the village, we''re gonna head out to our brothers and lend them a hand!" Mars commands his men of what they should be doing immediately. It''s a panic in village. Every family of the warrior that went to assist Caracus along with Ares are in desperation to hear any news from them or to go along with Mars to see what had happened to their loved ones. Mars and the guards had to delay their departure to calm the villagers down. The wife of Edward stares at the crimson moon while worrying about her husband while the two daughters laid sleeping in her arms soundly. The crimson moon is naturally defined as a sign of massacre in some places, a very bad omen. This makes her even more worried about the well-being of her husband. "Chief I will be heading out first, I will be fast with my pulleys." Gus says the words and heads out without stopping to listen to what Mars had to suggest . "This kid, never listen to us! He is heading out in the dark without worrying about his own safety!" Mars shakes his head in frustration and yells at Gus and sets out to the shore of the battle following the lead of Gus. *"I''m sure of it, Ares will win, he will be standing and protecting my villagers. Tanya, Albert and Alex used to make fun of me for worrying about Ares. And Yang would keep his grumpy face on and ask me about Tisha. Alrightyyy!! Ares, here I come.* Gus murmurs to himself , unsure of what was ahead of him while he is set on the way to the battle scene. *"It''s now or never, it''s finally time for us to end our fued''s with Caracus. We will become brother in arms now, everything will be peaceful once tonight passes by."* Mars thinks about the well being of his villagers and bonds with other villages while on his way not knowing what lies ahead of him. *Coming back to the shore of battle in the present* A group of 5 whips with a sharp spearheads tied to their tails suddenly pierces the flesh of Ares from the backside. The whips sprouted from his chest. Ares couldn''t help but notice how familiar the whips are to his eyes, It''s as if he knew the familiar weapon used many times before by someone who fought alongside him since he became the captain. Edited by - Aysel Inara. 22 A Spy? "I- I see, so that''s how it is Tanya. You were a member from Zoilas squad? Ha ha" Ares chuckled and coughs blood as he turns around to face her. Tanya stands with a different attire than her soldier dress and is giving a really cold look towards Ares as her hand grips on the whip sword in her hand. She pulls the whip sword back slashing the flesh of Ares from inside. She looks very dominating and no traces of emotion can be seen from her cold aura. "Don''t hold a grudge on me in your afterlife Ares, I''m not a spy of other nation. What Zoilas uttered in pure fear is true. He is from Aztec I''m his messenger, I was ordered to do this." Tanya says to Ares without any hint of remorse or sadness in her tone. "I see, so it''s our own generals that wants me dead? I see. Anyway, I''m happy that atleast you are alive of our squad Tanya... *Coughh!!* I''m happy, but don''t go after the village." Ares says with relief as his body falls to the ground. Tanya was not ready for the words, she just cut this man''s flesh and yet he still was treating her as his friend and forgave her? Is the reliever expression on his face denotes that he is happy to die in her hands so that he won''t kill more people in his future as he rank up in the military? "We agreed to wipe out Mindoro as a part of our deal with the Caracus village. The deal happened when the Caracus saw our power, when we wiped out Sable as our first target. Caracus after witnessing our powers begged to be spared and that they will help us in killing you and in return we burn Mindoro to ashes. But, now that the caracus is wiped out, I don''t care about Mindoro anymore. Still I didn''t think it would come down to me to kill you, you are too powerful." Tanya tells to Ares with a tear falling from the side of her eyes and she turns her face away from Ares to not let him see her tears dropping. Sable was wiped out at first to see the weapons and the powers the people use on this island. And for the good of the soldiers the Islanders only use natural weapons without any strategies. However Caracus witnessed the power of Zoilas and his army and they beg Zoilas to spare them in exchange, they need to help Zoilas kill Ares. Both of the parties agreed to it and sent an official and guards to Mindoro to lure them by asking them for their help, but after witnessing the power of Ares in Mindoro against the guard with the blade who was about to kill Gus, the soldiers and villagers of caracus came up with a plan of Making the Mindoro and Ares wait for days and nights without any sleep. They try to gain Mindoro''s trust, make them weak and make them drop their guards against them and then they would begin the slaughtering of Mindoro as per their plan, taking advantage of sleepless soldiers who has lost their ability to think and fight due to dizziness and attacking at the most unexpected time. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Ares lays on the ground lifeless, Tanya walks up to him, sits on her knees, grabs and places the head of Ares on her lap and brushes his hair while her tears keep rolling down on the face of Ares. "It was hard on me Ares, forgive me.. forgive me.. forgive me." Tanya begs for a few minutes and she then wipe away any traces of her tears from her face and then leaves the island to report the successful plan of wiping out Ares with the whole island. Mars, Gus and the rest arrive at the scene of horror and are left in disbelief. There are corpses of more than 1000 people lying on the ground with blood under their feet. Gus pulls himself together and starts searching for Ares and his villagers desperately believing that they are alive. *"They are alive, they are alive, why am I getting sad at seeing this. They are really alive, because they have Ares with them. He will keep them alive no matter what"* Gus was having a panic attack, but he keeps running and searching wildly hoping to not be wrong and giving himself the courage to believe all of his people were alive among the piles of dead bodies. His leg stumbled upon a metal. It was the sword of Ares. The cloth wrapped around the sword is shredded and the sword lost all of it''s divine brightness and it looks like a dull katana which cannot even cut a piece of paper. Gus eyes searches for nearby area and he comes across Alex lying dead with a smile on his face and beside him is Albert and Yang. A few feet away from them is Edward, his face shows how scared and full of regret he was before dying. Gus couldn''t hold himself together and cries out loud uncontrollably. Mars and the villagers who just reaches the battlefield were heart broken at the sight of what they witnessed and are left speechless. The eyes of Gus suddenly catches something as he opens once more to make sure this wasn''t a dream "huh?" The eyes of Gus catches a glimpse of something - "HE IS ALIVEE! COME HERE! I CAN FEEL HIS PULSE." Gus shouts out desperately. 23 Strange Phenomenon *Coming back to present* . . . . Gus is narrating the story to Faust and seems to be a witness as he explains it. And as usual, Faust is imagining himself in the place of the hero with a shiny armour and Godly powers. He fantasized himself as invincible warrior. "The 15 yr/o boy (Gus referring to himself while narrating to Faust.) has found the wounded warrior is still alive and bought him back to the village for treatment, but the superhero Ares who taught him how to fight with sword is neither found nor his body was, in the whole area and also same thing with his female friend Tanya. It has been a dark day in the lives of the village people." Gus continues to narrates the story to Faust and then he snaps back from the story due to a supernatural thing occurring suddenly in his home. Faust who seemed to be lost in the story and is reacting weirdly to what he had heard of the atrocities done by the nations to the peaceful lives of villagers. His expressions changed greatly without himself knowing and then suddenly something also seemed to be queer- wrong with the animals in the room. There isn''t a single breeze or swirl, but the clothes and hair of Faust are unsettling and clacking around. The eyes of Faust are straight blood red and flecks of green shining brightly. The animals in the house seems to be panicked and some of them even seemed to be bowing down as if they''re witnessing a higher form of all living beings and some seemed to be hopping around terrified as if they sensed great fear and alarming danger coming to their direction. Gus astonishingly doesn''t seem to be in much surprise, rather the expression on his face says "why did it appear again?" As if he has already witnessed this side of Faust before. "FAUST!!" Gus shouts while he shook Faust violently by grabbing his shoulders to snap him back to his senses. "Ah grandpa", Faust snap back to reality like he has no idea of what happened just a while ago and he questions innocently, "what happened to Ares grandpa? Tell me more." Gus who sighs in relief that Faust is back to normal replies back him calmly with a bold voice "Nobody knows what happened to him, and that''s all I know, go to sleep now. You have school tomorrow." Gus rarely makes a serious face, not only when he is with Faust but even when they have to protect the animals from poachers. Gus deals with them with a smile on his face and by speaking humbly. However tonight, he seemed really serious even though he tried to remain calm to Faust, a little guilt could be seen hinted on his face. *"You are about to learn everything Faust, I will tell you what lies in this nation and in the heart''s of the people that rules it. I will tell you everything when you grow up so you can understand this fully"* Gus murmurs to himself, starring at Faust while patting him to sleep. That night is a never ending darkness for Gus as he sit wide awake all night, gazing at the starry sky,one could tell how much Gus is deeply lost in thoughts, by a glance on his face. What am I supposed to do ?my grandson needs help, how can I ever contain such a kid in this village ? I do not want to live upto theday where he might loose control and end up killing everyone in the village. There might be a cure. I need to find one real soon. Thoughts of regrets infused with agitated thoughts seems to be humming and buzzing through in Gus''s head. And in that dark night he searches for answers while holding an old antique look alike sword in his lap. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. In the morning Gus drops Faust at school. The thing that happened with Faust last night is still bothering Gus and he couldn''t sleep the whole night because of that sensing of some fear. "Ah Faust, we came to school at same time, let''s go in together." Tim leaped from behind on his shoulder and surprised Faust with sudden touch. "Grandpa, I''ll go now. See you in the evening" Tim ebbs to tell his grandpa. " let''s go together Tim and oh Grandpa Tian, good morning! how is Grandma Tisha doing? Wish her good health on my behalf, I''ve to go now." Faust chips to Tim''s grandfather, Tian. And rushes inside with Tim. "Take good care of yourself Faust." Tian yells to Faust and as he was about to leave, his eyes meets Gus. "Oh Gus, how are you doing? It''s been a long time. I wanna thank you again for protecting the flaura and fauna of our island." Tian thanks to Gus holding his hands. Tian, the person who married Tisha greets Gus as if they have known each other from a long time... "Ahhh Yang!" Gus calls Yang too. Edited by - Aysel Inara. 24 Adventure "Ah Yang!! It''s been a long time". Gus says to the old Yang, who now has lost one of his arm during the big war which have taken place long ago and it left him almost nothing more than a dead body as he was desperately trying to catch his last breathe, but then he was miraculously saved at the last minute by Gus. If Gus didn''t see Yang breathing in between the dead bodies, he would have definitely died or buried alive. But thanks to Gus, Yang made it back to the village. He lost an arm, but Yang who was always courageous never let that put him down because after all he still got his lover and so he later chose to stay at Mindoro just for Tisha. Yang later, with his power and knowledge of outer world taught the people of Mindoro about some of the technology used in their times and taught them how to fight soon he was made the chief of the village after Mars passed away, he married Tisha and now Tim is the grandson of Yang Yi Tian and Tisha. Gus and Yang reminisce their past and spend their time together until evening and goes to school together to pick up their beloved grandsons. After coming home, Faust leaves for the woods with Bella and comes home with a wooden stick. He pretends to be a swordsman as he was inspired by his grandpa''s story and he kept practicing by hitting trees as if he was slashing it like how Ares did. Gus takes a look at Faust and giggles to himself seeing the silly swordplay of Faust. "Faust, if you want to become a real swordsman you need to have a strong body, so increase ur stamina rather than swinging sword from the start." Gus gives an advice to Faust sensing his determination. "Ohhhhhh grandpa, you perhaps know how to become a swordsman? Teach me grandpa please teach meeee!" Faust begs Gus with puppy eyes to teach him how to become a swordsman, pleadingly. "I don''t know how to teach you Faust I don''t even know how to hold a sword myself." Gus tells to Faust while smiling. Gus still treats Faust like a baby and adores him, because Faust is like a treasure to Gus and that''s what has been keeping him alive so far. He doesn''t want to teach Faust of any swordplay that potentially puts Faust''s life in danger when he will grow up. "Hmmmm but strong stamina huh." Faust leaves for the woods with Bella following his lead. He tries to bend and break every branch that he comes across, he tries to pick and push heavy stones, he trains himself the way in which he thought would make him strong, he tries to climb the grassy terrains and mountains with aims high as the will. Faust keeps repeating this everyday, after he comes home from school. He keeps going into woods and goes deeper everyday. He discovered small animals and many different kinds of birds with variety of colored flowers along his way. [After a few days] "So I''m thinking of a new way to train our bodies, let''s keep going deeper into the woods and discover the island and while doing that it would increase our strength and stamina." Faust plans Nick, Roy and Tim to which his friends all agreed willingly without any further arguments. So Faust and his friends all together decided to go for an adventure into the woods after school one day. Faust ventures deeper into the woods like never before as his friends are with him and he is not scared since he is around more people today. As everyone keeps moving forward Faust realises he was too soft or too easy going in his life until now, he thought that everyone other than him will get stumbled across the dense forest and branches and hills and up slides since it''s their first time, but the three really crossed the obstacles easily without any problem. Faust is really scared with those things at first, he now realised that he is not brave enough to get familiar enough to these kinds of things in his life before. "Dammit am I weak amongst my friends? No way wait until this super duper Faust crosses all of you all." Faust muddled to himself and gives out a smile from the corner of his mouth. But very soon the super duper Faust is stumbled across a very small narrow valley with two stones to cross to get to the other side of the mountain. Nick leaped in one jump and Roy and Tim crossed it with the stones leaving Faust hella scared of the rocky path. The stones seemed wet. He timidly thinks to himself that *what if I slip on the stones and fall in the water or in the bush of thorn that is right beside the stones*. Tim realised Faust is terrified and offered him his hand, Faust is still not able to take a step further . Tim then step back to one rock to reach Faust. He stands on the rock firmly and stretched his hand back to Faust telling to grab on and be brave, then Nick and Roy also stretched their hands assuring Faust that there is no danger. After being able to cross that mini valley with the help of all three and gathering the confidence all the four pals came across what seems to be like Rocky territory with lots of caves and dens. Tim notices foot marks of animals and the branches and rocks near by have scratches, bites and Tim immediately realizes that this new territory is scary and he asked for all of them to go back the way they came here. "Guys I don''t think this is safe, we should all go back now" Tim says timidly. Faust who seems to be intrigued by what they find wants to explore more, but when Tim stopped him saying it''s dangerous, he frowned not seeming to be happy and satisfy by the little adventure trip. He wants to go even more beyond the dens, but he listens to Tim and they all went back home. "How are you pulling it off? Are you strong now? " Gus asks Faust in a mocking tone with a smirk on his face when Faust finally reaches home with his friends. "Ahhhhhh grandpa, I''m cooler than you think yo, I crossed a big valley on stones all by myself and I beat up bears on my way, don''t underestimate me." Faust lies as if he wanted to sound cool. Nick, Roy and Tim standing behind Faust applause in slow motion with embarrassed faces because of Faust''s obvious storytelling . "Haha that is good, I can see my grandson becoming a warrior in front of my eyes." Gus plays along with Faust as he smiled at him mischievously. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. *"So it''s because of his grandpa that Faust lies and try to make himself sound cool"* Nick and the rest thinks in their heads. "Okay we will be heading home now Faust, see you later." Nick says to Faust. "Ah ok guys we will meet again tomorrow." Faust says as he leave. "Hold on a second Faust. We''re not going to come from tomorrow, we have some works and we are getting trained by our fathers, so this is our last exploration. Let''s do it some other day when we four are free." Tim tells to Faust dismissing the idea of wandering. "Training? What kind of training?" Faust asks in surprise and feels down because he realizes he doesn''t have a dad like his friends. "Well I''m training about hunting with my dad who is a hunter and then Nick is training to get strong to become a guard like his dad and Roy is learning about strategies and laws in this island, so we''re pretty busy." Tim replies to Faust and takes his leave while smiling at Faust cool-ly. *"Hmm I don''t have a father to train me, I guess I need to train myself the same way from tomorrow. I''m gonna see what''s in the dens."* Faust thinks to himself. "Oh by the way I forgot to say Faust, don''t go to those dens again. If I''m not wrong those dens looks like like a pack of wolves live there which are very strong. We saw how it''s claws ripped the branches and rocks. So do not go to that place again. Tim rushes back to warn Faust about that mysterious place and then leaves finally. Edited by - Aysel Inara 25 A Coward Grandpa I''m going to train in the woods, me and Bella will be back by dinner time." Regardless of Tim''s warnings, Faust ventures inside the woods on the very next day after school with his husky Bella.In search for answers which were causing him an unsettling itching. "Okay, be careful on your way and don''t beat up any bears today. They won''t be able to stand such a power of yours." Gus says playfully to Faust carrying his play further. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Faust takes along his wooden sword he got from the forest yesterday and heads into the woods, the soil is moist today and the grass just took a bath. The plants and flowers due to the faint moisture of dew drops has become wet and are emitting sweet pungent scent with piney odor in every molecule of air, that you breathe is so refreshing to tired soul and elevating the dull moods, boosting the energy and soothing the nerves at the same time, it''s a joyous and calming atmosphere. Faust proceeded further inhaling deeper with refreshing new energy and positivity. He managed to cross all the obstacles that made him quit and scared yesterday , but today he just felt like it was his day and Gods were on his side. His friends are training and working on strengthening their body , he felt like he need to be strong in order to not loose his face to their friends. As he walked, he finally reached the Rocky terrains again which contained the caves and dens. Faust is mesmerized by the beauty of the terrain but as he walked a little further, he sniffed blood, a strong stench of smell gushed inside his nose. He couldn''t help but notice stains and drops of blood on the ground and also blood marks due to dragging traced inside the caves and dens which is as if someone dead was dragged or there''s a bleeding living being inside the den breathing his last. *Chirp~~* Faust heart stopped beating when he heard a chirping sound and breaking of twigs from behind. *"What? There is no one who could followed me, why did I hear the noise? Am I hallucinating due to fear of being alone ?"* Bella suddenly turns back as Faust keep wondering and ebbing, she takes a defensive stand and starts growling in a low voice while her tail is tucked in between her legs - *"huh? Why is Bella growling, is there somebody behind us?"* Faust is petrified and does not want to turn back to see what was behind him *Groan~* Faust felt hot air touching his neck like someone was breathing so close, he becomes terrified. The groan is almost like a warning for Faust. Bella who kept growling for awhile, started to cower and her growl became feeble but one groan from the creature behind Faust was audible enough. Faust regains his strength and turns back slowly, his eyes first landed upon the four limbs. The paw of this freaking creature is almost as big as a newborn human baby. Faust slowly slides his gaze upwards, to see what was in front of him. A well built, tall adult black luna towered almost 6 feet and bigger than most humans was standing with eyes darted on Faust . The Amber like eyes of it are like a burning fire, the stare that the wolf gives is as if almost it is looking into your soul before ripping off skin. Bella started to bark to divert its attention as the luna steps closer to Faust. Faust is trembling and was not able to move a muscle, the wolf however does not care about Bella or it''s surroundings, its gaze is only fixed upon Faust. The way the wolf looks at Faust is so intimidating and dangerous that Faust could not even blink his eyes, afraid the wolf will attack him at anytime if he did any movement . The wolf''s head was lowered to Faust, yet its nose is tilted up to sniff him up and down sensing if faust was alive or dead. It''s canines and tongue are covered with saliva dripping off and it''s jaws are dark red as if it just tore down a chunk of meat before finding another prey. *"Omgg it''s going to freaking eat me, move my stupid body. Moveee!!!"* Faust desperately keeps telling his frozen body to move an inch, because he doesn''t want to become the wolf''s meal at any cost. In the intense pressure, Faust gathers enough courage and decided to either be the wolf''s dinner or try to save his sorry ass with whatever he got on him. Faust hold onto his wooden sword that he had with him from the beginning, firmly and he swings it. His hand moved automatically and landed a hard blow with all his might on the wolf''s face. *Back at Faust''s house* "Hello grandpa Gus, where is Faust? I came to play with him." Tim who just finished his training with his father arrives to Faust''s home and questions Gus about Faust''s whereabouts since he didn''t see Faust showing up anywhere in the fields. "Ah Tim, Faust went into the woods to play, you can wait inside for him, it''s almost time for him to come home, would you like a pastry till then? I just got done baking some for Faust. The frosting is fresh too."Gus replies smiling without knowing the life threatening situation out there. Tim pauses for a second and immediately realizes where Faust has gone to "No grandpa ! Faust is in danger! he went to the Rocky terrains into the wolves territory!" Tim exclaims as his brows creased hurriedly with tension on his face. "What? How did he know about that place? Isn''t he just playing with small animals?" Gus is panicked-shocked upon hearing this. He knows more than anyone as an animal caretaker that once you walk into the wolves territory, you won''t make it out alive unless a miracle happens, of course. "Tim, you stay here." Gus tell Tim and rushes into the woods towards Faust without even intending to stop, piercing though the sharp branches as thorns grazes his skin while he runs inside the thick woods. *Back to Faust* The blow didn''t even graze the wolf nor did any harm, the wolf didn''t even shook it''s head. For wolf it was like a fly that just landed on its nose. Deep rumbles came from the throat of the wolf, it''s ears were pulled forward and lips were tucked back. What initially seemed to be a rumble now suddenly turned into growl and the wolf stands on its hind-legs with it''s paw drawn back as if it''s getting ready to pounce on little Faust. "Ah! My arm!" Faust shouts out loudly thinking the wolf had got him. *"What happened, I''m still alive, how?"* Faust thought to himself and looks in the direction of wolf as he thought of just becoming a wolf''s meal. "NO!!!! Bella!!!!" Faust is dumbstruck as he witnesses Bella pinned down under the paw of the big wolf. Bella who realizes that Faust is not moving his legs, jumps in between Faust and the wolf and she pushes Faust back for safety. "No Bellaaa!!!." Faust shouts out with tears and stretches his wooden sword out with both of his hands and rushes forward to the wolf intending to attack and save Bella from the it''s claws. "Let Bella go, or you will die!" Faust says timidly with his wooden sword gripped tight and ready to land a blow in anger. The wolf while it''s head is tilted down, raises it''s vicious and hungry eyes towards Faust, it''s saliva keeps dripping onto Bella. *"No, I don''t want to die, I don''t want to die." Faust realizing how weak he is and considering his critical situation immediately turns his back on Bella and runs out of the woods with his tears running down on cheeks. Edited by - Aysel Inara. 26 Tensions Bella lying under the claw of the wolf helplessly stops struggling and looks at Faust helplessly. The sight of Faust running back into woods, leaving her behind shatters the huskies heart greatly. Bella whimpers in a feeble growl, she doesn''t want to believe that Faust is leaving her without even glancing back. She whines and cries desperately in a low voice for Faust to feel her desperation. Faust halts after hearing Bella''s cries, but he is such a weak boy that he doesn''t look back and keeps his pace into the woods while wiping his tears away with his palms. This breaks Bella''s heart even more as she sees Faust leaving her to get killed by the wolf. Using the last of her strength Bella tries to move and cries loudly, her eyes becomes small and squinty with water filling the sockets but she keeps struggling to push the claw of the wolf back to slip away. The wolf, however balances all of it''s body weight on its front legs and stands hard even more firmly on Bella without even budging a little bit of his strength leaving no vent for the air to gasp for little husky. *"I''m sorry Bella. I''m a coward, I''m weak, I couldn''t even save you. I''m so sorry Bella."* Faust cries inside while he whines loudly, guilt overcoming for not saving the poor soul. Bella''s barking was echoing in his head. "Faust!!!" Gus who came into the woods to search for Faust suddenly stumbles upon him. "Faust!!! Are you ok? Are you hurt?" Gus asks Faust quickly. He was worried to death as he searches for any sign of injures on his body. Faust''s ears and nose turns red and tears keep rolling down off his face - "grandpa!!! bel- bella- I left Bella back there." Faust holds the waist of Gus and hugs him tightly as he breaks down crying his arms. Gus grits his teeth in disbelief of what Faust has done "Faust, stay here, I will go to bring Bella back." Gus strictly chips to Faust and as he was about to leave, Faust did not have any intention of letting him leave and holds onto him tightly. "Grandpa, stay with me grandpa, I''m scared, don''t leave me please, wahhh." Faust cries while holding the wisp of his shirt,without considering about Bella at all. Gus is really pissed with this behavior of Faust. "LET GO Faust!!" Gus yells. "Bella can''t even talk or cry others for help and you are asking me not to go rescue her?" Gus is furious at Faust, he shook Faust''s hands off him and heads towards the Rocky terrains, but Gus suddenly pauses his step without turning around to face Faust and says to him loudly is disappointed. "Faust you can take care of yourself now, don''t cry this weak." Gus says to Faust with a hint of dismay and he continues forward to rescue Bella. Gus knows that he is the reason that Faust became who he is right now. A coward, because Gus was too soft on his bringing up. Faust knows this was true and he wipes his tears off and musters up his courage to trail behind Gus. Bella was trembling and shaking, but her cry had no strength in it. Her flesh was torn off by thewolf''s powerful claws, her fur is dirty as if she had been kicked like a fur ball. The wolf had lot of fun with it''s prey, and now it held Bella in-between it''s teeth as if it was going to throw Bella in the air for fun game and had no intention of letting her die off so quickly. "How dare you hurt Bella!!" Gus was instantly mad seeing Bella in such a state. He dashed forward in a swift motion,grabs the wooden sword left there by Faust and launches a powerful blow on the neck of the wolf. The wolf did not expect it, the blow was so powerful that the fur of the wolf where the stick made contact with falls down onto the ground like a fluttering feather and a red mark is visible on the wolf, it took some time for the luna to gain her senses back and she land an attack on Gus. Before the wolf could lift her claw, Gus launched another powerful blow on the forehead of the wolf. The wolf bit her tongue in between teeth as she had no control over the blow that just hit her. The wolf''s vision got blurredbecoming dizzy. She couldn''t even stand on her four limbs. It was frowning as it''s legs were shaking and the big wolf fell down on the groundhard with a howl that could be heard loudly from miles away. "So strong" Faust who was watching all this from inside the woods is surprised by what Gus did. *"The wolf which is huge and almost 6 foot which could bite even bones was taken down in just 2 blows. How amazing is that?!* Faust thinks to himself as he starts to admire his grandpa even more. *Ahhhhh woooooo!!~~* the wolf lets out another big howl, but this time it last even longer and louder. The proud wolf stops her howling and stares at face reflecting in the eyes, showing her dominance to Gus. She did not intend to let Gus go freely after he lands Lethal blows on her. Gus takes Bella, wraps his shirt around her body so that she doesn''t loose more blood and runs back into the woods hurriedly as he can. "Ahhhhhwwooooo!!!~~~" suddenly several other howls can be heard back. "Dammit they came this fast?" Gus hears a howl of a wolf and turns back to face whatever is behind him. Faust and Gus are beyond belief, there are 7 wolves in front of them beside the wounded wolf and there are 6 wolves on top of the highest cliffbehind them and soon the wolf who just got taken down by Gus, gets back up in her feet and join her pack. All of the wolves are big, but except for one wolf that really stood out the most catches the eyes of Gus. It was on the cliff and it stands in the middle of all six wolves like he was the leader, he is at least 8 feet tall with a bushy tail which is almost half a meter long. It''s ivory canine and steel like claws are looking like a deadly weapons. It can bite a head of a human in a snap, yet Gus did not seem like he''s afraid. "Faust, take Bella and run to the village, I will be behind you." Gus gives instruction to Faust and walks towards the pack of wolves calmly. "Huh?" Faust is quizzical , how can Gus walk into the pack of 14 wolves without any protection or a weapon? "Raka! it''s me Gus, do you remember me?" Gus shouts out surprisingly to the 8 feet wolf while he stretches his hand forward as a sign of saying he''s no harm to the wolves. The pack of wolves were all growling lowly but yet, aren''t taking a step forward as the 8 feet wolf is walking down the cliff. It demonstrated it''s dominance among other wolves. The big wolf, walks up in front of all the others and stands right opposite to Gus. "You have become so big huh? Haha you must be leading all the other wolves. Do you remember my voice? I saved you when you were a little cub, look at you all grown up." Gus says with a friendly smiling face. Raka appears to be really calm, it doesn''t lower his head up to Gus as if it was full of pride, but he seems to not be harmful for now and Gus was relieved for that. The big wolf looks at the wounded wolf, who now fell back down to the ground beside him as if this time even her ego couldn''t help her stand the strong blow for long. Gus senses a little tension in the air as to how Raka is growling and seeming unsettled. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Raka without a warning swings it''s claw at Gus all of a sudden, piercing the flesh of Gus''s left shoulder. Gus was in disbelief by this sudden deadly blow. Edited by - Aysel Inara 27 Deadly Blow "Grandpaaa!!" Faust is scared to his wits while clutching Bella tight and witnessing his grandpa getting slashed right in front of his eyes. "Faust, why are you still here? Just run back to the village. I''m alright!" Gus shouts as he grits his teeth while holding his left shoulder tight, hoping to stop the bleeding while he was down, kneeling on one of his knees. Bella is bigger than Faust, he is not able to carry her and he is worried if Bella''s wounds will tear open more if he dragged her to village. And his grandpa is fighting on the thin thread of life and death with the wolves, Faust doesn''t know what to do at all. His head is spinning and he is in anxiety breakdown. *"Dammit! I was careless, the claw reached deep and cut down my tendons, I can''t use my left arm anymore and there are 13 wolves standing in front of me"* Gus muddled to himself while taking deep breaths to calm himself. *"If only I have any enhancements with me right now aghhhh"* Gus stressfully thinks and gets up on both of his feet, grabs the wooden sword tightly getting ready to fight to death with the wolves. As his chances of slipping were reduced to none. Enhancements that Gus wish he had with him are the elemental stones of different attribute. Each stone here have its own element hidden within them. Humans started using these elemental stones to enhance their physical properties greatly at the time of wars. The elemental stones were used until now are a red stone which looks like a garnet that consists bombarding nature hidden within it. The red stone can help the user to release fire power from small to large merging with the spiritual power the warrior has. And the green stone that looks like a sapphire gem. The green stone contains the air element within it, any user can manipulate the air to their comfort and produce strong winds or gusts. It can also help in enhancing arrows, spears, cross bows and javelins making the tool travel fast with the aid from air. Also, the purple stone, looks like a purple ruby which can call thunders and lighting in a second. In addition there are more stones which no one had learnt about yet. And these elemental stones when equipped to a weapon which was made specially for you is called enhancements. That Gus wished for. On the side of Faust, he seems to be overwhelmed by his emotions. *"Coward, stupid body, coward heart. I''m the most useless thing ever. I let Bella get hurt and now grandpa too. I should have listened to Tim, why did I ever come here in the first place?* *why was I so stupid and scared for my life? Why can''t I just be brave enough to save people?* Faust questions himself repeatedly and cries over how frantic he was. *"Brave superhero my butt. I couldn''t even do anything, I''m no super hero. I''m not even a human. Grandpa, I''m really sorry. I''m so scared right now, I''m sorry I''m so Worthless."* Faust keeps blaming himself over and over with agony and guilt building up inside him. He was having a hard time in breathing as if something was choking him from inside and nothing seems like it will be able to save him. *Lick~* "Huh? Bell-la?" Faust quizzically gazes as stops crying suddenly. Bella who sensed how frantic Faust was being, licks his fingers while she could barely open her eyes, breathing shallower. Even after being left and abandoned by Faust, Bella faithfully licks the fingers of Faust as if she was assuring him that he is not alone. *"Bella, even you... To comfort me, dammit!"* Faust curls his fist and watches Gus silently as his eyes seems to be changing slowly. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. All the wolves have spread out and circled Gus, like they circle their prey without giving Gus any chance to get away. Before he realises Gus is being attacked from all sides. The wolves bared their fangs as they charge towards Gus to land lethal blows on him and Gus barely dodges two sharp steel like claws at the expense of his life. All this while Raka is behind all the wolves, it''s head is laying low and he is taking a very slow and stealthy steps waiting for a perfect opportunity to land a fatal blows onto Gus. Gus is unaware of Raka as he is desperately fighting being occupied with other wolves without noticing Raka and realizing his motives. *"Dammit these wolves are well coordinated to hunt their prey, they are not giving me a chance to catch my breathe. Come on now, let this old man catch his breathe and settle down. My muscles are sore, this is a great stress adding into my body. I need to find a way out of this and run away with Faust"* As Gus assembles something in his mind talking to himself. "Woooshh~" suddenly a shadow appears in the sky in front of the wolves that are attacking Gus and lands a blow on one of the wolf that is about to dash onto Gus. The shadow landed a powerful punch on the face of the wolf, it was such a jabbering touch of death that the jaws of the wolf got dislocated and the it was gushing blood out of his mouth. Its limbs seems to be trembling and not being able to hold on to the ground. The wolf lost it''s composure and collapses onto the ground like an empty soul. Edited by - Aysel Inara 28 Inevitable "Huh? Faust ?" Gus is in disbelief. Faust who is at least 20 feet away from him and the wolves, suddenly appeared in the front right before him? And landed such a hard blow right in its face? Kids his age won''t be able to jump 10 feet up as if they were floating in the air how is Faust who is 20 feet away appeared in the face of wolf and knocked it mercilessly! Gus becomes puzzled by the events. *Moments ago* Seeing Gus is surrounded by the wolves and the wolves are taking turns to attack him. They''re only aiming for his hamstring, tendons and joints. Not the muscle or head like this is just a game for them and they are just having fun teasing and hurting their prey. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Grandpa Raka is planning to attack you! He is right behind the wolf, he might do something. Keep your eyes on him, grandpa!!" Faust is shouting and yelling at the top of his lungs , yet his voice doesn''t seem to be reaching to Gus''s ear due to the commotion. *"Dammit, just one hit, I wish I can just land one hit on these wolves, just one hit uwahhh"* Faust thinks to himself angrily and he keep staring at a wolf which is rather enjoying tearing Gus''s flesh to pieces with it''s claws. The wolf have already made contact with Gus and tore his calve muscle once and since then it''s lust for blood has increased, it is behaving cocky as if no one could match it''s speed. It has been toying with Gus taking its turn pleasurably. Faust keeps repeating that he just wanna punch once in the face of that wolf. His breathing becomes heavy as something starts raging inside while gritting his teeth hard, his vision is getting distorted like a static in electronic devices, as if multiple dimensions are crossing over in his eyes. Suddenly he sees himself landing a blow on the face of the wolf and the wolf is gushing the blood out. He is imagining his replica appears in front of that nasty wolf and that the wolf is wounded by his replic''s punch. He is not thinking of anything else. The only thing he can think of is beating the sh*t of that wolf. Faust is visualizing without any other thoughts as he keeps concentrating. *Poofff!!~* All of a sudden, Faust is in the air and landed a powerful blow onto the wolf and the wolf gushed out drops of blood as it''s jaw gets dislocated and the wolf loses his balance and fell down to the ground. *present* *"Huh?! Is that teleportation? I didn''t see him move at all. He just appeared there as if he is from another world. Right in front of that cocky wolf and killed him in an instant blow. Is it because of how his eyes change whenever he is lost in emotions? But his eyes are somehow normal now they are not red."* Gus is dumbstruck of the event that just took place. He never got to witness Faust the way he did today. Faust falls down from the air, he couldn''t do anything about his landing and twists his ankle, falling from that height, Gus wanted to catch Faust but his leg doesn''t support him at all to move. *GRRRRR!!~~* The cocky wolf gets up back as if nothing happened. It shake off the dust off it''s fur and growls viciously immediately sending chills to Faust. *"Huh? I''m- I''m- how am I here? Did I really punch it? I''m here in the middle but what now? All the wolves are around me, I''m dead meat now. Why is the wolf not dead yet? And his jaw is looking completely fine too* Faust thinks to himself while trembling in fear sensing the huge wolves hovering over him. *Deep breathes~~~* *"It doesn''t makes sense, Faust clearly landed a blow on the wolf and it even gushed out blood and it''s jaws is dislocated, but why is it back up and is looking as good as new? What is wrong?"* Gus keeps thinking and looks at Faust, his eyes gets wider - *"his fiss-st... Faust''s fist is unscratched, he never trained with a sand bag to throw punches, if he landed a punch that dislocated the jaws of this huge wolf, his fist should be hurt because of the sudden power surge, at least it should be grazed, but even his fist looks like it never landed a blow, it''s irritating! I need to do something and then figure out what is up with faust, but before that....."* Gus becomes agitated with himself as he watches the wolves in front of him and Faust. "Sword Arts - Rapier Thrust" - Gus takes a half squat stance, his weight is well balanced in both of his feet and it looks as if he is pushing the earth with his feet. *Swisshh!!~~* Gus springs out fast and thrusts the wooden sword into the ribs of the cocky wolf. The sword thrust is insanely powerful as the penetrating waves could be seen at the tip of the wooden sword while Gus is pushing backwards the wolf with his sword in it''s chest. The big wolf all of a sudden got slammed against the wall of a cave and even the huge cave stone gets destroyed along with every bone inside the wolf is shattered to pieces, the wolf is done for good this time, there is no getting back up from it. "Live on Faust, don''t feel guilty, You fought great." - Gus immediately withdraws back with the same speed from the wolf stepping to where Faust is lying, grabbing him and rushes to the other side of the cliff and throws Faust down the slide of cliff pushing into the thick bushy forest while saying the words and smiling happily. "No Grandpa!" Faust yells loudly *"I''m weak! I''m so weak! In the end I was still protected by grandpa in the end, it hurts being so weak!* Faust''s heart was getting crushed with how weak he was, he calls himself a worthless being insistently . His eyes are fixed on the last smile of his grandpa as he slides down the cliff toward the bush faster. Edited by - Aysel Inara 29 Unexplainable Grandpa!" Faust who suddenly wakes up with a fright, tries to open his eyes slowly to see if he is alive or in a dream. He feels as though he is flying in the air, his body hasn''t touched the ground like he thought he would when he fell down the cliff from the push of Gus. He can feel the cold breeze grazing his cheeks and so he thought he must be dead and his spirit is floating in the air- *"ah I must have died due to the hard fall and I''m in afterlife"* Faust thinks to himself and he once again closes his eyes believing his once happy life is over. *Chirp chirp~~* *"Huh? It somehow feel so good, the smell of damped earth combined with old fallen leaves and the sings of bird, is this heaven? It is so calming and comfortable here."* Faust muddles and opens his eyes to hear for the beautiful sound of chirping birds. He wasn''t expecting the sight he saw once he open his eyes, he was hanging from the vines of trees. The vines coiled around his limbs making him feel like he was floating in the air, his eyes watched the green leaves rustling in the bright sky swiftly. The clothes that Faust is wearing have been shredded and blood drips due to his fall into sharp branches and he was held by the vines of the trees without hitting the ground. *Awhoooooo!! awhoooooo!!* *"What is it? What is happening?"* Faust comes back to his senses panicking and watches in the direction of the sound, his eyes seem lifeless as he sees two wolves running down the cliff and howling as if it''s a signal to the pack of wolves on the rocky mountain that they have discovered the location of Faust. *"I see, it''s basically useless trying to run away now, I was so stupid and useless today. I don''t want to create anymore chaos. I''m tired of running."* Faust thinks to himself and closes his eyes as he accepted his fate with the wolves without intending to even fight again for his life. Being an introverted kid Faust never stood up for himself, he always put below everyone and belittles his own self. No matter the situation he still apologizes to whoever he is talking to and takes the blame onto himself rather than blaming other. He accept what comes his way as his own fault and hence he closes his eyes waiting for death, letting the wolves do what they want with him since he is too tired to try and run and change his destiny. *Thud~~* *Thud~~* The body of Faust seems to resonate all of a sudden as if someone is thumping him to wake up. The wolves who were happily charging towards Faust were stopped in their trace suddenly as they faintly sense a weird aura forming around Faust. The wolves cower right away as though they have come across something they shouldn''t have. *swisshhhh!!~* The vines around the the limbs of Faust were sliced into tiny bits and Faust lands on the ground facing towards the wolves while his eyes are still closed. "Why won''t you creatures just won''t leave me alone?" Faust says in an innocent naive voice as his head tilted to the side. The atmosphere around Faust gets uneasy, the winds are increasing. The birds in the vicinity flies away leaving their nests and all the other small animals and deers run away from the presence of Faust as if a calamity is heading their way. Even the rest of the wolves and Raka on the cliff were stopped in their traces of toying with Gus and watches towards the direction of Faust and the two wolves. *Grrrrr* The wolves groans quietly and tries to come forward to Faust moving slowly. "Fuck with me and you will never be pardoned" Faust opens his eyes fiercely like the wolves have just irritated him even more. His eyes are sharper than before when the wolves saw him on the cliff. The look in his eyes showed despise and anger, but what really stands out is the corner of his eyes, the white part(sclera) of his eyes in the corners are painted in blood red, he''s like a completely different person. This pair of eyes was different from when the moment Gus was narrating him the story of Ares and his eyes reacted strongly, but this time it''s different. Because at that time the whole white part of Faust''s eyes were bright red, where as now only the corners are glittering red with green Iris which is shining like a jade glass. "There''s no letting go of this now, I didn''t want to kill animals, but you are an exception" Faust says while being really calm even when the two big wolves was standing in front of him. This is a very different Faust from a while ago where he cried like a baby at the sight of just one wolf. "Prepare to get purged." Faust says with a carefree look on his face. His face shows displeasure as if the wolves never stood a chance with him ever. "A-wooooo Awo- ooooo" the wolves communicates with the rest of it''s pack with continuous anxiety howls, their howls are not even completed like usual as they are greatly intimated with the Aura that keeps building around Faust. *Rumble~~* The earth starts to shake and the small stones near Faust and the wolves seems to be vibrating violently as if a great disaster is approaching them at a great speed. The wolves senses a pack of 5 lions to be charging towards Faust at great speed as they stare behind Faust. The lions which live in the caves on the other side of terrains divided by a small valley charges towards Faust as if they are panicked or just charging forward because of the fear of Faust like most animals which tend to attack when they''re feared. The wolves are a bit relieved as they see the lions too sensed the aura of Faust and came to attack him and kill him. The wolves are waiting for the lions to land a blow first and then they can steal the lifeless body of Faust from the lions. The lions come more closer to the Faust, one of them which was thrice the size of Raka, bared it''s fangs right behind the head of Faust. The wolves decided that Faust is going to die and are waiting patiently to grab Faust. "RAWRRRR!!!....." The lion suddenly jumps over Faust while roaring from it''s lungs. The roar was so loud that it resonated over 5 miles and paralyzed the wolves. The sound of it''s roar up close is as loud as the sound of a mountain falling down. The lion then grabbed one of the wolf by it''s spine, lifted the wolf up with his jaws and slams the wolf onto the stone to death. Immediately the other three lions approaches the second wolf. One grabs the neck, one grabs the limbs and other dogs it''s teeth on its chest and tears apart the body and limbs of the wolf in a brutal way. It was like they were tearing a soft toy apart through its fiber without considering the blood spilling from each of the wolves. Faust is just standing all this while while the air is blowing through his hair and his cold eyes looking down on the wolves. The fifth lion stands behind Faust as though it was protecting him. The eyes of Faust comes back to normal and his bright mist like aura around him disappears and Faust falls down like a worn out vessel, which has used its power too much and beyond it''s capacity. The thoughts of his Grandpa flows in his mind and the lions respond as though they understand Faust''s intentions. Four of the lions goes up the cliff while the last lion keeps the unconscious body of Faust in between it''s front and hind limbs and watches it''s surroundings as if it''s protecting Faust. Faust can hear the whimpers and cries of the wolf while his eyes are closed, he still thinks he is dreaming. *"Why did the lions help Faust?"*Gus who was badly injured from the attack of the wolves, but was still able to survive, was watching what has happen for the whole time. He was having all fuzzy thoughts about what just happened and trying to process the information he has just gathered, when one of the lion suddenly roars at him standing at the edge of the cliff. Gus being badly wounded gets carried over to the edge of the cliff by another lion, he sees Faust safe and sound in the protection of a lion and he drops his guard down and lays down on the ground while holding onto his wounds. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Meanwhile, when Gus ran into woods towards Faust, Tim ran into the village to inform the villagers of the danger that Gus and Faust is in, Yang along with group of villagers rush to the sight with spears and weapons expecting to fight the wolves and saving Gus and Faust. The villagers were shocked at the sight of wolves which were torn apart and dissected, they walk up to Gus who has become unconscious and takes him in. One of the villagers hears a rumble from the foot of the cliff, as he and the villagers saw what is below them, they were scared and dazzled. A pride of lions which were guarding Faust are starring up at the cliff towards the villagers, the lions stayed with Faust without harming him and left him like a gift to the villagers and they make their way back into the forest. *"This truly seem like a work of God, which lion who eats humans, protects the kid from the wolves and has been doing that until help arrives?"* The villagers thought to themselves and takes Faust, Gus and Bella back to the village to treat them. Edited by - Aysel Inara. 30 Realization and Reflection Faust wakes up after staying days in the hospital surrounded by his friends. "Huh lions? They were protecting me?" Faust asks Tim as if he doesn''t remember anything that took place. "Yes, you even have the favor of many animals, they won''t attack you or behave badly with you while we go to hunt together with my dad, even though they do all the things with us. But this time lions too? Mehhh, you must be lucky or something." Tim says to Faust with mocking tone, but a hint of relief can be seen on his face. Faust vaguely remembers what happened, his memory is foggy and uncertain but he remembers lions killing the wolves in front of him. Everybody thinks that falling off the cliff might have made his memory a bit sloppy and he himself think that might be the case too. "Manh ! you are lucky, you would have become meal for wolves if the lions didn''t come, but how cool is that Faust, being saved and protected by lions. I''m so jealous of you." Says the excited Nick who visited Faust in the hospital along with Tim and Roy. "Yes Fausty, everyone''s calling you a gifted kid. You have been blessed with a miracle of God, though I''m happy you didn''t get hurt." Roy says while he make gestures to cheer up Faust who looks rather sad and heart broken. "Um... Tim, I''m really sorry for going towards the dens, even after you told me not to." Faust tells Tim with a hint of guilt in his tone as he lowered his head not daring to look at Tim in the eyes. "It''s ok, we know you won''t be able to hold your excitement anyway haha. That''s why I came to play with you, knowing you will be either feeling sad or bored because I told you not to go there, but who would have imagined your little butt would go there already, hmphhhh." Tim pout and says to Faust as a big brother who is scolding his small brother, but also showing love and caring side at the same time. "Ah, how is my grandpa? How is Bella? Let me get up and walk now." Faust deeply reflect on his action and that''s when he remember something and ask his friends and as he tries to get up from the hospital bed. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "No! It''s ok, you need more rest Faust. And your grandpa is ok you know...." Nick holds back Faust not letting him get out of the bed and looks a bit gloomy, same with the rest of the friends. It seems they are all sad and hesitant to tell Faust about the well being of his only family, that is his grandpa and Bella. "Well your.. .. " Nick hesitates, " Well..they said that grandpa Gus needs to take a 7 month bed rest, his muscles have been cut- slashed and many broken bones, but it''s not life threatening. Where as Bella...." Nick who is talking about Gus suddenly stops talking when it comes to Bella. "We don''t know if Bella can make it, she is getting operated now and lost lot of blood. Chances of her making out alive are less." Roy continues for Nick and breaks it down to Faust, being a noble he knows how to control his emotions and feelings very well unlike Nick. "I see, thanks for letting me know. I want to sleep now. I will come meet you guys later when I''m recovered." Faust immediately lays back and covers himself in the blanket as his tears roll down. Tim and others leaves the room knowing what Faust is going through and they sadly leave even when they don''t want to. *"I need to become strong, I need to figure a lot of things out first"* Faust keeps saying to himself while he digs his thumb nail into his point finger trying to suppress his hate and anger towards his own self as a way to punish himself. A few days later, Faust is recovered and he go to meet up with Gus who is still on the hospital bed "How are you doing grandpa?." Faust says with a low voice standing at the door as he tries to control his tear from rolling down from his cheek. "Oh Faust," Gus mumbles as he could barely say anything as he sees Faust. Faust looks tired and black shade can be seen under his eyes. Gus realizes that Faust is not sleeping at all. "Faust, I''m doing really good now, I hope you take better care of yourself, don''t spoil your health because your grandpa is not there to feed you forcefully and take care of you, I will be up and running in no time." Gus says to Faust to try to ease his worries. "Ok grandpa, I will be going home without you and take care of the animals and keep our house clean and do the works for you." Faust says with calm tone, but you can see he''s trying his best to not sound sad and want to make up to Gus. "You don''t need to do that Fausty, I asked Tim''s mom to take care of our house while we''re here, so don''t go doing adults work kiddo just sleep with me here. Me, you and Bella can go home in 6 weeks." Gus says to Faust with a smiley and goofy face to make Faust feel like everything is back to normal and that he don''t need to be hard on himself with his feeling of guilts. "Ok grandpa." That''s all Faust says and heads back to his room without mumbling another word. Faust collects his belongings and greets the doctors that helped him and leaves out to his house not listening to what his grandpa told him before. For the next 6 weeks Faust stays at his house. Everyday Faust does every work needed in his house before Tim''s mom visits to do her works and eventually she stops coming after realizing that Faust wants to do it himself. He goes into the forest and eats fruits and whatever he finds since he doesn''t know how to cook. Most of Faust''s daily routine included him waking up before sun rise, running around the village which is daily exercise for guards to circle the village for 10 times. Faust too decided to join the guards and run around the village for three complete times as best as he could. He then comes home, cleans the whole house, takes the sheep''s and other animals to the area of good forage. He keeps an eye on the animals while he himself punches a tree over and over harder each time as he keep blaming himself for what happen to his grandpa and Bella and also as a way to make himself strong. Until the animals are done grazing. He brings them back safely to home and works on his body for hours. Faust also is practicing moves that looks similar to hand combat martial arts used long time ago. He collected some sand, heated the sand in a pot and collected all the heated sand in a bag and started training his wrists, forearms, shin and foot by hitting the sand bag. He put the sand bag on the ground and threw few punches and tied the bag to a pillar to kick and make his feet and shin strong. The martial art that Faust is practicing is "The Art Of Vital Points" it is an ancient martial arts which has its origins in "Hodu", one of the most ancient country with rich tradition and history, also known to be the birth place of "Buddha" a human who reached higher state of all beings and was even worshipped as a religion and God in ancient times. How did Faust got his hands on "kyusyozyutu" ( The art of vital points) which is depicted as a secret art of body knowledge and vital points. It has no concern of an opponent''s well being, the sole purpose of this style is to inflict as much pain as quickly as possible, which often includes deliberately ending a life with no remorse. Edited by - Aysel Inara 31 The Tes *One year ago before the wolf incident* In the past, Faust came across the sight of Yang teaching something to Tim which seemed to be some kind of move that involved in Tim charging at Yang and trying to land a hit on Yang in close combat. Faust is very much impressed by the style and the way Tim moves in this martial arts. "Grandpa Yang! I also want to learn with Tim. Will you please teach me along with him?" Faust storms into the training place and asks Yang eagerly while he is training Tim. Yang is struck with displeasure, the face of the grumpy old village chief turned really ugly. "Faust this art only passes down in my family, I would never even in my dreams think to pass the art of kyusyozyutu to an outsider. Don''t ask me again." Yang scolds Faust sternly and asks him to leave from the door that he came from. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Faust despite being rejected by Yang, peeks into the training and the movements that Tim is practicing, and that day later he goes home to practice the moves he saw from Tim. Yang who is aware that Faust is peeking on the training of Tim everyday, doesn''t seem bothered as he knew that the art is extremely tough to learn on one''s own without a proper guidance under a well versed master. Without the knowledge of vital points, pressure points and meridians of one''s body, this martial art is just like throwing random punches in air and so later on Faust lost the interest in practicing and training alone and stopped going to the training grounds of Yang and Tim. *Present* After the incident with the wolves, Gus, who is still recovering in hospital reveals to Yang that Faust is somehow special in his own way. Gus mainly tells Yang about Faust landing a hit on the wolf as if he teleported, it also piqued the interest of Yang however, he is still not convinced as to teaching his martial arts to Faust. Yang wanted to test Faust himself and take him in if he feels like if Faust could be a good successor to the martial arts he is trying to pass down to Tim, maybe Faust could be a better one than Tim as Yang thought to himself carefully. And so Yang and Tim visit Faust after he was out of hospital. "Faust, Gus want me to teach you the martial arts form that you were fascinated with a year ago." Yang told Faust. "I see." Faust sadly thought to himself *"even after all this, I''m still being defended by grandpa."* He looks down to the ground and tries to stop himself from crying in front of Tim and Yang. "But I''m not convinced with what Gus told me, I need to see your talent with my own eyes or I cannot train you." Yang coldly states the bitter truth and doubt. "So after six weeks from now, you and Tim will have a spar against each other while me and Gus will watch your fights and give you our results. A martial art using hand combat is equal to an eternal treasure. It is not something you can learn easily. So to gift you such powerful skill, I''m going to make sure that you have what it takes." Yang says to Faust and Tim. This leaves Faust with lots of doubts in his head as to why he have to spar with his own friend,Tim? Him and Tim are good friends and he doesn''t want them both to fight and end up with either of them getting hurt. The feeling is mutual for Tim as well. "So for basic, train your body and harden your wrists, knuckles, legs and shin." Yang continues telling Faust about his deal and he ignore the feelings of the two boys as their eyes appear with doubts and sadness. "Uh, huh? Ahh grandpa Yang! Oh I have a question to ask you" Faust pauses for a few minutes and he wonders how to exactly ask the questions he just said he need to ask. *"How the hell am I supposed to train my body and make it strong?"* Is the question that Faust have in his mind for Yang. Yang realizing what was in Faust''s head says "You can try punching a sand bag filled with heated sand which makes your skin harden and your arms stronger." Yang gives him an advice. "Thank you both." Faust says while he bows his head low and heads back to home to start the training as soon as possible once Yang told him what to do. And so Faust has been training his body for 6 weeks straight to make himself stronger and each day his determination grow as he continues to thrives. After 6 weeks, Gus is finally discharged from the hospital, but is not able to walk without the two clutches and people from the hospital assist him and Bella to their house. Both Gus and Bella are covered in bandages in the areas they received fatal wounds in. Faust with enthusiasm comes running out of the house after he realizes who the old man and the dog are as they continues toward his house. And he rushes to hug Bella and Gus whom he met after the first time in 6 weeks. But Gus is in loss of words as he is shocked to see Faust looking so different then he last saw him. Faust has become so thin than he normally is. His eyes are decorated with dark circles around them and you can also see the puffiness under each of his eyes causing his eye bags to swell . It is as though Faust has not eaten or slept from these past 6 weeks and his bones are clearly visible through his fragile body. "What have you done to yourself Faust!?" Gus asks Faust with disbelief and grief. Gus is not taking this well as his only grandson, who he had nursed ever since be was a tiny little baby, is looking so bad like he hasn''t been taking care of him as a good grandpa should. He was bitterly heartbroken. Edited by - Aysel Inara. 32 Stupid Or Genius? "Nothing grandpa, I''m fine" Faust says with a smile on his face trying to cheer up his grandpa with the best smile he got. Faust comes over to Bella and try to hold her, to which Bella doesn''t agree. She just licks Faust''s hand and goes inside the house slowly. As if it''s her way of saying she lost her trust in him and just licks his hands so Faust doesn''t completely gets heartbroken. Its as if a way of saying we are not siblings anymore but just friends who care about one another''s feelings and happiness. Gus realizing the way Bella acted, comes and holds Faust in his chest. " let''s go inside, grandpa." Faust calmly tells Gus as if he is avoiding any hugs or love from Gus as he still feels he is responsible for everything that happened and he thinks he is being hated by his family too now. As soon as Gus enters inside the house, he sees his house has changed drastically. The wall paper on the pillar comes off at some spots as the result of countless kicks Faust have done and the floor too seems to has multiple places that have been broken and renewed with pieces of planks placed on top of the broken floor. Gus really saw through the amount of hard work Faust has put in and so did the people from hospital, who came to accompany Gus to his house. "Is the spar with Tim tomorrow grandpa? I''m all ready for it " Faust says to Gus as Gus is observing the shape the house is in thoughtfully. "Faust, let''s not do any sparring, you barely look alive to me. Let''s not do this for a while." Gus worriedly tells Faust as he couldn''t bear watching his skinny grandson take another beating from Tim as Faust clearly looks like a malnourished boy and he seemed to be lacking sleep and Gus can definitely tell that Faust has been completely taken over by depression. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "if I cannot prove myself now, I will never be able to return to my normal self anymore." Faust replies with determination, ignoring the despair in his grandfather''s look. He wanted to really take this as an opportunity to vent out all his anger and sadness that he has been locking up inside and he is all set for the spar no matter what. *On the day of sparring* Faust seems to be searching the wardrobe restlessly for something. "Grandpa! Where is my cape I used to play superhero with? I''m not able to find it." Faust asks Gus while his head ducked into the wardrobe. "Huh? Why do you need the cape Fausty? We are going to a spar with Tim not to play heroes." Gus seems to be puzzled, this kid just said yesterday that he is serious about getting strong and moving on. So what took over his head to be searching for a cape now? "Oh I found it... Heh heh heh. I did not use this cape all these days while training... If only I did I would have been more strong, heh heh heh." Faust says to himself while laughing with an evil laugh. Gus is jaw dropped listening to Faust... Is this kid really grown up? What''s he talking about? Gus is blown out of his worries. Maybe Faust is Faust after all by thought and continued. Faust did not stop there, while leaving the house with Gus, he took the thread with two small bells from the neck of Bella and wears it around his neck. Like it was a charm or maybe he was preparing himself for a sacrificial activity ! Bella is giving a rather displeased look while pouts and looks away but Faust just smiled and moved on. "Faust! That is Bella''s collar replacement... What are you doing?" Gus is getting tired of how Faust is behaving. He really wanted to give Faust a good beat up and put some seriousness in his head. "This is good luck charm grandpa, just watch. I will beat Tim with the lucky cape and lucky bells." Gus gave up on Faust at this time when he wears a cope around his neck and wears the thread with bells that made sound for every step he took . Yang invites Gus and Faust to the place to test the capabilities of him after he is immersed in training for 6 weeks. The training grounds of Yang are below the ground level in Yang''s place, the floor is made up of concrete and tiles which seemed to be spread out to four corners to form a rectangle ground totally for the purpose of practicing hard blows and free falls with a one feet small Dias with two chairs in the middle for Yang and Gus to sit and observe the spar. "Oh hello.. Fa-Faust!" Yang is caught off guard seeing Faust. First his in natural way of dressing and then his very gloomy face, his body muscles looks like they''re twitching and his knuckles are painted in red. "Faust!! What is wrong with you Bo...." Tim says while he runs towards Faust to treat his wounds, but was interrupted by Yang who asked Tim to go back to his position. Yang realizes that Faust wants to change himself and his coward heart by working hard and so he did not pity Faust or show him mercy, rather than that Yang showed his respect to Faust. "Hello grandpa Yang, hello Tim" Faust greets them both. His face doesn''t show the signs of any happiness or cheerfulness even though he was invited to spar and train and have a big chance to learn from Yang . "Faust, try to land at least three hits on Tim. If you succeed, I will let you train with Tim." Yang tells Faust. Faust seems a little interested in this, as his face glow up a little because of what Yang says. But Tim seems to be concerned about Faust. "Grandpa, you said our style doesn''t have defense only moves, if I were to defend myself I would land blows on Faust. I don''t wanna hurt him." Tim says as he is concerned with the present condition of Faust. "Did I say you are supposed to show mercy to your opponent''s? When I say fight you both need to show me what you got." Yang says with cold eyes. A master needs to be strict at times in order to make their disciples succeed. And so the time to spar each other comes by "Start!!! "Yang starts the fight with commanding voice as both Tim and Faust gets ready in place for their spar. *Swoosh!!!~~~* Faust starts off by dashing towards Tim at great speed. *"Woah fast!!"* Tim compliments Faust in his heart, but smirks from the corner of his mouth as if he is confident enough to counter Faust''s speed. *"Hmm.. decent speed but charging forward naively, this shows the lack of combat experience."* Yang and Gus thought to themselves. Tim is buckled up anticipating Faust''s move which is straight on punch. *Whiff!!~* *"Huh? What happened? What is this?* Tim is confused by what he is seeing. The cape of Faust is right in his face. Faust did not just recklessly charge towards Tim. He removed his Cape in the way and flung it over onto Tim as soon as he approaches Tim. Tim''s vision is totally blocked off as of now. He puts his hands up and takes his guard. He knows Faust is going to kick him from outside the cape while blinding Tim using the cape. *"So this is why he was carrying the cape? Did he calculate all of this already?"* Yang and Gus feels as though Faust is not a kid anymore. *Cling clang!* Tim heard Faust running towards him from his left side. *"Hmm my eyes sight may have been blocked but my ears are still working."* Tim focuses smirking to himself and dashes towards his left but suddenly lost his balance and falls down. "One hit" Yang yells loudly. Tim was confused and petrified, he did not even know what happened. As soon as the cape falls off from his face. To his surprise to his left are two bells and Faust is actually in front of him. As soon as Tim was blinded by the cape. Faust threw the bells which he had taken out along with the cape and throws to the left side of Tim. Tim turns left trusting the sound blindly while Faust lands a hit on Tim''s feet making him loose balance and fall down. With this Faust already earned his first hit on Tim. Edited by - Aysel Inara. 33 Spar Before Tim snaps back from the shock he sees Faust again trying to land a kick on him from below. Time rolls back and gets back on his feet before Faust''s kick can reach him. "Hehe, that was good Faust. I never expected you would be doing your comical trickery fights. But ok I will respond back with the same passion." Tim says while taking his stance. "But you won''t be able to reach me anymore." Tim is finally serious. His stance itself is pretty impressive. His left legs was behind him and slightly bended while his right foot is in front. He was focusing his balance on his left foot, his right feet slightly float in air easy to move around or attack. In addition to his two upper limbs which can already attack and block. His right arm also acted like his hand in defending moves or punches from below. Faust again, dashes forward and throws punches which Tim blocks easily using his wrists and elbows, deflecting Faust''s punches. The martial art moves of Tim looked very well crafted than Faust''s, whose standing stance itself is unbalanced and there is no change of power from his lower body to upper body when landing a punch. Yet Yang''s eyes are wide open and are glittering with admiration for Faust. *"Is it a coincidence or did he really just aimed for the heart meridian of Tim?"* Yang quietly whisper to himself. Every punch from Faust is not a clean hit, but he is aiming his punches in the central line of point that is on nose, on throat and on heart. Only central focused punches. If one punch if made a contact, it would definitely close the heart meridian of Tim. Yang seemed more focused on Faust to see if Faust just is just throwing punches or is he targeting the meridian. *"Is it just a coincidence luck or did he figure out the martial arts."* Yang is getting excited to see Faust''s moves, expecting him to do some uniqueness. Faust tries to land more blows on Tim who is just evading all the punches with ease without having a need to fight back. And Faust tire fully falls forward while stretching his legs trying to reach Tim. "Heh, I thought you said you want to prove yourself and get rid of the guilt, but guess you were all talking and no work huh?" Yang mocks Faust with his words intentionally *"Dammit!!!!"* The words really hurt Faust to his core. He balls his fist in fury and gets back up on his feet to try and land a hit again. Faust keeps failing to land a blow and Yang keeps mocking Faust. Faust looses his focus and foot on every insult Yang throws at Faust. In the end, Faust just lays on the ground with his face covered with dust and his head buried in the ground and cries. "Faust! The fear you feel makes you brave if you can overcome it and the pain you feel will make you stronger if you endure it. Learn to fail, make new mistakes and learn from them" Gus shouts to Faust in a cheering tone. Faust gets up on his feet slowly while wiping his tears. Those tears were not tears of cowardice or helplessness, this time they were the tears of not being able to do anything and feeling worthless. *"My element of surprise has been used up already in my first attack. I don''t have any more aces up in my sleeves. Nor am I as fast as Tim to evade. But I have seen most of the moves now. I might be able to do this."*Faust muddles to himself determinedly. Faust carefully recalls the foot movements of Tim. The way he was moving fast, the spins, the body balance and the defence and strike at the same time. *"This time, I''m going to do it"* Faust thinks to himself and charges forward towards Tim once again. Blocking and evading Faust is easy until now for Tim, but this time somewhere in his head Tim is having a feeling that Faust is catching up to him. The round house kicks, hand movements, blocking every move of Tim''s with his wrists and blocking and guiding away the punches of Tim with the back of his fists and with every move, Faust is looking as if he is imitating Tim. It''s is almost Tim is fighting himself in the mirror, perplexed. *"What is this? Is this really someone who doesn''t know the martial arts? His moves are suddenly sharp and matching Tim''s. Did he just learned those moves while watching Tim move on the ground just now? This is Impossible yet miraculous!" Yang thinks in his head loudly as he keep getting more surprised by Faust''s abilities. *Bam!!~~* It''s a hit on Tim. "This is bad, Tim has got hit on a particular meridian of the heart, his meridian will be closed and it is life threatening! His all working meridians will be closed now!" Yang''s face becomes creased with a sense of tense and danger in his voice. He''s worried for Tim, but then at the same time he still want to know what Faust got with his skills. "Huh? Hahaha You got me Faust." Tim laugh and smiles at Faust naturally. Faust did not hit the meridian, he just tapped Tim after getting close to Tim. This is what his intentions were all this while. To just touch Tim as a tap after getting close to Tim. "I don''t want to hurt those that I meant to protect." Faust says and withdraws with a sense of relief and happiness. He doesn''t wanna continue spar anymore, he reached his goal and that was more than enough for Faust to prove himself. A satisfactory smile graced his lips as he accomplished his goal. "Gus! Did you notice it too? The level of understanding and grasping everything after witnessing it for just his first time is amazing and he implemented them in a minute. Your grandson turned out a genius!" Yang makes an excited statement in astonishment. "Faust, please become a student of mine and let me teach you." Yang walks up to Faust and requests him politely as if he could never get a student like Faust and teaching this style to Faust. "Please take care of me master." Faust agrees and willingly nods with a bright smile. Gus, Tim and Yang are more than delighted to see Faust smile for the first time in a while. Faust is smiling all the way while going back to home. As soon as Gus and Faust reaches home. Faust sleeps beside Bella in her little bed "Bella, I swear I will never abandon you again and will protect you with my life." Faust quietly whispers to Bella eventually falling asleep with a smile still on his face. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. The next day, Gus calls for Faust who just finished his rounds around the village. "Faust, I want you to help me with finding a book for me." Gus says to Faust. "Sure grandpa, where did you keep it?" Faust is all ready to help his grandpa and make himself useful. "It''s in the attic, in a black wooden box. Take this key to open the box and bring the book down here." Gus tells Faust as to how to do his little errand. Faust goes ahead to find the box and unlocks it, he is caught off unguarded with what he saw, a book with a drawing of a long katana on it. "I''ve got it grandpa, please take it." Faust was curious but brings the book that seems to be some kind of manuscript to his grandpa, but Gus didn''t take the book, instead he told Faust to read and study the first ten pages. "Read what it says on the book cover" Gus told Faust. "Hmmm... Unholy sword arts? That''s what it says." Faust reads carelessly while looks up at his grandpa with a questioning expression appearing on his face. Edited by - Aysel Inara. 34 Double The Trouble "I''m going to teach you how to use a sword" the words said by his grandpa echos in Faust''s ears, while he is mopping the floor with a long broomstick but in place of the brush and stiff fibers, this broom stick has braids of cloth as brush. And when it''s soaked in water it gets wet and makes it hard to move the broomstick even on the ground because of the massive amount of weight on the braids and for a kid like Faust it''s like tons of weight to move. "In a zig zag motion Faust." Gus tells faust while resting on the couch behind and watching Faust mop the floor. "I know grandpa. I know." Faust says while pouting, fully exhausted. *"He said he is going to teach me sword techniques but I am mopping the floor for 2 hours already like an idiot. I''m pretty sure grandpa tricked me tsk, how did I fall for this?"* Faust thinks as he mops the floor with disappointment. *Moments ago* "Sword arts? What is that grandpa?" Faust asks Gus as he holds and read the book that he brought from the attic. "It''s about the art of swords Faust, I''m going to teach you how to wield a sword. And this book is the manuscript of a powerful technique that your grandpa is going to teach you." Gus says proudly as he crosses his arms and his nose seemed to grow long like a Pinocchio. Faust''s face is sparkling brightly upon hearing what Gus said. Poor Faust had forgotten that one time when Gus said he doesn''t even know how to hold a sword, but now, he was saying something about teaching a sword art to Faust? "Ohhhh grandpa, you''re the best! I will put my body and soul, my muscle and bone to learn this and will master it." Faust shouted loudly while he holds both of his hands together in gratitude as happy tears roll off his face. "Wahhhhh I know my grandson, no one is suitable than you to inherit my legacy of unholy sword." Gus says while holding Faust close to his face and both of their faces sparkle brightly like little kids all over again. *Groan~~~* Bella groans as a way of sigh watching Gus and Faust as if they''re a couple of idiots who is disturbing her sleeping time and closes her eyes to go back to sleep. "Here Fausty, take this." Gus places a broom stick in Faust''s hand. "Huh?" The happy tears and sparkling face of Faust disappears in an instant at the sight of a broom stick. "Now mop the floor for 4 hours a day, after your daily exercises. Also I will add one or two more routines to your exercises which will help build your forearms and the strength of your calves." Gus mischievously says with that goofy idiotic smile of his as he closed eyes at the same time for a nap. *Present* *Rawrrr... Arghhhh..... Grrrr.....~~* Faust makes all kinds of sounds while mopping the floor to vent out his anger. "Yes. Fausty yesss, you got it." Gus says while throwing his arms in front of his face and giving thumbs up to Faust. "Stop it, grandpa." Faust is getting more annoyed with his Grandpa''s gestures. "gomu gomu noooooo-Thunder bolt... Fire bolt... arghhh~~~" Faust yells out annoyingly louder as he mops the floor harder and his anger increases towards Gus more each time. Bella watches all of this peeking with one of her eye open. *Grrrrr* she grabs her small bed with her teeth and goes outside to sleep peacefully while staring at Faust and Gus with the corner of her eyes with all the fuss they are making. "How are your arms feeling Faust?" Gus questions after 3 hours of continuous mopping. He is sitting on the chair with his legs crossing each other as he holds up his chin with his hand. "They''re hard as a rock and pains like hell, I can''t even move them freely anymore." Faust replies to Gus while struggling. "Good, now hold the handle of the stick with both of your hands and soak the dreads of cloth more." Gus says with a smile on his face as if he know exactly what he is doing. Gus makes Faust hold the handle like a swordsman would hold their swords with two hands. "Now mop again in zig zag way until the dreads looses all the water and becomes dry." Gus says to Faust. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Grandpa, I will definitely die. This is hard to move when I hold the broom stick in the middle but not the handle? the weight distribution on the dreads makes the stick heavier like a ton. Your grandson will be dead before even learning your sword arts" Faust says desperately as he seems to almost break down in tears from the endless pangs of pain. "Oh heh heh I thought you were determined to get stronger, so this is the only lengths you are willing to go?" Gus tries to mock Faust with his words. "I will do it!" Faust says willingly with determination after he thoughts for a few second about what Gus says to him. "Heh, use your right hand to push the broom left while balancing the handle with your left hand and use your left hand to push the broom right while balancing with right hand, move your legs apart, bend your knees a little forward and balance ur feet. It helps with the weight distribution and gives your arms strength." Gus says to Faust knowing exactly what to do. Faust mops while standing In a stance which seems as if he is riding an invisible horse, his arms and shoulders still hurt more and more as he constantly move while making the horse stance every time he move to different location and mop in a zig zag way as Gus has instructed him to do. "Ok you can stop and take some rest for today. We will train the same way tomorrow." Gus told Faust as he seems to be satisfied with the work. The words Gus uttered sounded like the words of God that is saving his disciple from dangerous work, to Faust, because Gus reduced and stopped the training in only 3 and half hours this is a huge relief to Faust who is experiencing hell. *Knock knock* Gus and Faust hears someone knocking on the door. "I will go get it" Faust heads towards the door and opens it. "You little, how dare you do this to us on your first day?" The mysterious person standing near the door yells to Faust with cold eyes, tilting his head backwards and looking down on Faust with a deadly glare. "Ehhhhh~~~ Tim? what are you talking about?" Faust says while panicking. "My grandpa told you that he is gonna teach you martial arts and you dare not show up on time huh!" Tim shouts while gritting his teeth and sounding like one of the high school delinquent. And this makes Faust even imagines Tim with a mohawk and leather jacket as he talks. "Uh-uh- anooo I was so tired today Mr. delinquent p-please forgive me?" Faust says while stuttering and not knowing how he can ask for forgiveness to Tim. "Huhhhh? Who are you calling a delinquent, huhhhhh?" Tim bring his face so close to Faust''s face as he was asking the question that it seems like Faust can''t even breathe any longer. "I''m taking him grandpa Gus!" Tim grabs the collar of Faust and drags him out towards his home in a rush. "N-n-nooooo! Tim my arms are sore, let me rest for today. Grandpaa, help me" Faust says while grabbing onto the door tightly, but Gus is only smiling and waving his hand as he send Faust off. "I had to come all the way up this stupid hill because you didn''t show up on time, come you little....!" Tim pulls Faust forcefully out and starts dragging him with anger. "Ahh Bella, Bella help me!" Faust cries as a last resort when he see Bella sleeping outside the house in her small bed. Bella opens her eyes to see the fuss again, turns her face away from Faust, closes her eyes and goes back to sleep again as if she doesn''t know him and have anything to do with Faust. "Ahhh Bella, even you...!" Faust gives up as his people have turned their backs against him and so he goes along with Tim without a choice of revolting. Tim brings Faust to the training room. It''s dark all around and there seems to be a throne like chair on a small stage and someone is sitting on it. "Did you bring the ungrateful pupil of mine who didn''t show up to training." Yang says while his eyes are glowing red burning like fire. "Ehhhh Im- I''m sorry grandpa Yang, but I''m here now we can solve this with words." Faust says as he feels the chill going up to his spine from Yang''s voice and falls to the ground and tries to crawl backward. Both Tim and Yang seems like thugs at this point to Faust and he will do anything to keep himself safe from then right now. "You are going to get punished if you come late, but I will forgive you since it''s your first day. Come by 5 from tomorrow. And as you are here now. Let''s start the training of the art of vital points." Yang told Faust in a epic threatening tone. Edited by - Aysel Inara. 35 Road To Become Strong "You need to train hard so you would be selected in a handful of people that goes out to mainland for their schooling. And when you go out to mainland to study, you will become stronger and learn about the world soon becoming a member of a noble family one day." Yang proudly tells the whole future tale to Faust while training him. "Mainland? For what? I don''t wanna leave Mindoro and my friends are here." Faust said without even understanding what Yang foretold. His ears only pricked like of rabbit''s to the part where he just need to leave Gus and his friends and go to mainland to get strong, that''s all he understood he did not catch the rest. "Haha of course Tim, Roy and Nick have all enlisted in the program. By the time you guys join middle school you will be in the mainland and be studying in the best schools on this world. You just need to get stronger to be selected. I will recommend you to the people who evaluates so you two can go to the mainland with the rest of your friends." Yang chuckles and smiles, because of how innocent and naive Faust is without having a proper planning or strategies. "Tim, Roy and Nick are going too?" Faust ask as he got lost in thoughts and he''s getting more confused. After his training and daily routines, Faust visits Nick and calls Roy and Tim to gather at Nick''s place before hand for the four of them to meet and talk to each other. "So what is this about middle school in the Mainland?" Faust asks his 3 friends. "We thought you knew Faust, Grandpa Yang always select some extraordinary people which will be evaluated by the Noble''s and if you are worth it, you will be taken to mainland and assigned to military and you will get a higher position in the society. We are working hard towards it." Nick narrates casually to Faust. "What about you Tim? Are you gonna go there next year itself since you are in higher class than us?" Faust questions to Tim who was silent all this time. "Oh ye Tim, are you gonna go next year?" Nick too asks Tim with curiosity. "I was supposed to go last year if I were good, but unfortunately I need to delay one year. They will only take a bunch of kids from our island once every 2-3 years as they have already chosen half a dozen kids last year. I need to wait for two more years, because I couldn''t make the cut last time. I think I will go with you guys. And I''m happy about it too." Tim replies with a sense of agony in his tone and grief on his face. "Is it that hard to get qualified?" Faust takes interest and again places a question before Tim as he tilts his head innocently. "Not at all, it''s just how they evaluate you is different. You will know when you take the evaluation." Tim told Faust as he himself doesn''t seem too sure of what will happen. Faust becomes more enthusiastic with what all his friends had decided. "Let''s go to mainland together, live in a huge mansion together, lets work blood and sweat and finally reach our goals to be the best in whatever we do." Roy leaves everyone with goosebumps with his words. Faust is delighted with what Roy said, he was already looking forward to work together with everyone, spend time with them more people and reach their destinations together. This was exactly like a fairy tale for Faust which he had been dreaming from a long time. And just with trainings and making his body rigid with all the hard work while learning martial arts. *Two years passes by real fast with time* Faust, now 10 years old has been training hard with his grandpa and Yang to become strong everyday without a break. He himself do feel like he was getting stronger and stronger. Faust thought he had grown quite sturdy physically and strong in the skills he was being taught with. *"One more year until I get taken in by Noble''s and be treated like a prince because of my power and reach the highest rank in the military and will enjoy my life yaaa"* Faust fantasies to himself while holding a wooden sword with both of his hands not seeming to pay attention to anything else. *Bam!!~* "I told you not to space out while in a battle Faust." Gus yells irritated after landing a hard blow on Faust''s head with a wooden sword. "I told you, your body should awoke the animalistic instincts in order to excel in this art. Until you awoke those I will keep smacking you all the time whenever you seem vulnerable." Gus told Faust seriously while teaching him. "Geez Gramps, can''t you teach me in other way, it hurts so much when you hit me with that wooden sword." Faust complains while rubbing his head on the spot Gus hit him on. "By the way I forgot to ask grandpa, don''t we have real swords in our island or brought in from outside? I have been practicing with a wooden sword for too long now." Faust whines to Gus while pointing at his worn out wooden sword innocently, who was no longer pristine. "We don''t have swords in this world Faust, I told you. Swordsman are somehow viewed as a big criminal and swordsmanship is viewed as a curse in the outer world. It''s better for you if you don''t expose yourself with a sword outside." Gus clarified Faust, but the expression on his face also said something else. *"I don''t want you to get depressed like me if the sword doesn''t choose you Faust. I need to make you more stronger to make you wield that sword by yourself.*Gus thoughts to himself sadly, not to hurt that poor kid''s feelings yet he was determined to make him accomplish enough himself. The sword that Gus was talking about is the unholy sword which was left behind in the great battle by Ares and Gus preserved that shiny sword. But it just doesn''t accept Gus for some reason which made Gus to keep holding on to the sword until he can pass it on to someone worthy, that the sword chooses it''s successor itself. "Ehhh whatever, it''s just some people outside" Faust annoyingly said and doesn''t pay the heed to Gus. "Ok go bring some wood from the forest now. You know how to chop it?" Gus asks Faust not wanting to hear his whining any longer. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Yes grandpa, like I''m swinging a sword. I get it geez, you and your training methods grandpa." Faust unwillingly goes into the woods with an axe while complaining. *"Hm I should also increase his speed and stamina. Because the faster the reflexes the better it is. Also his muscle mass shouldn''t increase, he need to be toned and slender but the strength should be increased. I need to do all these things and improve him even more to help him succeed with his goals."* Gus murmurs to himself while thinking that he needed to do whatever he could to renovate Faust and mould him into a warrior not to forget to keep the smile on the face of his dear, Faust. Edited by - Aysel Inara. 36 Wolf, Principles & A Girl? Faust goes deep inside the woods in search of an infected tree which is better to cut down other than healthy trees. This way he won''t be cutting down all the trees. Also, he will be able to stop the spreading of infected trees as a part of protecting the Flora. *"Hmmm, I need to carefully choose the trees like grandpa taught me. I need to be careful not to disturb the wild life as well."* Faust keeps thinking thoughtfully as he goes deep inside the woods. *Grrrr* A growl is heard all of a sudden from behind the back of Faust. "Hmm?" Faust turns back to see what the noise was and to his surprise, a huge grey wolf appears right before him. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Huh a wolfy? Heh" Faust says with a cocky voice, his fears of wolves from two years ago had now completely disappeared. "Remember Faust, you should not use these fighting arts for your own benefits or on innocent beings unless and until you absolutely have to. Promise us that you won''t ever use these martial arts to hurt the innocent." Faust recalls the words of Yang and Gus and his promise to them of not using these fighting arts. "Well, I can''t play with you here. See ya later." Faust takes off after saying that to the wolf. The wolf seems to still Chase Faust for a distance, but later gives up when Faust becomes too fast for the him. *"Heh, of course you need to remember I''m your daddy hehe"* Faust giggles to himself while running away and realizing the wolf has stopped trailing him. After cutting the trees from afternoon to evening, Faust goes to practice martial arts with Yang and Tim for two more hours and continues to practice more until the sun began to set. "Ahhhhhh my body feels good now, all of my muscles are warm and tight. These trainings are making me strong for sure. I''m definitely going to make the cut." Faust clacks to himself happily. *"The view from here is amazing as I thought, it''s hard to come here as a guard has been constantly guarding this, but now I''m ok since he went searching for his spear. Of course I didn''t do anything to the spear, the spear grew legs and ran on its own* His soliloquy goes while standing on one of the hills with shrines to watch the sunset as he breathes hard. (PS- he threw the guard''s spear down the hill, when the guard was distracted so he can come on top of this and enjoy the fresh air.) *"Hmm this is the old shrine"* Faust looks at the shrine and pauses for a moment as he was about to say something. "Yosh let''s go inside, exploration time!" Faust shouts out loud enough only audible to himself as he walks in. Even though the shrine was old, the air inside the shrine felt heavier, but Faust felt relieved for some reason. The breath was refreshing and he felt like tons of energy flowing through his body and circulating in his blood. A sharp sound similar to gamma wave frequency was resonating in his ears and his brain seem to vibrate violently. Faust''s eyes were getting heavy, his eyelids kept shutting down, his footing seemed out of control and before he knew it, Faust fell on the floor lifeless and was in a deep sleep. Faust opens his eyes in a cloudy atmosphere, the light is dim and foggy with atmosphere almost looking orange in color. "Woah!!!! What the hell where am I at?" Faust is shocked and scared when he realizes that he is floating in the air all of a sudden. He is able to sit and jump and run, he can feel the pain of him pinching himself, but what is this? He is in air? Floating? It''s like am invisible floor in the air. Faust tries to walk and he comes across many black creatures which can be seen in many places in this new area that Faust is in suddenly. Many of these black shadows have various different kinds of expressions on their faces one is crying, one is smiling, other is joyous and other is greedy and many kinds of emotions and even mixed emotions. Faust is really creeped out of this atmosphere. "Hey, what you doing there, looking around like a thief?" Faust hears a voice of a girl. "You- You seem shady, are you here to steal someone''s soul?" A short girl with black curly twin tails up to her shoulders says enigmatically. And the curls of the girl are only up to midway of her twin tails and bangs covering her forehead until her sharp and curvy black thin eyebrows. She has big dark-brown eyes with long eye lashes and very fair complexion of skin color. Her eyes are so expressive that with any tiny moments, it seems to convey everything that she wants to say. As she gazes down on Faust, he instantly knew she mistook him for someone but he is too shy to even talk or to even make an eye contact with her. Faust basically never spoke to a girl of his age ever in his life, he always gets shy and blushes all over to even talk to one. "I''m asking you a question." The girl takes a small spear with long blade fixed on the end of the pole with the edge on the outside curve. From behind and she points it towards Faust as to threaten him while her long-knee length skirt flutters constantly around her. "I''m going to call the guards, my dad is one of the top guard here. You will be dead if I call them over." The small girl threatens Faust with her cold words. "Um-umm. I''m not a thief. I got sleepy and- slept and- I woke up here." Faust says in a low confused voice, stuttering while his cheeks turned red and with fear in his voice as he tried to not look at her. *"Who is this girl? She''s so intimidating."* Faust thinks to himself as sweat drips down from his temples to his cheeks. Faust, a boy who doesn''t even fear in the presence of a beast but feared in the presence of a girl who was very mind blowing. This girl was very capable of making Faust scared to his wits ends. Edited by - Aysel Inara. 37 Hero "Huh? So you slept and came up here, huh? I''m so sorry then. You have died and you don''t even know that. Poor wandering spirit." The girl says with redemption and feeling sad for Faust. "Huh? No -no I''m not dead, nothing happened to me I just fell asleep and woke up here. I can still feel the pain if I pinch myself so I''m not dreaming nor dead definitely ." Faust says with a hint of tension building up in his voice. "You feel pain huh?" The girl comes closer to Faust and stares right into his eyes intensely without flicking a bit. Faust''s heartbeat increased at a rapid rate and he feels the girl''s face in front of his and his cheeks and ears turn more reddish. *Bam!!~* The girl kicks the shin of Faust so hard!. "Ouchhhhh!!! Ahhhhhh!!!! it hurtsss!!!" Faust holds his shin and hops around on one leg. *"Wth? I''m supposed to be moving faster and evade every danger on pure animal instinct and yet she landed a hit on me? Am I too distracted with her pretty face? Get back to your senses Faust!!"* Faust slaps himself on the cheek hard to snap back to his senses. He could feel the sharp pain spreading from his slap, but he got no time to notice it and he reaches out to the axe tied on his hips. "Ehhhh!! I can''t feel it, where did it go!!! Did I drop it somewhere oh no! oh no!" Faust panickingly jumps around searching for his axe which was supposed to be on his hips. *"Why is he jumping around like a buffoon."* The girl thought to herself and that Faust was the most ridiculous person she has ever met so far. "I hit your leg, why would your kidney would be gone?" The girl asks as Faust is searching on his hips. She thought of Faust too dumb that he thought he lost his kidney and it popped out and dropped somewhere . "My axe." Faust turns to face the girl with his sad puppy eyes looking right into hers like a little kid. "My axe, my axe, my axe, I lost it, help me find it." Faust cries and pleads to her and was all over the girl as he kept moving hyper fast without resting. "You need to know, you are dead. That''s why the things you had when you are alive won''t come to this world, like your axe. This is the spirit realm; The spirit world. The dead passes through this world or just wanders around here without knowing where to head to. Let me find some guardians and you will be guided out of here." The girl breaks down everything casually as if she knew every grain in that world. "Hmmm if what you said is true, I should be naked here without my clothes and just my body." Faust points out innocently accordingly his knowledge. The girl''s cheeks turns red instantly as she looks at Faust from top to bottom "uh- that is... I guess it is... you pervy!" The girl bursts all of a sudden and averts her eyes from Faust as she continues to blush red. "Please don''t accuse me of something I''m not." Faust quickly says while he realizes that the girl is acting the way because of what he said. "I''m Faust by the way, I''m from Mindoro village, nice to meet you." Faust greets the girl with enthusiasm to break the awkward silence. "Ohhh I''m well my name is Yui Mizumi, nice to meet you. I''m from Aogashima a village in this world." Yui replies while still looking away from Faust, slightly pouting. "I never heard of those names before, hmmm, such weird names too." Faust says while he thinks deeply in a posture by closing his eyes and his hand on his chin. "Well your village name is weird as well. I never heard of it, don''t tell me you are from Agartha." Yui says and takes a fighting stance quickly putting her guard up. "What is Agartha? I''m from Mindoro and it''s an isla-" As Faust was about to finish his sentence, he heard an arrogant voice piercing through his ears, "There she is, the little bitch who is acting all cocky by threatning us and acting like she owns the place." 5 boys which look like high schoolers interrupts in middle. "You guys" Yui looks pissed and rushes up forward to confronts the 5 boys. "Hey!! It is not a good word to call a girl as bitch, learn to respect girls if you are a real warrior." Faust, who couldn''t stand the way they disrespected Yui decided to be the hero of the day for her and he choose a pick up line from Gus and Yang''s teaching. Both the group of boys and Yui looks weirdly at Faust with his cheesy line which was like out of movies for them. "A warrior doesn''t exist kid, run from here if you want don''t want to go back to your mom crying with bruises. We''re going to teach this bitch today." A sturdy boy in the middle with a red band on his arm says with a cocky smile while he takes out a knuckle duster. "Well said Roney, we''re going to fuck her up pretty bad that no one would recognize her face." Another boy in a school uniform adds while he takes out his pocket knife. Faust jumps in middle suddenly between Yui and the gang of boys. "No matter what this mean girl did to you, it doesn''t give us a right to do anything to her face or her. Mind that." Faust says while his eyebrows raised and fists clenched. "Why are you taking their side and calling me mean? Anyway I don''t need your help. You will just get hurt, move out. I can handle myself. Do not treat me like a weak girl." Yui says while she holds her spear upside down and tries to push Faust out of the way with the toe end of her spear, getting ready. The end of the spear look like it didn''t reach Faust *"huh? Did I miss it , are my eyes blurry?"* Yui thinks to herself and focusing on the spear this time she tries to Faust to a side again with her spear and the spear still doesn''t hit Faust. *"He''s fast"* Yui thinks to herself as Faust is moving out of the way as the spear comes into his contact with his skin and he dodge''s it very smoothly and fastly creating the illusion like the spear didn''t reach him and letting Yui doubt her skills. "Enough teaching us kiddo, don''t cry when you got hit hard!! Heh heh heh ." Roney ignorantly chuckles and moves forward to land a punch on Faust with the knucle duster. Faust could be seen smiling, he didn''t make any fighting stance nor any defensive stance yet rooted there. *"Oh no he is frozen of fear* Yui worriedly assumes as she jumps in forward to save Faust, but she knows it was too late to save Faust from being hit. "Swoosh!!!~" A huge punch blow is pounded in the air by Roney, but he is suddenly confused. He was so sure that he landed a lethal blows on Faust, but somehow he missed the punch? Faust is seen smiling mockingly in front of him. Roney moves forward again to punch Faust, who just moves back smoothly before the punch reaches him. Roney couldn''t extend his arm in that last minute hence it seem he missed or he is punching in the air like a goof. "Enough with trying to scare him technique Roney, show him what your hit really is!" Roney''s friend yells towards Ron thinking Roney is just messing with Faust. *"Dammit Shin, keep quiet, there is something wrong here."* Roney thinks to himself while he starting to get sweaty a little. *"He''s just a kid!"* Roney assures himself and tries everything in his power. Punches, kicks but Faust was still able to dodge the attacks with ease flowing like air."Fuck with me and you will never be pardoned" He avoids the punches like he was dodging a little baby''s swings while playing. "What are those punches? No combos at all. They''re just basic level." Faust arrogantly says out loudly provoking him. "Well they''re just bunch of high school kids who are only trained in military arts. What do you expect from them?" Yui says sarcastically. "Shut up bitch" The guy with the pocket knife comes to the front with the rest of the guys following him. "I''ve had enough of you, you''re fucked " Roney too closes in on Faust. Clack~ "Ahhhhhhhhhh! Wtf!!!!!!" All of a sudden, Roney''s elbow is twisted the other way. Faust simply directs the Roney''s punch to his right, then grabbed his wrist. He tightens his hold and with one move, breaks his elbow with ease and style. A smile remains on his face the whole time. Yui was struck with lightning witnessing that, Faust was very warm and friendly until now and he broke the elbow with the same eerie smile. There was no remorse or mercy visible on his face. Roney screams and cries loudly barely holding on to the ground and as later passes out, he falls on the ground without a noise made as dust could be seen flying around his body. "How dare you meddle with us, kid!" The rest of the gang comes towards Faust fiercely. Faust thrusts the throat muscles very hard and quickly of one guy with his hand, making him also passing out in just a few seconds. Later he dodges the guy with the pocket knife as he tries to stab. Faust then jumps up in the air and lands down on knee, in the face of the guy with pocket knife and he leaps again kicking him far away. And then he turns to face the other two guys and for that he places his hands on the ground and twirls around as his legs spread outwards and he hit the two guys with his feet moving fast rapidly in circle and hitting on the nonguarded spots of the guys. That''s all it took to take down the 5 high schoolers. They were dead scared and rushes to pick up Roney and dragging the knocked out guys, running away instantly after they realizes that Faust was not to be judged lightly as he knews martial arts. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "You both will regret this one day." The guys says with gritting teeth''s as they are beaten up badly and runs away fastly. "Wow so strong, he-he made them all run away.* Yui thinks to herself as she was amazed by Faust and this time she blushed even redder as her heart start pound faster-maybe beating for him. 38 Adventure & Excitemen "I guess you can fight a little. I''m now sure that you are not dead, or a bad guy." Yui says while blushing and having a hard time looking at Faust. "What happened to me? I''m really alive aren''t I? I''m just dreaming right? Let me just go back to sleep and wake up in my world." Faust says while he gets ready to sleep on the invisible like floor, in the air itself. He was completely ignoring Yui who was right beside him. "No, you dumbo! You won''t be able to touch or feel something if you are dreaming or if you are dead. This is something else now." Yui says quickly to stop Faust from laying down in front of her to sleep. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Then, how did you even assume that I''m dead?" Faust asks Yui with curiosity. "Look at this" Yui lifts her left hand up and points at her pinky finger. A white fiber like substance takes the form of a thread tied to her pinky finger and extends. "this is the thread of life." She explains to Faust. "This is associated with your soul and your body when you come into this world. Some people can be teleported here with their body, soul and weapons directly. That is through that machine, but if your soul/consciousness steps in this realm, we have this thread of life showing up. It will guide us back to where we came from like a tracker. In another words, it''s something that connects our body and soul." Yui says as she seems to focus on her thread of life. She closes her eyes making the thread of life disappear at her will. Faust is more than impressed with the things of this world. His face lights up excitedly as he gets more curious and that this thread can help him go back to his world. But then he suddenly remembers, that he has no thread of life like Yui. How can he go back now? "Oh no! Am I stuck here forever now? Grandpaa!!! Wahhhh!" Faust starts crying hysterically. "Yui, Yui, help me go back to my place Yui, yuiiiiiii!! Faust cries while running around Yui crazily. "Ugh!! This kid! Fine, let''s find out how to get you back. For now, I will take you to one of the guardians." Yui says as she smiles brightly as if she is enjoying spending time with Faust, even though he is really annoying. "Let''s go" Yui says as she floats up in the air as Faust is watching her, he was dead shock. *"she''s flying!!!"* He screams internally in his head. "What you looking at? Come, it will be easy this way." Yui gestures Faust to fly like her. "Umm, I don''t know how to fly though." Faust says quietly. "Eh, it''s easy, release your spiritual power. Once it is connected with the spiritual power of this world you can just fly like you walk, it becomes one of those things. I don''t know how to explain it, haha." Yui laughs, embarrassed. Faust doesn''t seem to understand anything, he was really confused. "It''s ok, close your eyes and focus on your spiritual power." Yui says again as she senses how clueless Faust really is about this things. "I don''t even know what spiritual power is." Faust says as his puppy eyes appear once again. "Are you for real? Why am I stuck with such a guy?" Yui impatiently says as she comes down and grabs one of Faust''s hand. "Ok I''m going to let my spiritual power flow into you." Yui says while she closes her eyes and her face becomes so peaceful. All of a sudden, a white cosmos like aura surrounds Yui''s body. Faust is mind-blown by what he is seeing, but he stays quiet as he thinks that this special skill need one to focus. The white cosmos like aura then passes onto Faust and Faust starts to float up in the air. "There, we are good now, hehe." Yui says and takes off with Faust while holding his hand tightly. Faust can feel air gushing onto his face, he is so scared that he has shut his eyes tightly, he doesn''t want to look down no matter what. "What are you, a baby? Nothing would happen to you even if you fall here, the atmosphere is not the same like on earth. Open your eyes as we can only fly in this dimension, we need to enjoy this feeling of flying." Yui says while she spreads her hands wide and enjoys the flight. Faust slowly opens his eyes out of fear and he sees everything under him is moving so slowly, they are passing through the orange like clouds and yet nothing happens to them. Yui takes them high in the sky to a blue colored cloud. The cloud is not like a normal one, but is somehow emitting aura or energy in the form of dim light. "I will let you experience something good hehe" Yui says as they both land on the blue clouds. "This is the spirit cloud, go on take a part of cloud and lick it or shove it in your mouth." Yui says as she takes handful of cloud which seems like a cotton candy and she licks the cloud. The white aura around Yui suddenly gets brighter for a second and goes back to normal. "Mmmmmmmmmmmmm~ so goodddd." Yui says and claps her hands in excitement and laughs like a kid, as if she has tasted the most delicious candy ever. Faust out of curiosity, dips his finger in the sparkling cloud and licks it. *Zap!!~~* all the neurons in Faust''s brain feel like they got struck by lighting. Faust felt like electricity just passed through out his entire body sending chills down his spine and he breathes heavily. "Wahhhh, I think this is what the adults call drugs, I don''t think we are supposed to be doing it." Scaredy Faust tells Yui. "Hahaha no you silly." All of a sudden, Yui stuffes huge amount of the cloud in Faust''s mouth as she smiles brightly like a mischievous kid having fun. Faust felt a huge surge of power flowing inside him, he falls on his knees and then gasps hard for air. "Not fair Yui, I was nice to you. How can you do this to me?." Faust says while sparkling tears roll off his eyes. While this is happening a lightly red aura is spreading on the back of Faust''s shirt, a small cylindrical tube formed only above Faust''s spinal cord. The red aura also seemed to be in the form of a spine made out of the aura. It goes unnoticed by both Faust and Yui. "The element of these spirit clouds are used in the preparation of boosters and resucts. I heard it from my dad." Yui says proudly. "Uh huh, prepare yourself now. It''s for revenge." Faust hides a handful of the cloud in his hand behind his back and runs towards Yui with an evil face and Yui realizing Faust''s plan runs away and they both keep running while laughing loudly which resonates the sky. *Somewhere far away, a palace can be seen floating in the air* The floating palace is covered in the black aura which looks unstable. It was almost as if it is excited of someone''s presence. A sound of someone walking in the palace can be heard. "Have you finally arrived? Took you long enough." A shadow holding a staff-like weapon talks from within the palace, as a response to the red aura emitted from Faust. 39 A New Friend Or Foe *Back to Faust and Yui* "Haha, I had so much fun. I normally don''t get to enjoy like today. But we haven''t been able to find a way to send you back to where you came from." Yui muddles while she stares in the sky feeling joyous. "Ahem~" a voice is heard. Both feel a presence behind them and take a protective stance, as they turn around to face the newcomer. "Lord Uriel?! What brings you here? Did my brother cause any trouble for you? I will set him straight at this instant. Please forgive him." Yui pleads without even listening to the man, kneeling down on one knee and draws her arm out. There was a tall sturdy guy in front of Faust and Yui in a long royal-like white gown, with golden strips at shoulder portion in a spreading flame like pattern, wrapped with a hood. It seems like an assassin''s cloth wear. The guy also has a long staff in his hand with a huge black stone, the size of a fist, situated at the head of the golden staff. A mysterious black aura slithers around his body. Uriel walks up to Yui and flung forward his right hand. Yui then takes the offered hand and grazes her lips against his the knuckles, as an offering of respect, politeness and loyalty. "Faust get down on your knee and kiss the Lord''s hand, fast!" Yui whispers nervously, half -afraid for Faust. As Faust is about to bend on his knee, the huge guy says "Oh no no, don''t bother about formalities, I''m Uriel." The tall guy stops Faust from getting on his knees and offers his hand for a handshake. Yui is dumbstruck by this gesture from her lord. *"lord Uriel is normally a very strict King-like personality, who accepts only royalty treatment. Why so different with Faust?* Thoughts began flooding Yui''s head. "Nice to meet you Mr. Uriel, I''m Faust." Faust introduces himself casually and shakes the hands with Uriel politely. "This is the chief Guardian in this world you idiot, he is almost like an angel here. Please forgive him, Lord Uriel. I apologise in his place." Yui says in a panic. Faust too panics after hearing Yui -"wahhh, I''m sorry chief Uriel. It is an honor to meet a celestial lord ." Faust utters whatever that came into his head. "It''s really ok, I''m not a bad guy, you know." Uriel says as he thinks to himself deeply observing *"Is it really him? Why is he acting like a weakling? Something must be wrong here, am I even talking to the correct person?"* Uriel questions himself while he glares at Faust''s finger. *"No thread of life huh? Guess I must be mistaken.* Uriel feels as if he had came to a final conclusion. "Um, Mr. Uriel I''m not able to go back to the place I came from. Will you please help me find my way back? " Faust pleads Uriel in the most cutest way like a lost puppy. "Yo-you idiot, Lord Uriel has more things to deal with than solving our problem." Yui says as she starts to sweat more hearing Faust''s balderdash. "It''s alright, I can send people to where they came from. It''s really simple, you see." Uriel says as he lifts his staff up, the black stone on the staff starts to shine brightly. "Please wait a second Lord Uriel." Yui says with a rather worried face. "If you go now. I don''t know if we will ever meet. So I''m thinking.... " As Yui was saying. "It''s ok if we split up. I know that we will surely meet someday no matter what." Faust interrupts Yui and he smiled at her like he had never done before. "I want to meet you everyday, you are the only friend I had up till now in my life." Yui struggles to tell Faust that she wanted to be his friend, she wanted to play and explore with him everyday. "Since I don''t have any tracking devices and you don''t have a spiritual power, it will be impossible for me to find you the next time you come into this world." *" He doesn''t have a spiritual power?!* Uriel is shocked upon hearing this and looks keenly at Faust. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "I''m going to attach my thread of life to you, so that whenever you come into this world, I can reach you easily." Yui tells Faust as she moves closer to him, grabbing the hand of Faust, holds his hand in hers, closes her eyes and seemed to be chanting something. Faust''s cheeks get heated up,his ears turning red. A pile of thread forms around the pinky finger of Faust which is connected to Yui''s hands. Now the thread could be traced back to the real body of Yui, as well as her soul whenever Faust returns into this realm. "Okay, move back, Yui" Uriel says, as he lifts his staff in the air and touches Faust with the black stone. *poosshh!!!~~* Faust disappears all of a sudden and wakes up in the shrine. "I had a really good time, dad." Yui says to Uriel with a bright smile. "I told you to stop addressing me like that. You are just a tool to me." Uriel glares to Yui with a cold voice as his eyes turns dark. "I''m sorry lord Uriel, since you were being so kind and loving towards that boy, I thought you had accepted me." Yui says, crestfallen, while her eyes get covered by her hair strands. Glittering tears roll down from her eyes. "You both are of same age yet he is special compared to you, which is why I was fond of him." Uriel says without any change in expressions and disappears into thin air. *"Huh? Im backkk, whoa! What in the actual hell was that?That was a dream. A real dream, I just couldn''t wake up from....goshhhh.* Faust thinks to himself in amazement and comes out to see it was late at night. He sneakily escapes from the guard to reach his home. "Oh Faust, I was just about to go out and search for you. If you are going somewhere again, let me know so I won''t be worried." Gus tells Faust as he places dinner on the table. "I was just out for a little extra training grandpa" Faust said. Exhausted, Faust eats the dinner that Gus had cooked and goes to sleep when he finishes the food. As he was laying down on his bed, he wonders if he would wake up in that same "Dreamland" again if he fell asleep. 40 The Meeting Of Nobles Faust did not go towards the shrine for a few days. When he asked Yang and Gus about spiritual powers, they both denied of knowing such a thing. One day out of curiosity Faust, who has been restless again, goes inside the shrine, but this time he enters a different shrine than the last one. As he enters the shrine, he once again felt his soul relaxing and calming. Faust sits down and closes his eyes as he gets ready to fall asleep. "Why didn''t you visit all these days?." Out of nowhere Yui says to Faust from behind him, as looking a bit sad. "Wahhhhhh! ahhhh!! Don''t scare me like that! I thought I would come to you when I sleep but it''s not happening. I can only enter here and visit you when I''m sleeping in my village''s shrines. And why is it dark here? No sun?" Faust panics at first but then gets himself together and says to Yui while starring at the sky. "It''s night, what do you expect?" Yui holds the hand of Faust and says. "Last time we flew up right?So now, let''s fly down." Yui says this like it was a normal thing to do for her, as she and Faust''s feet start sinking in the invisible land and entering another dimension. Faust is at loss of words when his whole body sinks in. There was a real city below them, but the atmosphere is more foggy and dark rather than clear and nice. Faust and Yui are floating as if they''re inside a water body. The spirit world is our earth but in a different dimension. The view of earth is different from within the spirit world. The humans and other living beings cannot see you, but you can see them and you can also see the other beings from spirit world who are floating around. The spiritual dimension consists of three layers, the first layer where you arrive when you enter this dimension is the spirit gateway, which just seems to be floating in the air like magic. Everything below you is concealed, but above is open. The layer above it, that you reach when you go upwards, is the upper spirit world. The guardians, spirit clouds and higher level beings that guard this dimension reside there. When you go downwards from the spirit gateway through the concealed ground, you will reach the mortal world, which is human world. Faust and Yui were now in the mortal world. The whole city is glimmering with different colors of lights in the night sky. It is the pure black of night that gives the stars and the city lights a chance to shine. The black rock the buildings have been made off of, looks just like an amusement park for Faust, who has never seen a city before. "What place is this?" Faust asks while being mesmerized watching the city and new people move around, busying themselves, below him. "It''s somewhere in Mainland. We cannot choose a particular place to go from the gateway." Yui says while watching Faust with a smile appearing on her face. "Let''s go. I will give you a tour, hahaha." Yui grabs Faust''s hand and flies all around the place as she excitedly explains to him about the mortals world along the way. Faust comes and visits Yui whenever he can trick the guard and get into the shrines. They become very close friends, they both start training together as Faust did with Tim back at home before. Faust uses his fists to train and Yui uses her spear. They both explore the spirit world and sometimes visit the palace of Uriel and spend some time with him while he watches Faust fight with Yui. This has become one of his training sessions for Faust for months after months. *After 6 months* . . . In the spirit world, Inside a certain house built in the clouds. "So, someone is meeting up with the princess and spending time with her? And Uriel just let it slide? Who is that kid? Is he a prince of any world?" A man looking like a noble with an all black military uniform with cross bone badges on one part of his shirt asks. A thin black belt is worn cross the body from neck to waist and another thick belt is worn around the waist with couple of short guns hanging from the belt. "No, my Lord, there is no information on that kid, nor do we know why Uriel approves of them interacting with each other." said another man who is standing next to him, while he bows his head down with utmost respect and loyalty. "We can''t let this to continue, get the top kids from our house and keep that little brat, who is distracting our princess, away from her." The man in the uniform says taken over by rage and disappointment, that was clearly visible in his eyes. "Very well, my Lord, I will make sure our kids will stand up to their name." The man standing next to him replies. "And about the meeting with Uriel in few days regarding him being our ally, our Royal king asked you to take care of the meeting." The man tells the person who was enveloping in rage. "Hmmmm, that''s a good news now." The guy in the military uniform responds. After a few days, in a huge palace which is seemed to be covered in gold. It is shining brightly with festive sounds and people welcoming nobles from the earth to this realm. They are meant to have a meeting about making Uriel the king of spirit world as their alliance and loyal guardian. "Lord Lucifer, we are visiting Uriel''s palace for alliance, but if he sniffs out our plans for his daughter and that kid, we won''t come back alive from the palace. Please rethink this matter about teaching the kid a lesson." Simon says to the guy in the black military uniform who wanted to teach Faust a lesson. Simon is the loyal guard of Lucifer, from the house of nobles of earth called "The house of asuras(demons). One of the strongest house of Aztecc Nation, on earth. Lucifer just smiles as a reply to what Simon says. "Did you handover the mission to our kids?" Lucifer asks Simon. "Yes Lord, I formed a team of 4 members from the top and I gave them the gear they wanted." Simon replies to Lucifer. "Great, give them that device too, we can''t go unprepared with the princess of the spirit world." Lucifer says with a displeased and evil smile on his face. Simon with a raised eyebrow "B-by device, you don''t mean that soul whisper, do you? My Lord, it is too risky, it disrupts one''s soul!" Simon panicked. Lucifer once again just smiles as a reply to Simon who seems to be in a shock. *"This is not good. Uriel is a monster, he will slaughter every member of the house that betrays him. If he gets to know that Lord Lucifer is planning something against his daughter. I''m sure it will cause a war with the whole house not just lord Lucifer, also we are not fully prepared to fight these creatures yet"* Simon keeps thinking of the consequences of this meeting. Lucifer gets stares from the Noble''s of other houses who are walking in the balcony along with him towards the meeting hall. "Is that the Lucifer? The maniac from the so called house of demons? He look like a useless twig to me." A noble from another house ''The house of Rauza(garden)'' from Agartha nation wearing a green military outfit talks to his guard regarding Lucifer. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Yeah, having the brains and strategy is not important. Having the strength is important here heh. The house of Asuras sent this weakling to ask Uriel to be their loyal guardian for the next decade? Pathetic." Another noble from ''the house of Nina(gift/gifted) from Aztec nation in a brown outfit adds fuel to the words of noble from Rauza. "How dare you both make a mockery of my master? Do you all want a piece of my cumberjung??" Simon says while he takes out a wooden shaft with flails on both ends. The cumberjung is special weapon, it has two double-ended flail of two sharpened discs attached via a metal chain to a wooden shaft on either side, which is engraved with mouldings for grip. "What did you say, you damn peasant?! How dare you raise your voice against us?!" The noble from Agartha said angrily as his face grew darker from frowning, looking down on Simon at the same time. "Simon, let''s go, we have things to do rather than bark at this people." Lucifer tells Simon coolly. *"Hmph, talk as much as you want Lucifer, once we convince Uriel to take our side with a strategy we made, we will destroy you people and I will personally slice you and your peasant into pieces."* The noble from Agartha thinks as he suppresses his anger to tear down Lucifer, who is right in front of him. First thing as Lucifer and Simon enters the room, Lucifer gets chills down his spine and sweat starts to rolls off his face as he was nervous to see Uriel who is standing right in front of him without saying any words. His dark aura is emitting from his body and his amber like eyes glimmering from inside his hoodie. *"What happened? Why does he look so serious? Did he figure out our motives?!"* Simon is out of words to define his terror. "I''m sorry Lucifer, but Simon just broke the iron clad rule of not activating weapons inside the palace, I''m afraid he cannot accompany you anymore inside the meeting hall." Uriel says to Lucifer with a comfortable smile. The noble from Agartha let''s out a little smirk from the corner of his mouth upon hearing Uriel. "Ah I''m sorry Mr. Uriel. Simon, you can wait outside." Lucifer says and heads inside the room and Simon stays back outside the room, but fear has taken upon him after seeing the behavior of the noble from Agartha. "The Nobles from different families of earth. I, Uriel welcome you all for the meeting held once every 10 years. It is an honor for me to be with the house of Mutual court, and I would like to hear if the other houses have any task that I can help with for the next 10 years." Uriel said with ease as he welcomes different Nobles of earth from different houses and the meeting begins. 41 The Show *"20 years ago, I came here as a guard for the research teams. I crawled my way up to squad captain, married a noble, became a noble and now I am a general. I''m going to make this meeting a success. I will give Uriel to the house, I will give him whatever the hell he wants and I will make sure to pin him down and decapitate him when the right time comes. Like a person who ties a rope to the tail of a dragon fly, cuts off its wings, its freedom to fly, and then stabs its heart with a needle. Not to mention, killing it slowly"* Lucifer thinks to himself evil-ly as this was his main goal from the beginning. It has been stuck in his head for a while and this is was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. "Greetings Lord Uriel, since the pact has formed between the spirit world and earth, we of Asura house has never once been granted your services. But please heed what I have to say on behalf of my house for the Lord of spirit world." Lucifer starts his speech by acting a very down to earth and kind, loyal man. Like a snake hiding its motives for a mouthful of food and shelter waiting for the right time of backstabbing. After 4 hours inside the meeting hall. All the Nobles starts coming out from the room, almost all of their faces show disappointment and grief but the look on Lucifer is a disgusted face, full of anger. His eyes are red and he seemed like is about to burst out spreading fire aura to burn everything to ashes. As it seemed his own plans turned to the burnt pages. "M-master? I''m really happy you came out unscathed. I thought that snake from Agartha nation tried to corner you." Lucifer just passes by angrily without even hearing the words. "Simon, get our men ready, the next time that kid enters this world, it should be the last visit for him!" Lucifer orders Simon in a rather commanding, yet angry and hasty voice. "Y-yes my Lord." Simon says while he bows his head, thinking what took place inside the meeting that made his master so mad. Simon then after coming to the house seems to be typing in a virtual keyboard which is being projected from a box, shining purple in color. A purple stone can be seen emitting electrical energy from within the projector. ''Mission - Testing of Soul Whisper device. Subject - Uriel''s daughter and an unknown kid. Team - Brawlers.Jr in a 4 men squad. Mission status - Started.'' Simon types the words and sends it back to earth. *In the house of Asuras* "Mission for Brawlers junior team." A man who takes care of the information center in the house of Asuras says while he hands over two small rectangle shaped magnets and asks a guard to deliver the magnets to the junior team of Brawlers. The squad captain of the Jr. Brawlers receives the magnets. There''s a certain seal connecting the two magnets, once the captain removed the seals, the both magnets float in the air repelling from each other and form a virtual note as big as a tablet made of electro magnetic waves. The two magnets are like a sealed scroll from old days and when the seal is removed the two magnets move far from each other like the opening of the scroll and displays the message on a green note made of magnetic waves. "Let''s go men, we got a mission from Lord Lucifer." A familiar voice is heard commanding three of other man, after reviewing the message. After a few days, in the place of nowhere on the layer of gateway... "What a lucky coincidence to meet you both here at this time." A familiar voice comes from behind Faust and Yui. Roney and his 3 friends were standing behind them at a distance from Faust and Yui. "Hmmm, you guys never learn do you? I have been training more hard from past 6 months. I''m stronger than before." Faust says in a cocky way with the air full of confidence, he was sure he could kick their butts again. Yui however is shocked and seems scared, she couldn''t find the correct words to utter. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Heh, let''s see what you have got kid." Roney says while he smiles from the corner of his mouth. "N-no, Faust, don''t go near them!" Faust charges at Roney and his friends at a great speed before Yui finishes her sentence. "Hahahaha!! hah!!!, same old way of fighting?" Roney says while he lift his head up and covered it with his hand and laughs like a maniac. *Beeeeepp!!!!~* A sharp high pitched sound resonates in the head of Faust, his body stops in its tracks, he does not hear any sound other than the loud beep sound in his head and his body could not respond to the moments of Roney and his friends. Roney and his friends appear to be equipped with exoskeletons that are grafted to their arms and legs. Yui had seen these frames before, she knows the extent of danger they can cause. Not only the exoskeletons but there are also some stones that are planted in the frames and the weapons they are carrying. "Hahaha, you are down already? I didn''t even get started yet." Roney laughs mockingly as he have his share of fun with Faust. " Well, now it''s your turn, miss guardian princess." Roney says with extreme anger as he turns to face Yui and traces of his mocking tone in his voice is replaced with rage. Two of Roney''s friends goes after Yui, but before she could draw her spear out, the same sound that Faust heard is heard by Yui and before she knows it , she is down on the ground. Her face displays how shocked she is of the sudden painful ambush. The frames that Roney and his friends are wearing are powerful Exo - skeletons. These frames allows them to jump at a incredible heights, punch through doors and walls and much more incredible power adds with the stones. Roney and all of his friends are equipped with a crystal like transparent stone. This stone enhances the human capabilities and make them superhuman and it gives them super strength that is beyond words. This combined with the exosuits makes the foe much more stronger than Faust and Yui combined. *Far away in the house on clouds. Lucifer watches the whole thing on a big virtual screen made of electro magnetic waves in his hall and Simon is sweating. He knows what he saw just now, was something he should have never witnessed* "Thank you for starting the show Lucifer." Another noble from the house of Asuras watching the whole thing virtually presented before him says, while he cherishes it gratefully and tons of other Nobles started to flood on the screen as expected. "Are you ready for the main show?" Lucifer says while he is smiling in satisfaction and pleasure, watching Roney and his friends making a mockery of Faust and Yui. "Of course! Your shows are always interesting." Uriel who is sitting behind him on the couch replies to Lucifer with an evil smile on his face. Simon is confused about how Uriel is alright with Lucifer hurting his daughter and couldn''t comprehend how sensitive the matter is right now. His whole house and family could potentially get wiped out if Uriel dislikes even a bit of what Lucifer is showing him 42 Princess Of The Spirit World What happened kiddo? You were so full of yourself until now. What happened to that attitude now? Huh?" Roney gives an evil smirk. "I want to see you shout and act cocky, come on get up! At least try to get up on your feet. Or we will just stomp on that little bitch, and carve her face with my little knife." Roney is completely making fun of Faust. He and his friends stomp on Faust, kicking him when he tries to get up on his knees. They keep knocking him down on the ground again and again, laughing loudly like maniacs. *"Huh? Why? Why am I on the ground?! It must be some trick, there is no way I would lose. I learned martial arts and sword arts. There is no freaking way I would stay stuck on the ground!."* Faust thinks to himself while desperately trying to get up on his feet but his body doesn''t listen to him. He falls back down as he tries to get up, but Roney and his friends keep stomping on. It makes it even more impossible for him to get up and punch the shit out of Roney. "Eh, I''m so bored with him now" Roney turns his head creepily toward Yui and he licks his lips, ready to eat his main dish course for the day. "let''s see how our princes-s..." Roney stops in mid-sentence and the look on his face shows shock instead of delight. Yui is standing with the support of her spear and the two people who went to deal with Yui are suddenly down on the ground, helplessly trying to crawl away from Yui in fear. Black aura surrounds Yui''s body and it accumulates in her spear covering all of her spear in the pitch black mist. It is the exact same aura of Uriel''s. The black mist like aura then spreads to the blade and tries to take the form of some sharp strange blade but it stops, as if it isn''t fully nurtured yet. "Don''t hurt him anymore, or I will kill you all." Yui says while her clothes and hair are waving around wildly in black aura. Her eyes, at this point, were pitch black, dark like black hole,wanting to swallow all the people in front of her. She looked like a death God enraged to the point of no turning back. *Back at the place of Lucifer.* "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you our secret weapon, the killing machine, Inside the flesh of the girl. This seals our deal of having you and your daughter for the next 10 years I presume? Lord Uriel." Says Lucifer while his arms spread wide open to each side defining his inner feelings that he achieved something greater. Uriel however doesn''t seem to be listening to Lucifer, he is lost in the admiration of thoughts for Yui. *"That aura, the shape of the blade, this is what we need. We have the ruler of the world.We don''t need to fear for others anymore. I WILL FREAKING TURN HER INTO A PERFECT KILLING MACHINE!!!* Uriel is filled with full of greed and ambitions in his heart as he found out his daughter''s true power. He even had to clench his fist tight, to hold his excitement from exploding and embarrassing himself in front of these foolish people. Lucifer who has been eyeing Uriel the whole time realizes how excited he is with this new profound luck. He sneers in his heart at the disgusted sight of Uriel. "This is not the end Lord Uriel, let me show you something greater, a weapon which will make you conquer the spirit world and nobody would ever be able to win a war against you. A weapon which only works in the realm of spirits." Said Lucifer. Uriel snaps back from his trance like state, after hearing the words spoken by Lucifer. "What do you mean?" Uriel asks Lucifer wondering what else is there other than awakening Yui''s powers. Simon who has been on the side, staying quiet this whole time and spectating the show is taken over by surprise at Uriel''s sudden change of state from admiration to suspicion. The air in the room became too heavy for him to breath as he senses the uneasy feeling returns once again. *"This is it, if this doesn''t please Uriel like Lucifer wanted, this room is going to be the end of me and for Asura house as well.* Simon hold on to his breath not daring to accept this unwise plan. "Please watch the screen" Lucifer advices to Uriel and let''s out a cocky smile at Simon as a way of saying "watch what I''m about to do now, Simon" *Back at Roney and Yui''s face off* "Heh this is just getting better and better." Roney says while looking at the overpowered Yui, he reaches out to his pockets and pulls out two silver colored discs and inserts them in his gloves calmly. "Hmmmm, maybe 10 Newton force is enough for you?" Roney turns the rotatory dial attached on the side of his wrist in anticlockwise motion and the discs on the back of his hand start showing the faint signs of vibration. "And now-" Roney takes off fiercely at a very high speed and circle all around Yui in order to confuse her of his position and to strike at her blind spot. However Yui''s eyes were fixated on Roney the whole time, not even twitching or blinking a bit from Roney''s traces. *"She''s keeping up with this speed when she''s only about 9 or 10 years old? how can she be such a monster? I need to increase my physical enhancement!* Roney thought to himself and freaks out a bit by Yui''s sudden smartness. He then low-key smiles, while inserting another white crystal like stone into his exosuit. As soon as the stone activates it emits white color. The nerves bulge up on Roney and blood gushes through out his body speedily. "This is about enough." Roney charges at Yui while whispering the words to himself. *Boom!!!~* Yui is kicked from behind and is sent flying at 20 feet away from Roney, rolling over and finally stopping in her traces. Roney who charged at her face on, suddenly disappeared midway and appeared behind Yui. Even though Yui caught his moves with her eyes, her body couldn''t respond in time and gets kicked by Roney. As Yui stops rolling off the ground and balances herself, she waits and watches out for his next move. But Roney is not present at the same spot he kicked her before. Yui frowns upon her eyebrows as to where Roney took off to and suddenly... "Soul Whisper" Roney suddenly appears behind Yui again and chants the Divine words in a whisper while holding up his hand. All of a sudden a fierce and powerful waves seemed to be releasing from the gloves of Roney. The waves totally disrupts the Aura around Yui. She hears the awful high pitched sound again and collapses on the ground lifelessly *Back in Lucifer''s place* Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Wahahaha, there it is!!! The strongest weapon in spirit world." Lucifer is rejoicing in his achievement clapping his hand wildly. All the other Noble''s also praises Lucifer for his accomplishment. *"It indeed is a really powerful weapon, to think that these humans excel so much in intelligence. They have been preparing this to fight me eventually and take over the spirit world. He is just showing off his new weapon to gain more supporters.* Uriel thinks to himself finally realizing the intentions of Lucifer''s plans in having Uriel serving/helping his Asura family for a decade. "The soul whisper can disrupt your soul and your spiritual power. It basically causes disturbances in the balance of the power by alternating the mass and by increasing the acceleration. It increases the force and the force released from the discs collides with the force of your soul. That causes major disturbances. This, however, makes you completely useless for an hour in the spirit world." "The more the force is applied on you, the more time it takes for one to recover hehe, doesn''t this sound just about good Uriel?" Lucifer asks mockingly, "if every being in the universe needs to enter the spirit world, they should either use the oscillatory machine or go through the soul. Since most of them are souls, my soul whisper can disrupt every soul." Lucifer explains about the device proudly while seeming to questioning if Uriel have the same powerful machine as he does to defend himself from Lucifer. "It is really good indeed. I''m happy I chose your family to serve. I get to learn lot of things from the intelligent Lucifer himself. I can also improve my world''s technology and use your house''s technology to create more incredible things." Uriel didn''t give in to the intimidation of Lucifer but in return gave a very tight slap of words to Lucifer making Lucifer lose credits to Uriel and have Lucifer''s intelligence credited to him. *Back to Roney and Yui* "No!!! This can''t happen!!" Faust who just witnessed everything says in disbelief. Faust refuses to accept what he saw. Yui is bleeding from her nose and ears. She lay on the ground, lifeless. "Dammit!!! I told you! I told you not to mess with her at all! I will make everyone of you pay back." Faust is in rage. His friend and the first girl he has ever been with was laying down lifeless in front of him. Being a guy he should fight along with her. Being a swordsman he shouldn''t be on the ground making her, his friend fight in his place. "You will all PAY ." Faust gets up on his feet while his knees are trembling. He stands still and charges toward Roney like a mad bull taken over by rage. 43 The Price "Dammit!!! I told you not to mess with her!!!!!"Faust charges towards Roney like a mad bull completely taken over by the anger. "Beep!!~~~" *"This same attack again, dammit! I won''t be taken down so easily. I cannot be defeated. I''m learning the ancient martial arts I will never go down by this soul shit.* Faust survived the attack of soul whisper on his sheer will. The same attack couldn''t disrupt his soul this time and he could never let that happen again. "This is called making things hard for me, you little brat." Roney falls back after saying the words and breathes heavily. *"This device is eating up my spiritual power so fast!"* Roney suddenly realizes the sacrifice he had to make for the drawbacks of soul whisper. Roney removes the two physical enhancers, the white crystal stones from his exo-suit. He reaches out to his wrists and rotates the dial on his right in the anticlockwise direction. "75 Newtons. I''m going to kill you if you don''t walk away from here." Roney warns Faust with a convicted tone. *"I have removed my body enhancement stones. This should stop them from consuming my spiritual power and all of it goes toward these whispering discs. I''m going to teach him what adulthood really consists of."* Roney justified and he stares down at Faust. *"Breathe in-breathe out. Focus, target the vital points, block and attack, hit and run. First cut off his arms and legs, and then go for his heart"* Faust suddenly becomes calm, resembling still water. He thinks of calculating the attacking way to take down Roney. Yet, inside his heart, he is scared. He is only a 10 year old kid. He is afraid and his heart just doesn''t seem to be in control. It just doesn''t settle down, but he tries to act brave in front of the only girl in his life. He wants to protect her. He doesn''t want to go down while she is watching. Faust clenches his fist, but the middle phalanx (middle bone) of his index finger is protruding outwards, more than the rest of his fingers. All the fingers are folded inwardly clenching like a fist. But the index finger is only folded half way, and it looked like he is holding a knife in his knuckles. Roney and Lucifer are taken over by confusion as to which martial art Faust is using. Faust takes off, hoping to catch up-to speed with Roney and he is doing great keeping up with Roney even when Roney is having the advantage of the exosuit. Faust pushes him a close hand-hand combat with Roney and moves incredibly fast without letting Roney catch a breathe. *Thud!!!~~* As everybody is watching, the right arm of Roney doesn''t see to move or even show slightest moment. Faust has severed the communication between the brain and his right arm. "Your tendon inside your arm has been cut and the nerves are dead." Faust smirks and tells to Roney as to how big a mistake he made, of messing with Faust. Faust landed a hard blow on Roney''s arm joint, and the next second, his arm is numb. "It''s not over yet!!" Faust shouts and jumps forward. He repeatedly lands many hits on the Roney''s face, his chest. Roney is scratched and cut wherever Faust made contact. Even his exo suits which are defending him are dislocated and twisted at some parts on his chest. Faust finally lands another hit. A hard hit in between the elbow and funny bone of Roney''s elbow. It was a hard hit on his pressure point. Roney stumbled. Now, Roney''s two arms are numb and lifeless and this creates an opportunity for Faust to end this fight. Roney could feel he''s losing this fight, but he did not want to give up and get beaten up by a kid who''s younger than him, he was desperately prideful at this point. "Captain, let us help you." Roney''s friends shouts from behind. "STOP MESSING WITH MEEEE!!!!" Roney shouts and jumps back instantly. "Do you think I''m that weak that you pathetic people have to come and help me?" Roney yells at his friends angrily. "Repair!" Roney shouts loud. Suddenly the exo-suit he is wearing responds to his voice commands and injects a nanoresuct into his spine directly from behind. Faust is taken over by shock. Both arms of Roney are back to normal in just a second. "I will make you regret this, you shithead." Roney grits his teeth harder with rage taking over his body completely. Faust rushes towards Roney as he wanted to finish this fight early without letting Roney to give enough time for him to rethink another plan. "I''ll make a mess of you!." Faust says as he draws his fist backwards to land a punch. "Soul Whisper." Roney utters calmly. "It doesn''t wor-" before Faust can even finish his sentence, his right hand recieves a great amount of damage. His skin is slashed with marks showing up at many different places. *"gahhhh!!!! What is this? It hurts so much. Ughhh, someone stop this pain.* Faust grits his teeth as his whole body turns red and he can hear his heart beat, as his body pulses. The pain is such unbearable. Yet Faust doesn''t back down, when he thinks of Yui and how she got injured. "I''m not done yet!!!" Faust gathers his strength back and throws his left arm onto Roney trying for a jab. "Soul Whisper!~~" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. *Sizzzzz~* "Ahhhh huh??? What is this? Is this my arm? M-my Arm!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!" Faust cries out loud while holding his left arm. Roney places Faust''s punching arm in between his hands, and activates the soul whisper while Roney''s hands surround Faust''s forearm. His forearm''s flesh is torn apart into shreds. Faust can see his nerves and bone, stark against his remaining skin. His forearm is dangling, threatening to come off of his arm from the wound, and lot of blood keeps gushing out. Faust was in unbearable pain, but for the sake of Yui he wasn''t willing to give up. He quickly wraps his arm with his T-shirt and tries to hold the bleeding down. *"M-my arm.... It''s going to be ok, there''s no way I will loose my arm,. Nothing would ever happen to it. I need my arm, dammit!!!!"*Faust is trying to bear the pain that has been building up inside him mentally and physically. He held down his arm together without letting it fall apart. "Ughhhhhhhhhh it hurts, p-please help me, my arm... Please... Save me." Faust starts to plead Roney with tears full of regret and trembles in fear while crying out because of the pain. "Hahahaha, this reaction is such a pleasure to watch, OMG I''m going to climax watching your reaction!!!" Roney laughs, torturing Faust. *Swoosh!~* Yui who was lying on the floor until now suddenly disappears into thin air without a trace. "Huh? What the hell, where did she go? Hahaha kid, she abandoned you and ran away. This is what you get, you piece of shit." Roney mocks Faust and plays with his emotions, and his head. Faust is traumatized beyond words. *"Huh?Yui? She ran away?? Did she really just left me? I -I¡­. why the fuck did I try to show off in front of her? Ughhhhhh, grandpa, Nick, someone save me. I don''t want to die here, I''m scared"* Faust bursts out in tears like a child and all his overbearing demeanour, crumbles down with his flowing tears. 44 Mercy *A few moments ago* "Are you done already? You''re just going to lay down and watch Faust get beaten?" A voice reaches Yui in her head. "Huh? Fa-father-" As Yui was about to say something. "It''s lord Uriel" Uriel says in an annoyed tone "U-lord Uriel he-help me" Yui says as soon as she hears Uriel''s voice. She was assured Faust will be protected as the Lord of spirit world is going to come here and protect them if he knew that they''re being mistreated. Yui and Uriel are both talking through telepathy. The guards and nobles among spirit world have a bond to communicate through telepathy and they do not need to use any communication devices. "You brought this upon yourself didn''t you? If you had joined that sect as I told you, this day wouldn''t have come. " Uriel says with a cold voice and no hints of remorse for Yui could be seen. Tears immediately rolls off of Yui''s eyes *"so this is how it is. It''s all because of me. My father doesn''t care about me anymore. All he want is for me to do what he want, why do I have to be born here? Where I do not have a freedom to choose what I want. So in the end, I will just be a killing machine."* she feels alone and helpless. The person who she thought is the savior of peace and people, has turned against her, she doesn''t even know what to do anymore. She locked up all of her feelings and wishes for her future self and decides to how with Uriel. "Lord Uriel, at least protect Faust." Yui says while crying. "Then, are you going to join that particular sect? And live your life without any friends and only focus on training?" Uriel asks Yui who was heart broken. "Yes." Yui replies, she doesn''t even have an option left at this point of time. "Go home and wait for me there." Uriel tells Yui while he smiles faintly. As Yui is now assured that Faust will be spared, she place her hand on a black stone attached to her hair pin stick and said "home" Within a second she was teleported to her palace in a mere second. . . . *Present* "Hahah, when the soul whisper is at Max power, it can just shred and tear your spirit. The pain is greater than the pain you experience when you are in normal body. Every tissue that has been torn gives 100 more times sensation and pain than in normal body, if this isn''t the beautiful art, I don''t know what else is hahahaha!!"Lucifer laughs demonical-ly while he admires his creation. "The experiment is a success on my side, how did your conversation go lord Uriel?" His smile gets taken over by curiosity and malicious intentions, with a joyous expression spread on his face. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "It''s a success too, she agreed to join the sect, this mission is our pure success. I''m really happy what we both achieved from this event today, heh." Uriel says to Lucifer with a straight face. They both meet each other and shakes hands with bright smiles as a token of respect. "Then only one thing is left, if you please." Lucifer says to Uriel and seems as though he cannot wait any longer for what he is about to do. "Of course" Uriel says, while his eyes turn pitch black in an instant, the black aura extends from his body, completely surrounding Lucifer and both of them instantly, in a pure evil second are teleported to Faust and Roney. *"She left me, no one is here to help me, my arms hurts, am I going to die? My whole life, I don''t want to die at an young age .* Faust still holds his arm and cries while he is down on both of his knees as Uriel arrives with Lucifer. "Ah... Uncle Uriellll!!" Faust says while he looks at Uriel with all the hope in world in his eyes. Faust just want to hug Uriel and cry all he want in relief that he came to protect him. *"It must be Yui, she went to call Uncle Uriel. She didn''t abandon me.* Faust gets excited by his thoughts and joyfully laughs after seeing Uriel. "Oh ya oh ya! look at the hope in his eyes, my sweet little kid who has done a great job in helping me with my experiment today." Lucifer says with a psychotic smile towards Faust. He is still feeling overjoyed with his accomplishments today that he wanted give Faust a tight hug and thank him for their successful experiment today. *"Huh? Who is this guy standing beside Uncle Uriel? Experiment? What is he talking about? Anyways, I need to go to Uncle Uriel, maybe he can heal my arm. I don''t want to be crippled at young age, I need to live long, I don''t wanna die."* Faust slowly gets up on his feet and runs toward Uriel in hope. To Faust Uriel is like his uncle now as he is interacting with him from the past 6 months and he starts calling Uriel as uncle and Uriel too doesn''t say anything back. "Uncle-Uncle Uriel, help me Uncle, these guys are trying to kill me, please - they even hurt Yui, do not leave any one of them. And before that can you heal my arm uncle? It hurts a lot and I can''t feel it. Please uncle, do something." Faust tells Uriel who is just standing with a straight face without any kind of emotion showing on his face. "Of course, I came here to protect you Faust." Uriel says and takes a pause. "But before that apologize to these people for making them hate you. And then they will forgive you." Uriel says with a cold voice. *"Huh? What is uncle saying? Apologize? They are going to kill me. Did uncle lose his mind? Or did he become a saint all of a sudden? Hell with apologies* Faust rage fully thought while starring at Roney and his friends. "Haha kid, no use in asking your Uncle Uriel, he can''t help you right now. But I like you, since you helped me achieve my goal. So let''s do this, kneel in front of everyone behind you and touch their feet with your head and ask for forgiveness. If they agree, I will let you go home right now hah hah." Lucifer confirms Uriel''s words and let him know that he doesn''t have any other option. "Huh? Unc-" Faust looks at Uriel to try to reason with him, but Uriel wasn''t willing to even look at him, let alone responding in any way. He was emotionless like a statue would be and Faust''s hope once again wad shattered into pieces. Faust with no hopes left, gets up on his feet and seemingly shuts out his emotions. He walks towards Roney and his friends without even seeming to care where he is walking, or towards whom. His world is only dark now. He felt oppressed and forced. Everyone around him are older and matured. Still they make a child go through hell. What kind of experiment? What kind of humanity?What kind of a Human? What is a human?All these different kinds of thoughts floods inside his head. He kneels down on each person''s foot. Leans forward and touches their foot with his forehead and asks for forgiveness like a wooden dummy who is obeying a command without any feelings left. *"God dammit, will anyone come and save me from this situation? I just want to die , Why am I so afraid to die? The principles of a swordsman, the pride of a warrior, I don''t have any left now. I''m just a coward in the end, dammit! dammit! dammit! dammit! dammit!. I just want to die but I want to live, why am I still such a coward? I''m just a piece of crap, useless shit!"* This is a shameful, embarrassing and traumatizing event for Faust. He was always so proud of himself and the way Gus Pampers him, makes him always bloat and bluff about his pride. He always thought that there is no one who could beat him and that he was more special than everyone else as he gets to learns martial arts, continuously praised for his efforts by his master everyday. As Faust kneels in front of Roney and as he was about to beg him for forgiveness, Roney steps back without letting Faust forehead touch his shoes. Instead he raises his feet and stomps hard on the back of Faust''s head. "Bend your head with respect." Roney says while his feet is pressing harder on Faust''s head to the point of it burying down the ground. *Arghhhhhhh!!, dammitttt!, dammitttt!, Faust you pathetic piece of trash!!! You''re so damn useless!!!!* Faust instantly breaks down in tears for his incompetence and presses his badly wounded arm hard to feel the pain as blood gushes out from the cuts and keeps flowing out to the ground. "But, don''t just ask us for forgiveness, it doesn''t take you anywhere" Roney spitefully smile "The guy standing there is the our master and the only guy who can protect you, go beg him." Roney says while pointing towards Lucifer and kicks Faust to ask forgiveness from Lucifer. At this point Faust just gives up on his pride and accepts himself a worthless guy and walks towards Lucifer. Groveling at his feet, Faust''s forehead touches the boots of Lucifer and asks him for forgiveness, shamelessly. "Hahaha, such an obedient kid what shall we do with this kid Mr. Uriel? You want him for your use?" Lucifer asks Uriel as if Faust is a play thing or a nonliving thing that doesn''t required any guilt for him. "Well I did give my word that we will spare him." Uriel tells Lucifer about his talk with Yui. "Ahh well then, I wanted to spare him too, since he helped me a lot in my experiment " Lucifer says and decides to spare Faust. *Thud!~ Slicssshh!* A straight swords pierces through the back of Faust and comes out piercing his heart in a matter of second. "AUugghh!~, I''m im S-sorry..." Faust collapses to the floor and his eyes rolls back into his head and he falls onto the ground. "I spared him from his grief hahhaha!!" Lucifer laughs maniacal with an evil like face as he emotionless-ly kills Faust piercing his heart with a pistol sword that was on his waist. 45 Nightmare Hahah, I''m guessing this is what is called sparing someone''s life, right? He was in such pain too. But not anymore, I saved him from the pain." Lucifer laughs mockingly looking at the lifeless body of Faust. The weapon that Lucifer uses is pistol sword. A pistol sword is a sword attached with a pistol or a hand gun with a straight thin blade. The weapon''s primary objective is to be used as a sword and the pistol is considered secondary to have the advantage of the firearms and also sharp weapons to pierce the flesh. "Well I believe, we still have some work left to discuss about Mr.Uriel, let''s head back to my mansion." Lucifer says to Uriel with a smiling face as he withdraws the sword back from the flesh of Faust. "And you guys can head back, the mission is a success. Also, everyone of our house has viewed your heroic acts." Lucifer commands the kids of his house. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Roney with his squad heads back to tend to their wounds and Uriel starts heading back with Lucifer. Everybody starts walking back with their heads held high and bright smiles to their locations leaving the body of Faust to be devoured by other souls. Faust''s eyes rolled back inside his head completely, and you can only see whiteness left. He seemed to be really gone from this world and never will be able to come back again. *"This is what he gets, he messed with us and now he''s dead. I wonder what will happen to that bragging little bitch!" Roney furiously think in his mind *"I hope she meets the same fate as this guy."* he smirks happily as he walks back along with Lucifer. *"If this is how it is, then this is fate. I did not sense the aura from him in the last 6 months, did I just assume out of my hope for him to return? Maybe, but whatever happened has happened for good."* Uriel wonders to himself about the red aura he sensed when Faust ate the spirit cloud. He has hoped to see it while he trained with Yui. All of a sudden a quick electric current through Uriel''s spine,made him jolt in shock. It caused his animal instincts to awaken, and that''s when his brain instantly tell him death is creeping to his way. The aura Uriel felt just now is so immense, cruel, inhuman, most of all it''s blood thirsty. *Swoosh!* A huge tornado-like aura formed around Faust and he is standing behind Lucifer and all the people while they are faced away from him. This time Roney, his squad, along with Lucifer, sensed the blood lust coming from behind them. They are frozen in their tracks, unable to even turn back. The pressure of the aura is very immense. The violent winds are raging behind them, as terror is instigated in their very souls. Behind them is Faust standing tall with a hole in his chest. His eyes looks like they''re filled with blood and glows like the hungry eyes of a demon. He is grinning like a shark, his demonic smile revealing his sharp pointy teeth, looking forward to devour the people in front of him. The red aura is swirling around him rapidly. The aura around Faust is being gathered above him and is taking a shape as Uriel is watching from the corner of his eyes. He sees a face and arms of a demon formed from the red mist like aura connecting to Faust. Everybody is scared to death at the intense pressure the aura is causing them, their bodies feels heavier and heavier, as though their bones are getting crushed with the pressure. It was like they''re 3000 ft below the water level. *Poof!* Faust disappears all of a sudden without a single trace of his enormous energy in the whole spirit world. The strong winds, and the pressure also left out of nowhere. *"H-he''s gone?! What the fuck was that?! My body was almost crushed to the ground with such spirit power* Roney instantly collapses on his knees, and relaxes, as if he have been saved from a very dangerous beast. "Wh-what is it? Uriel, did you try to backstab us?" Lucifer asked Uriel without expecting an answer. It is all written on the face of Uriel. *"What the hell? Is he watching that beast that displayed the spirit just now? How terrifying is it that the lord of spirit world is literally trembling in fear?"* Lucifer thinks to himself while watching Uriel who seems to be at his wits end. Watching Uriel itself looking like a scared baby, Lucifer couldn''t calculate how terrifying the power is. Uriel has currently seen as the most powerful person in all of earth and seeing such a man tremble in fear made Lucifer even more scared for his life. "What the hell is it? Huh? Where is he?" Lucifer who turned back intending to confirm if the body of Faust is still there is surprised to find nothing all that is left there is a pool of blood and no sign of Faust. "Uriel? What did you see? What happened?" Lucifer asks Uriel for answers of some uncleared questions. "Uriel, I''m talking to you respond to me. Stop being in shock, the disaster has been passed away."Lucifer who is impatient by nature, demands Uriel as to what he saw while they were being terrified. "The boy- a huge beast devoured him and disappeared." Uriel told Lucifer, but he doesn''t seem to be telling the real truth to Lucifer. "I have never heard or seen a beast with such spiritual power, nor have I ever read that such beasts come prey on your soul." Lucifer say to Uriel in disbelief. "It maybe due to the soul whisper, the unbalanced spirit attracted the beast." Uriel tells Lucifer while still looking at the sky. "We never know something like this could happen. But yeah we never tried it in Max range, I will take a look at the soul whisper once I reach a safe location and will inform you." Lucifer tells Uriel and left in a hurry like death was chasing him if he doesn''t get out quickly and solve the mystery. *Back in Mindoro in a shrine* "Wake up Faust! Oi Faust! Wake up, hey Faust!" Faust is sleeping in the spirit gateway, the sky and the clouds are reflecting on the concealed ground like a mirror and he keep hearing someone trying to wake him up. "Mmmm let me sleep for a little mor¡ªhuh?????"Faust fluttered his eyes open to the wake up call, but he was really surprised by what he is seeing in front of him, there was another Faust right in front sitting beside his head and trying to wake him up. *"Ah his eyes are looking pretty creepy, and red, is this really me? What is happening?"* Faust thinks to himself while watching the Faust with blood red eyes who look beyond scary. "Oi! Wake up Faust! Hey Faust! Wake uppp!!!" The red eyed Faust is still slapping the cheeks of the Faust and still trying to wake him up. "Woah, hey, Wa-wait, I''m up, stop slapping my face." Faust says to the red eyed while trying to push him away. "Wake uppp Faust! Hey Faust wake up!!!" The red eyed still kept shouting at him intensely and his emotions becomes psychotic and more creepy *"Wah I''m telling him that I''m awake but he is still persistently grabbing my shoulder and shaking me violently to wake me up what is going on?"* Faust thinks to himself, as it was too creepy for him. "Please, please! let go of me, who are you, stop! I''m awake." Faust keeps saying while trying to let the red eyed Faust to let go of his arm, and closes his eyes in fear. *Wake up!!!!! Faust!!! FAUST!* 46 Truth Or Lie *Gasp gasp gasp* what kind of nightmare is that?" Faust gasps heavily waking up from his nightmare. "Ahhh!! what is this? it hurts! my whole arm, my chest and my right shoulder is hurting like hell. It''s as if someone is gnawing on them." Faust groans in pain as his skin stings, and he opens his eyes, to regain consciousness. "Faust!!! Oh! Thank God you are alive, what happened to you? Where did you go? By the time we found you, you were lying unconscious in one of the Shrines, and you were badly hurt." Gus says as he looks worried and scared for Faust and he starts asking him question after question. "Faust.... You have been in sleep for 9 days we thought you wouldn''t make it out but thank God you did. Anyway, where did you get those injuries from?" Yang asks with suspicions. *"Those injuries definitely are the wounds on his soul, his body is getting eaten from inside due to the ruptures in his soul. But rather than all the injuries, I have never seen someone being alive after that wound in their chest"* Yang thought to himself, realizing the differences in wounds as a former soldier who has been inside the spirit world. Faust doesn''t say anything nor does he seem like he is ready to share what has happened *"will they really believe me if I tell them what has happened? Or will I be ridiculed? Or worse will I be punished for entering the shrine"* Faust cautiously wonders in his mind. "hmm its ok its ok, he is awake now, don''t shower him with all the questions. Let him take a breathe first. Go on everybody, go out. He is good he will speak in few minutes." Realizing why Faust is hesitating, Gus acts like nothing happened and sends everybody. Only Yang remains, to ease Faust''s worries. "It''s fine Faust, it''s just your grandpa and master Yang is here. You can talk to us." Gus tries to assure Faust that they are going to hear what he have to say. His eyes gives show a hint of sadness that disappeared along with the questions, to make Faust more comfortable. Faust still doesn''t say anything, his face is just gloomy and he looks extremely down. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "You guys wouldn''t believe me anyway, you will make fun of me." Faust tells in a squeaky little voice. His chest still feels heavy as though something is pulling his heart out. His heart was being yanked by an invisible force, leaving him despaired and in suffering. But he doesn''t want to show any signs of pain as Gus and Yang would question of him. *"Why does my body hurt so bad?"* Faust looks at his left arm. "Grandpa!!!! Grandpa what happened to my body? Grandpa." Faust is scared at the sight of his arm and his chest. Gus doesn''t say anything but he just looks down and seems even more tensed now. "Faust, did you... did you do anything in the shrine? Did you experience anything? Or did you just got hurt and rested in the shrine? We need to know, we can''t help you without knowing what left you in this position." Yang says with a desperate face. "I -I went into a shrine one day after training. It felt so relaxing that I fell asleep but then I was suddenly in a different place. I made friends with someone and I tried to protect her, but I''m just simply too weak." Faust told everything that has happened to Gus and Yang. "It''s ok Faust, we believe you, every single word you said. Take rest for now. You did good." Gus said to Faust while putting him to sleep. And there is a sense of tension between Yang and Gus while Gus is gently patting Faust as he sleeps. "What the hell is he talking about?" After a while both Gus and Yang walks out and Yang''s bursts out on Gus as soon as they walk out of the house. "What do you think?" Gus says in response. "You mean to tell me he entered the spirit dimension through that dead energy stream? And met the emperor of death?" Yang''s says regarding to the shrines where Faust happen to jump into different dimension and meet Uriel. "Not to forget, he mentioned the name of lord Uriel. And described the exo suits very accurately. I don''t know what happened, but I''m taking his side." Gus says without any other thought. "And those wounds, no medicinal healing can ever cure the wounds received by the soul. It''s why we aren''t able to cure his wounds, even with the best doctors we found, from the past nine days." Gus tells Yang who looks pretty frightened. "Ok, so how are the wounds healing themselves slowly? No healing element can cure it Gus, so how can his body heal itself? I have never seen something like this. Not to forget that freaking diamond shaped scar on his chest which looks like a long sword just passed through his heart?"Yang curiously asks Gus. "Gus.... Are you hiding anything from me? You left the island when you turned 20 and came back carrying Faust in your arms 9 years ago, calling him your grandson. Are you hiding anything from me? Is he really your grandson?" Yang stares at Gus with doubts while asking all the questions. "Yang I promise you, he is my grandson. My one and only family. You can trust me. I don''t even know the reasons for his wounds healing them self. And you heard what I said, Let me go cook something for Faust. What about you? Are you gonna stay for a while? Shall I cook something for you too?" Gus says casually. "No I''m good, I''m heading back to home now. Take care of Faust" Yang says and leaves the house without any of his questions getting answered and doubts rises in his heart even more. The wounds that Gus and Yang are talking about are the wounds from the soul whisper and the pistol sword of Lucifer. The Faust''s left arm looks healed, but it was left with huge scars and the wound is still looking fresh. Some parts of his skin are red. A bright red, diamond shaped scar decorated his chest. The wounds are healing slowly and nobody understood how it is doing that. Gus cooks the food and brings it to Faust who hasn''t eaten anything from 9 days, he had to survive on a mixed solution of sodium chloride and water injected into his veins. "Faust, I cooked your favourite dish, I bet you want to eat a ton." Gus says playfully. However Faust doesn''t say anything he is just looking at his arms and the scars. His mind immediately recalls the traumatized situation he was in. "They said I helped them in an experiment. They-they experiment on humans? And that too on kids? The friend I made down there, I don''t even know if she is alive now. The girl said she doesn''t have anybody grandpa, I thought she could come live with us. Even the powerful guy over there whom she looked up to and called him a lord. He betrayed her and used her for some experiment. And all this happened because she met me and we became friends. None of this would have..."- Faust starts bursting into tears while he pulls the blanket off his thighs, covering his face and cries louder. "None of this would have happened if I was strong. I was so proud of martial arts as it''s an art of self defense. But what happened today, grandpa? I couldn''t even save my friend." Gus is in heartache by the words he heard from Faust. He left the room without speaking a word and enters the attic. He later came back, holding a white box with golden carvings at the corners of box, in his hands and places the box on a table in front of the bed Faust is on. "Faust! I can''t give you any answers for your questions. That is just the nature of humans who are consumed by their desires and feelings. They are selfish, greedy, jealous and only share hatred among each other." Gus sensibly tells Faust about the human nature. "What is in the box?" Faust asks in a low voice as if he accepts everything coming in his way. 47 A Mad Sword The sword of Ares; the Divine katana, is resting in the box in a bad state. The sword did not accept Gus as its master, nor did Gus found a suitable owner for it, therefore the sword was left alone for many years. The sword became rusty after a while in Gus''s hands. It has lost all of its divine appearance and now looks like a cheap sword that cannot even cut through a piece of paper. Gus bought the sword to motivate Faust and also to test if the sword accepts Faust as it''s master. And the moment Gus enters Faust''s room with the box containing the sword inside, the sword inside the box vibrates a little as to show it''s presence to its suitable owner. "Faust remember you have been asking to see a katana? Well, I bought one today for you. Want to see how it looks? Even though it has become dull and a little rusty it''s still pretty much useful." Gus says in a way to gain Faust''s curiosity. "Uhmm... Sure." Faust says in voice. Gus opens the box and draws the katana in scabbard. Faust''s eyes first goes onto the carvings on the scabbard, they seem to be symbols in some unknown language to Faust. There are carvings on the handle as well. "Well wanna hold it and see?" Gus brings the sword closer to Faust to hand it to him. Faust almost casually grabs the sword and as Faust''s hands come closer to the katana. The rust starts to fall off the swords inside the scabbard like a sediments sands, reinstating half of the beauty of the sword. Faust almost grips his hand around the handle of the sword but suddenly looses his motivation and withdraws his hand back. "It''s ok, I will see it later, it''s not that good-looking anyway." Faust changes his mind after seeing that the sword is not doing good and looses his interest in holding it. He is still taken over by his feelings from the spirit world. "Ehhhh.. Ok if you say so, I''ll put the sword here for you so you can touch it when you like it." Gus says with a hint of disappointment. He thought he could see the sword''s response after a long time leaving it in the attic for so long, but Faust''s dispirited personality left him with acknowledgement of not getting what he want. "Oh it looks like Bella is back with the sheep. Let me go tie them up and feed Bella for her hard work." Gus leaves the room to look after his pets. It was barely 10 minutes and Faust got super bored. He first examined his arms and his chest again. *"It doesn''t hurt much, but the red color of tissues scare me"* Faust thought to himself. And as he was getting bored, his eyes lays upon the sword that Gus has left. Faust walks over and picks up the katana holding it at the middle of the scabbard thinking that it is heavier than his master and appreciates the style and carvings on the white scabbard with golden linings. He then draws the sword out of the scabbard and his first thoughts were about how rusty the sword is. It almost looks like it''s eaten by acid because of the rust. He starts swinging the sword gently, as the rust on the sword is falling over, bit by bit. Faust ignores this by thinking, it''s just rust that is falling off. And after playfully swinging the sword for more than 10 times, Faust decided to use his unholy sword technique with the katana. Thinking of this, Faust takes a normal stance bending his knees as if riding a horse while holding the grip of the sword with both hands. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and gathers up all of his energy to his hands to deliver a strike in the air. As Faust is involved in his technique with his eyes closed, all the rust on the sword has been completely fallen off and the eaten part of the blade starts growing out as a new blade. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. *"Unholy sword - The call of unholy blight."* Faust shouts inside his heart and give the sword a powerful swing in the air. *Whoosh!!!~~~* All around Faust''s room, his bed sheets, books, papers, chairs and clothes are swirling at great speed forming a realistic looking tornado. The sword that Faust is holding is now looking like a brand new katana which has just been smithed, the ridges and edges look sharp and the blade itself is shining and reflecting like a mirror. Faust is mind blown by the sudden change of the sword. *"Dammit this can easily costs billions of pice''s!"*(the currency in Mindoro. However currency in the mainland differs from the currency in Mindoro.) Gus rushes inside the house upon hearing the rumbling sounds from inside the house and is stunned upon seeing the sword in Faust''s hand. "YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN FAUST!!!" Gus shouts at the top of his lungs happily. One could see the twinkles in his eyes, his excitement level rising on seeing Faust''s achievement. "I have seen the swords changing from a dull to a sharp one, but I never thought this sword would resurrect again." Gus lost his hopes for the sword when it got rusty and crumbling into powder. But now he could not believe his eyes that the sword is back to its initial form. "Uhhhh, grandpa, what are you talking about? He-help me, th- the sword is moving in my hands. It is not in my control!!." Faust is dead scared with this new out of the world experience for him. He cannot control the sword as it continuously vibrates in his hands and making him slash every furniture in the room. "Huhhhh, this has never happened before." Gus is in great shock as Faust is as he never was chosen by the sword before so he didn''t know how to advice Faust. "But calm yourself first, Faust, and try to control it." Gus is watching Faust worryingly as he is being thrown around and slashing even the walls. The sword behaved like it just awoke after a long time of deep sleep, and wanted to go on a rampage. The sword was in an excited state for 30 long minutes and it finally settled down after a while, leaving Faust and Gus exhausted. Their house is also in a devastated state. "Faust you have been chosen by the sword, you have been gifted a power. You need to use it wisely, you will eventually find out about the world. You need to be sane, take better decisions, become an inspirational hero who everyone looks upto and serve in the military. You hear me? You won''t get to hold that sword even if you live nine lives like a cat. So you better use this golden opportunity and try to change the world." Gus was exhausted with chasing after the sword and Faust. But he felt the need to get all the serious words off his chest to Faust, even if the tired Faust didn''t understand anything. He nods his head silently. "But what is this sword? Isn''t this dangerous? It almost cut down our house." Faust asks Gus in disbelief. "This is the sword, that can make you change this world. This gives you the power. You need to choose the path you''re going to take, and that sword right there, can help you achieve it." Gus keeps explaining to Faust about the sword over and over to Faust. Finally the dumbfounded Faust understood Gus''s meaning and the power of the sword. "Ahhh, grandpa, my arms and chest is still painful, when will I get rid of this pain? Can''t you heal me?" Faust asks Gus with a painful expression on his face that doesn''t go away until he complains his pain to Gus. He is pumped to start training and make himself stronger with the sword. 48 I Swear Gus is lost in thoughts with Faust''s words, but gathers his thoughts to suggest Faust. "Haha, it is alright Faust, I will try to subdue your pain with the medicinal healing as much as I can. Can you tell me any symptoms you are facing other than pain? So that I can work on the medicine?" Gus asks as a doctor asks his patients while taking a small piece of paper to note down the symptoms of Faust. "Hmmmm, there is pain and it''s uncomfortable to move my arms around, but there is also this burning sensation at these places which look burnt". Faust shows the red burnt like marks that are present on his skin. Gus hesitates to write, he just scribbles the pen while holding back his sadness." ahh, I see is the pain increasing?." Gus asks while clearing his throat. "No- it''s not pain, it''s the burning sensation." Faust corrects Gus words. "Ok, let grandpa work on it. I will take care of it, why don''t you go meet your friends? They seem rather worried." Gus advices Faust to go breathe the air outside to help clear his mind. "Got it, I will go meet Tim and the rest." Faust grabs his blue jacket with fur hood and heads out. He also carries his newly found sword. Gus however is left in a box of thoughts... "His cells are dead. It''s eating away his flesh. But what is also good is that his body is healing itself. I have never seen somebody that have healed his soul by himself. It can only be possible by the top tier guards in the spiritual world." Gus mumbles to himself. The snow under Faust''s feet is thick and making it hard for Faust to walk, his calves are hurting with just a little of 10 steps. Breathing heavily, Faust goes and sits on a cliff starring at the sword. Tear drops slowly slides down the cheeks of Faust. "Yui! If only I was stronger. Maybe we would have been friends. I cannot show my face to you anymore." Faust is taken over by all of his emotions while holding the sword and crying. "I have been hurt physically and mentally... I''m not going to give up! I will be on top of everybody one day... I will learn more and I will stand on feet! I will protect whoever I want to. I will work as hard as possible. I won''t be a loser anymore." Faust spends couple of hours on the hill while talking to himself. He is not depressed this time. His hunger for power just increased. Faust comes home with a pale face, a literally pale face, because of sitting on a hill for hours. "Ah grandpa, I spoke to everybody. It''s all good now." Faust lies to Gus. "That is great Fausty I also have found a way to decrease the pain." Gus says back to Faust. "I will prepare the medicine tomorrow while you are at school Faust, so you just take care and do not practice with those hands yet. You can take rest for these 5 months. Yang has already spoken to people on mainland. They are willing to take you into their house. So you are in good hands." Gus smiles brightly. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Ah grandpa! That is just the motivation I need. I will work like hell from tomorrow and maybe I can get a little poweful. Hehe" Faust says with a grin. "You let your hands heal Faust, I cannot let you punch now. You should not lift weights with your left hand and no stretching as well. Just give these limbs a little rest." Gus advices to Faust regarding his arms. At this point he is worried of the wounds more. Faust gets a little impatient upon hearing what Gus said. He just swore minutes ago that he will become strong enough to protect people he want. "But I cannot be like this.... Without practicing at all? I cannot." Faust says with pleading eyes. He does not know how to explain, why nobody understands how useless he feel right now with the strength and power he have in his current condition. "You work on your stamina Faust.. I will give you a list of training you should start from tomorrow.* Gus expected Faust''s reply, so he prepared a whole list of exercises he will put him through. "Take this list and follow it from tomorrow." Gus hands over the paper he was earlier scribbling on. Faust seems excited with what''s in the paper. *Contents inside the piece of paper* *Warm Up 3Xrounds 40 seconds for each exercise. ? High knee ? Inch Worms ? Lunges ? Burpees *Gymnastics/ Calisthenics 3 Sets for time ? 5 Strict Toes to Bar ? Heavy Ball Pull *Endurance/ Stamina ? 6 rounds around the village with weighted armour weighing around 10-15kg. Faust doesn''t understand a word... He just flips the paper to see both sides and crumples it in his hands. He throws the paper away to the side that Bella is resting. Bella with the sudden perk wakes up to find a crumbled paper in front of her. She puts it in her mouth calmly biting, chewing it and making the paper worn and torn. She spits out a tiny wet blob. "Ehhhhhhhh.... Faust! Bella! You know how hard I have thought up those and came up with those things?" Gus is heart broken seeing his well thought written paper to be found lifeless and a blob on the ground. ''It''s ok grandpa, I remember everything. I will start the training from tomorrow. I just shouldn''t use my arms right hehe. Leave it to me." Faust tells Gus as if he has figured everything that Gus wanted to build in him. *"Figured out everything that an ex-military personal wrote down about the military work out? Hehe, my Faust is still a little kid."* Gus adores Faust and his talks. There couldn''t be a way that a small kid figured out the exercises and memorized all. On the next day however in school. "Omg! Look at his arms!" "Eeww too creepy" "Woah, what''s with this this creepy kid?" "Did you catch any skin disease?" "Ew, let''s stay from this creepy kid. He will rub those creepy hand on us all." All the students are talking about Faust and his injuries. The red skin that resembles exposed tissues, look scary. 49 Medellin The vast ocean seems very calm with cold wind currents and a faint light glimmering. There isn''t a single bird or vegetation in sight. Just one huge ship which isn''t making any noise, seems to be travelling in the water at a great speed. "It is right in front of us. Keep maintaining this speed. Turn to 1 O''clock. We should be safe." A person who were in their mid 30''s with a buffalo plaid cap, tells the person holding the mast. "We are entering the domain in 10 minutes. Weather is hot and it''s Autumn. Gentleman, thank you for our; once again successful scavenge." The person announces and takes off his coat and hat. Entire ship crew took off their winter clothes. "The weather seems to be getting colder every year. And the sun looks like it was getting smaller. Are the rumours of our earth drifting away from the solar system are true? Are we moving far from the sun? How is earth still holding up together? We are only living on seafood since birth. I wonder for how many more years can we keep fishing in the outer ocean." An old man keeps talking to a person beside him with puzzled and dead eyes. His face only shows that he is waiting for his death. "Oi, old geezer! You people are getting the ship and equipment to fish to feed yourselves. You better stop listening to rumours and be happy for your life. Show gratitude to the Lords." Another person with a cigarette in this mouth makes the old man shut up with his arrogant statement. *"This Reginald! Dog of nobles. He would only understand the suffering when he has nothing to feed his family and faces the dangers that are there for a person living in the lower city."* A person sitting next to the old man, loathes Reginald in his heart. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "We are now entering Aztecc!" The announcement says. The view In front of the ship is still plain ocean, with no sight of land anywhere but they all are looking forward. The tiptoe of the ship seems to be entering into a thin bubble, resembling their mirror reflection, seeming to pass into another realm. The inside of this thin bubble is a whole new another world. It is bright and warm with sun rays, the cities are split and firstly a shipping dock takes all the glory. The leaf like ship dock consists one long bridge in the middle, built really close to the water surface with the road for transportation. And on either side of this bridge are stem like ship docks which makes the whole ship years seem like a leaf. Past that island. At first glance, you can see skyscrapers and tall building. But as you go close, one can see that most of these buildings are broken and destroyed. The continent contains only two nations. Aztecc and Agartha. Each nation consists of a 100 cities each. Medellin is one among the cities of Aztecc. The rainbow-coloured housings were settled on the mountain plains, each connected to others with their roofs joining. The whole city held upright houses close to each other that may even have terraces, to serve as a passage between two. An aerial view would present a bright glimmering rainbow painted on the whole hill. Elders and kids always seem to interact with each other in the very streets. There is a one huge escalator in between the city which goes up the hill. There were malls, schools, markets and entertainment stops on either side of the escalator. Here, some school kids and elders are gathered around to watch a show of someone entertaining them in between the crowd. "Wahaha, who is this kid? How did you find him? He is so funny!" One of the school girl who is 10yrs old, talks to her friend beside while laughing at the person in front of them. "Ehh, this is the kid I told you about who does things for us when we give him money. He is either autistic or his brain stopped growing. He has no father. His mother is sick. But this fool comes to entertain people for money and he buys food and chocolates for himself haha." Her friend responds mockingly at him. "Eh, too bad for him. He is blind on top of it? Hah, I''m glad he was alive till now." The girl replies back. The guy who is entertaining them indeed is Autistic. He cannot interpret what is happening in the world. All he knows is food and snacks. And for that needs money. He entertains people, by doing what they ask. "Roll like a dog" "scratch your head like a monkey" "flip around" "get dirty in the sand". The things people ask from him and he does, in return they give him 1kani a person. Kani is the global currency of 5062. A small coin made of a mysterious black metal only made in the land of Nobles and royals. The people laugh in joy while clapping hands, making the autistic kid do whatever they want, without a hint of humanity or concern providing him necessities let alone quality life. After the boy is done with gathering money, He walks away with a goofy smile on his face. His shirt and shorts are torn in some places and his hair is messy. He delightfully went to a small shop, packed some food and snacks with chocolates and goes home. "It''s Big brother! He''s back." A small 6yr/o girl comes to receive her blind brother. She takes the food and snacks from his hands. He walks while touching and sensing his surrounding and slowly reaches his mother who is sick on a bed and sits beside her. "Why are you doing this Mark! Why are you acting like you have an Autism? Why are you letting people make a mockery of you? You shouldn''t deceive anybody. Nor should you worry about your mother anymore. She will no longer live." His mom says with a crying voice and wet eyes while holding his hand in between hers. "Don''t ever say that mom. I will protect you! I will save you! I will take care of you and little Shizuka myself. And people like calling me autistic. They like to make me dance on their wishes. They like the mask I wear." Mark explains to his mom. His faces show how much he despises people because of the life he is living. "People like masks, not the person. I will wear a perfect one for everybody. Let them think I''m playing on their will. In reality, I will be laughing behind my mask, making them play as I will." Mark says with pure contempt as he dwells deeper into the darkness. He views this world with his hooded blind eyes. 50 The World "Big brother! Let''s go to the other house now. They will be waiting for us!" Shizuka intervenes between Mark and his mom, while holding his arm tightly Her eyes gleam in excitement, thinking about the other house she spoke of. "Haha, yes, let''s go." Mark gets up. He grabs the snacks he bought with him and goes outside guided by his little sister. While walking on the road, Mark pulls his sister to his other side, the one that is not exposed to the road. He doesn''t want his sister to walk on the road exposing herself to the accident-prone side, with speeding vehicles. He puts himself on the accident-prone side and places his sister in between him and the shops. Shizuka giggles at the love her brother has for her. They both soon reached a house. The house is painted in white, with a royal blue roof and a huge black gate. The building is 10-15 feet ahead from the gate, with small plants on either side of the path. "Ahhh, it''s Markos and Shizuka! Our little grandkids are here." An old man in his 60''s shouts, on sighting Mark and Shizuka and welcomes them with a warm hug. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Ohhh ohh! Speak of the devil! We were just talking about you, Marky, and here you are." "Yay, it''s our Mark and Shizu! Let''s have a party!" "You just want a reason to throw a party and get drunk, don''t you?" The old people living in the retirement house come out to give a warm welcome to Mark and Shizuka. Markos''s face lights up and smiles very brightly at the voices he heard. He stretched his arms to his front trying to hold the people coming his way. Mark and Shizuka love to spend time with old people, who have been abandoned or have lost their family. This is the only place where Mark smiles, and that is when he''s with all these people. They don''t fake their love or concern. Some of them even act like kids to play with Shizu, and the whole building is filled with laughter when they visit. Also, a blind old man too happened to live there in the house. He doesn''t move from his spot, and doesn''t speak at all. He just listens to the laughter, with Mark sitting beside him, and laughs along with him. "Ahhh, Shizuka here come the nobles... Are you readyyy? I''m coming in 1...2...3!" One of the grandpas says playfully, while he frowns and runs towards Shizuka on the count of 3. Shizuka bursts out laughing and starts to run. The word ''nobles'' here is being used like a mother scares her kids with the excuse of a ''ghost'', to make them sleep and eat. And these nobles doesn''t live on the same land. Many years ago, after the end of world had passed, people of earth had been left with no resources. No food, no minerals and no metals. It resulted in the tall skyscrapers being destroyed due to no proper maintenance. The very land started to break apart due to the shift of magnetic poles. And soon the fear, of land about to break and spread across the globe floating like tiny islands, grew amongst humans. The nature had became too violent due to the atmosphere around the earth disappearing completely. The earth went through number of changes, now, looking mostly like a complete water body. And in such chaos, the scientists from all across the world, gathered in one place conducting studies and experiments to have the world keep going. They need a new world. But the technology, resources and everything is gone to even evict the earth for few people to survive. And so, a very interesting thing struck to the scientists during such devastation. There are some places that give off fresh, spiritual and refreshing atmosphere when you visit them. Such as top and well known churches, mosques or temples in the world. There is some unknown, unique peacefulness you feel in such places. Even the mysteries of the world like the pyramids or stonehenge''s, have a mysterious vibe around them. The reason these have such forces, is that they are built on a well researched particular place, called energy stream. The energy streams are just a tunnel of excess and large amount of energy that is flowing due to the magnetic force. And now that the magnetic force is distorted, these energy streams started to slip into another dimensions of the earth. The gate ways had finally opened. The energy streams are working just like data streams, and the gateways as loop holes to another world. Many cities in each nation consisted of energy streams from a weak flow to a stronger flow. The weaker flow steam lets you enter the initial dimensions from 5th to 8th. The stronger flows allows you to go higher, from 9th to 11th. Then there are very long pillars built on such energy streams, which are oscillatory machines that work in sending humans and military to slip into another dimensions. Such cities are well cherished and are given an unimaginable amount of riches. The cities which does not have a energy stream become left overs. They''re marginalised, without even simple and basic needs given to them. Medellin is one of such city. The oscillatory machines are built taller into the clouds. A roof is being built on top of these machines that reach the clouds. On top of this roof, with oscillatory machines as pillars, is the land of Nobles. A truly rich concrete jungle with latest technologies used. Each nation built their own land below the clouds. And hence, earth currently has only one small continent with two nations. Agartha and Aztecc. Monitoring these two nations, is the task of people working in a structure built in between the two nations. It is referred to as; The Place of God". The people from there, are said to be stronger than the ones in both the Nations. 51 Artificial Humanoid "Ah! Aah! Ahh!" Deep breathes and heavy gasps ricochet around a large royal room. The items on the desk along with maps and pins are pushed to a side on the office desk. The black cloth that covers the red metal like desk is messy and uneven. "Ahhhh! Yes! Yes! Steadily! Good, you are doing good!" A woman in her early 30''s, seems to be moving up and down. Her tight white shirt is unbuttoned just until her abdomen. The tightness of the buttons are pushing her soft, huge melons outside and upward. Her shirt is barely covering her swollen, perked up pink nipples that are begging to be plucked. She is straddling a 20 year old boy, her knees are resting on the table on either side of him. Her short, black skirt is rolled up to her hips. Her toned, sweaty thighs are asking to be embraced, to be grabbed tightly. The boy barely tries to keep up with her pace. His eyes are closed, jaws clenched and his body is stiff. He could not hold it anymore as her scent is all over his body. Her hot breath is steaming off from her mouth and her tongue is wet with her dripping saliva. He instantly wrapped his forefingers on her nipples from above her shirt. *Slap* The woman slaps his face real hard. "I told you, not yet. They''re all yours when you satisfy me. For now stay still." The woman says while pinning his arms beside his head. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. She bends lower as her sweaty breasts rubs on his naked chest. Her long hair is dancing on his neck and face. She tightens her womanhood on his hard member and keeps pounding down as sparkling golden liquid keeps squirting, she slams her lower body hard on him. "Ahhh! Ma''am.... I- I cannot hold it in anymore." The guy says while his member becomes harder due to the excitement and the slipperiness it is feeling. *Slap* The woman slaps his face again, making his face turn red. The pain, infused with love making, makes him more excited. She sits straight on him and digs her nails into his right chest. "Hold it in you bastard! I''ll kick you out from my regiment if you let it out." The woman says with a rather joyous smile. She holds and squeezes her left breast as she digs her nails deeper into his chest and keeps pounding as her under cheeks slams on his thighs. "Ahhhh! Uwah! I- I can''t, please don''t squeeze it hard." While saying this the guy releases his juices inside her. The face of the woman becomes disgusted. "Who told you to be so selfish. You useless piece of crap. A synthetic humanoid is way better than you, tsk!" Saying that she stands up as his member slips out of her. "Q-Queen Shamian, I think we have a problem again! The regiment that went into the 8th dimension are not back yet, they''re not answering our calls either!" A soldier storms inside the room to relay a message; his face turns red. Shamian is facing away from him. His gaze goes down to the lift up mini skirt of Shamian, towards the juices dripping down in between her thighs. Shamian turns her upper body around "What are you looking at?" Shamian asks the soldier who is gazing her bottom. "N-nothing Q-Queen Shamian. Th-Theodore is demanding your presence and your squad." The soldier says while stuttering badly. "I will be there soon." Shamian responds. "General Theodore! Oh I see all the captains and generals of our house are gathered here as well. Are we all having a party?" Shamian arrogantly says while entering the hall filled with captains and generals. "Shamian! Learn to respect others and attend meetings on time. We have wasted our time here waiting for you." A captain in the room says to Shamian as if he is pissed waiting for her. "Oh my bad... I was involved with a work you see." Shamian''s shirt is still unbuttoned to her abdomen enhancing the beauty of her breasts. Immediately making the other captain feel embarrassed looking at her. "Shamian! Take the artificial humanoids with your squad to dimension 8 and rescue our family if anybody is alive." Theodore the 3-star general orders Shamian. The man is 6 and a half feet tall with well-built body. He is in his mid-40''s wearing a long, black coat. His voice is dominating and deep mixed with his grumpy nature. "I will definitely try not to kill the 8th dimension''s creatures." Shamian gives a cocky reply to her general. "Good! The reason I assembled you all here is to inform all of you. Our House of Asuras is taking a step further into the humanoid creation. We all know that 10 years ago ''The God'' the most powerful person on Earth from the ''Place of God''s'' the neutral country has made a powerful humanoid." "We have known the secrets of it with the help of Uriel who helped the god in making this humanoid. Unfortunately, though the humanoid has gone missing after it was made 10 years ago. But we do know that the humanoid is made of nothing but elemental stones. And so now with the help of Lucifer and our new ally, Uriel. We are making such powerful humanoids." Theodore explains to his house with prideful voice. "We all heard about that myths of that humanoid... I heard some old doctor took it out of our land. It''s a pity that we could not get our hands on it. Who knows how powerful the humanoid is if it did survive till now." Another general in the room speaks up about the dangers of this humanoid. "Nobody knows the whereabouts of the doctor or the humanoid that has gone missing. But if time comes. They will come to our land by themselves. And when they do. They won''t leave this land." Theodore defines his passion and obsession with power and to create a powerful humanoid. 52 Thorik "Well, I want to excuse myself. I need to prepare my squad and we need to head to the 8th dimension to save my little puppies. Who knows which cute puppy in there may need my services." Shamian says with a grin as she salutes and leans down to Theodore asking for his permission. Theodore is really annoyed with her behavior. She leans forward, giving Theodore a whole view of her breasts. He couldn''t help but sigh- "You are excused. Take assaulter''s from any other squad if you need the help." Theodore says with as he wants to get rid of her presence as soon as possible. Shamian smiles from the corner of her mouth. She casually adjusts her shirt, flips her hair and starts to walk back to her regiment. Darren, the second in rank in Shamian''s squad, follows her. His eyes are still fixated on her back and on her mini skirt. He couldn''t erase the view he saw a while back when he visited her room to request her to attend the meeting. "What are you looking at, cherry boy? I''m not interested in your types." Shamian playfully teases Darren as they were walking towards their base. The whole corridor they are walking in is pure marble decorated with very fine polished design of black carving with gold linings. The corridor stretches to 100 meters long in a straight path. From there, a zig zag way of corridor invites you with 50 meters for each turn and finally you will reach the other side of massive room again. Shamian is in a surprise as soon as she entered her regiment base. All of her squad is getting ready with their suits and armors; as well as gears and their weapons. "Oh! Am I only one who has been informed late about this?" Shamian turns her face around to look at Darren again with a slight annoyed face. "Don''t blame Darren, Cap''n. He was just scared to knock on your door. A secret crush I presume." A soldier from her squad teases Darren with his words. "Yes yes! He sure is a loyal Vice captain." Shamian takes off her shirt while saying. Shamian needed an upgraded armor so she chose to dress up in black one, made out of indestructible black Vibranium. Her whole armory consisted of a black Vibranium skin fit jeans. Upon it, she wore shin and leg armor. Everything was made out of that mysterious metal which could neither be burnt nor destroyed. On her upper body she wore same fitted shirt of similar shade. Every male soldier in the room was drooling seeing the goddess like beauty changing in front of them. She wore the armor like shirt on her bra with no add-ons. On which she placed a breast plate which made her plump chest rise a bit into a sexy tight shape. Vibranium-made black pauldron were hung on her both shoulders and on the right side, a red metallic shoulder plate laid with a strap. Which went around hugging her body just beneath the chest plate. "Ok I''m ready to go. Where is the engineer? Is my tool ready?" Shamian asks while she settles down in her clothes. "He is on his way here. He should be here soon." Darren says while he lift his feet, raising his head up in search of the Engineer who is supposed to be here. "And who''s squad is it that was stuck in the dimension?" Shamian asks casually as she leans to a side with her hand under her cheeks. "Ah! It''s Captain Thorik! We are going to assist them and bring them back or find the stones they must''ve left behind." "Huh?? Are you fucking kidding me? It''s that brat Thorik? Nobody said we need to assist him. Ughhh I hate that super hyper brat to the core." Shamian responds with a long pale face. "Sigh! I have to always baby sit these Sissy''s. I want a prince handsome or somebody worthy Tsk." She says while she rolls up her eyes pitying her own fate. "I''m here Shamian! The tools are ready." The guy who was previously under Shamian on the table walks out with a red colored case written Shamian de''souza on it. "Hm! Let''s move out squad. Knowing Thorik, he is not someone who will die soon, we also need to give up on the elemental stones that they collected." Shamian says while she revolves her right arm stretching her arms and moves out. "We can''t do this. You can''t do this. We can''t stand. You won''t stand a chance." A man in her early 20''s keeps his head lowered while talking.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. The land is red with traces of black sand at some places. Mostly covered with very small stones than sand more with Rocky hills and slopes. There are three persons on ground behind the standing man. One of them gravely injured as half of his gut seemed to be bitten by some animal. Beside him are two girls on their knees looking scared, holding each other hands. "C-captain! We cannot th-there are many of them" one of the girl with green hair tells to the man in front of them. "Just because I don''t have monster like spiritual power. You refused to increase my rank. Just because I''m from the servants blood line, you refused to put me in a royal house. And now just because my whole squad is newbies, you think I will die of something like this?" The man keeps talking ignoring his subordinates behind him. He have a blonde spikey hair with a long leather jacket upto his hips. There are gun mags tied to his belt around his waist.both of his hands are holding onto machine pistols. Uzi look alike black colored guns each in his hand with red glittering linings. "Ca-captain! Please let us surrender to them. They will leave us alive." The green haired girl says again, but this time her voice is trembling and stuttering badly. The facial expressions of Thorik changes with the words if his subordinates. "Haha you should listen to that girl there. It''s pointless, there are 200 spirit beasts here you won''t even stand a chance against them." A person sitting on top of one of these spirit beasts speaks in a mighty voice while looking down on Thorik. *"Just give up Thorik. I have killed countless captains the same way. You humans gives up easily when you are out under tons of stress. The fear of your sub ordinate behind you and the fear of the beasts in front you. You have no choice but to surrender and to get back stabbed by me."* The man on the beast thinks devilishly while he cherished the moments he is imagining in his head of how he is going to kill and feed Thorik to his beasts. "Hmm Ok! I give up" Thorik says out of nowhere with his head lowered. It can either be the feeling of shame or he realised his pride on battlefield today that made him lower his head. *"Hahaha this is it. The perfect opportunity to take him down."* The words said by Thorik instantly made the other person excited. "Hawk! Go chain him and the girls and bring them back. We will accompany them to the king." The person orders his sub ordinate. 53 Gunslinger - 01 "But! Before I come with you guys. I want you, the monkey who is sitting on top of another monkey to answer me something." Thorik says referring to the guy who is sitting on top of a beast. "How dare you talk ill about Sir Arald! Just when he took pity on you guys and wanted to let you all live." Hawk says while approaching Thorik with cuff''s. "Heh! This human suddenly grew horns now that he knew I was going to spare his puny life?" Arald says as he stares down at Thorik while smiling from the corner of his mouth. Arald seems calm without getting provoked or intimated by Thorik''s words but inside he is saying*"Talk big all you want. Once the beasts are all assembled. You won''t be able to talk anymore."* To Thorik out of anger glittering eyes. "What do you wanted to know? I will grant your wish." Arald says as he waves his hand towards Thorik as if a king giving his permission to the slave. Arald''s words and his body movements showed how cocky he is and how superior he is feeling right now. "A soldier- with a divine weapon like sword." Arald''s eye brow feels a twitch all of a sudden upon hearing the words of Thorik. Thorik on the other hand is taking his time in telling what he want. The hairs on his body are standing up as he is reminiscing the sight of the soldier he is describing. "The only soldier who could use the God arts... The one with whom you people have formed alliance with to win the war with the 11th realm. I want to know how he attained the God arts from? I''m sure it happened after he became your ally. After your ugly Queen accepted him into the kingdom." "I want to know what took place? and is your Queen the only female to grant the power of God arts? I want to know how to get my hands on it." Thorik finishes his words like a wild beast hunger for power. It was silent and Hawk and Arald are speechless with what Thorik had spoken. Hawk is standing 5ft tall with jade green body. Reinforced with light green armor like skin at his chest which is hard and looks like an extension of his skin and lizard scales on his neck. His arms are long stretching down to his knees from his shoulders. And he is dressed in normal full body gown. Arald on the other hand is over 6ft tall and muscular. His lizard like scales are dotted and stretches all the way down to his thighs. The scales on his body are more hard looking. Acting as an armor for his body. He only has a one silky green cloth wrapped around his waist as if he has just came out of shower. Both Hawk and Arald are backed up by dozens of beasts of 8th realm which, each beast is of a captain grade. Meaning, as powerful as a captain on earth. These beasts are also green in color with four limbs, sort of resembling an ape but every beast is above 8feet and muscular. "He-he! S-so you are seeking for a power. You seem to be in a Captain''s position, but it looks like you''re not a gifter huh. A mere seeker for power became a captain. If only your squad has a gifter in it, you all wouldn''t be in this pitiful position." Arald says with a goofy face trying to act like he does not know what Thorik is asking him about. "I-I told our captain to get a gifter for this particular mission to assist us. Sir Theodore even offered our squad a gifter. B-but captain just ignored everyone and headed out with us inexperience squad and everybody flew away. We are the only one trapped here." The girl behind Thorik cries and stutters about her bad fate. In this world, the gifters are people who have massive amounts of spiritual power inside them. There is a weapon which is gifted to them solely based on the type of elemental stone they use. Like a green bow of Zoilas with 3 green stones which can shoot an arrow without the use of an actual one. The weapons of gifters are unique and different from their squad soldiers. Which differentiates a gifter from the soldiers. Most of the gifters ends up being a captain and from there it is based on their skillset which pushes their rank up. "You Mr. Seeker, I suggest you to give yourself up and die here. The things you have asked me and spoken off are forbidden to speak in this realm." Arald gets cocky once he realises that the captain before him is not a gifter. Hawk also laughs to himself for the stupidity of Thorik to stand against them even when he is a seeker class. He walks up to Thorik with chain cuff''s and a small steel spear. "You don''t have a squad to back you up here, nor do you have the power. Do not try to jump or slip away from us. We will give you a quick death." Arald says as he lean forward with an evil smirk. "So you want me to spank your butt and make you spill the truth about God arts or are you going to make it easy for me?" Thorik who has been quiet till now opens his mouth. "Hahaha you puny human! What makes you so confident! You don''t even have your armor on your body as of now. I have my dangerous beasts and dozens of them. Hawk alone can slice you people up to pieces. I''m blessed by God''s for my superior physical ability. I''m a noble here. I have everything. What do you have that is making you cocky? Tell me what do you have!" Arald goes on a rage all of a sudden with the behavior of Thorik and his words.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Hawk gets closer to Thorik with his cuff''s and wraps his chains around Thorik. *Clack* Thorik who is infront of Hawk is suddenly walking away from him with his back against Hawk. Hawk is confused. Thorik is facing him until now but now he is walking back from him? *"Huh? Why is he walking away? Wait! Why is Arald and the beasts are in front of me? They''re supposed to be behind me." He is puzzled with what is happening before him. As he sees Thorik walking away, Hawk feels his body is falling down onto the ground. The head of hawk is turned backwards by Thorik as he walks towards Arald. "Well I have thumbs! And guns!" Thorik says to Arald with while showing his hand. Arald, Hawk and the 8th realm beings only have four fingers and no thumb. Thorik reminds Arald that he has two of them while he breaks Hawk''s neck by turning it all the way around. 54 Gunslinger - 02 Arald is just watching with a horrified expression. "T-take him down and tear his limbs apart!" Being overtaken by the rage of losing Hawk right in front of his eyes, he shouts to the beasts in desperation of getting rid of Thorik. All the beasts let out roars and storm towards Thorik. His red hair waves around as his sparkling eyes get sharper, assisted by his evil smirk. His hands reach out to two Uzi guns strapped to his belt on either side of his waist. *BRRRRRRTTTT~* Within the next two seconds, the sounds of a submachine gun echoed in the entire field. The first approaching three beasts are filled with 20bullets each. The red Uzi''s are shooting continuous endless bullets filling up the flesh of the beasts. The bullets are as small as magnetic balls. The Uzi''s are enhanced with red elemental stone in its mag, as a replacement for bullets. The red elemental stone can release bullets of various sizes, from small as a fly, to as big as a Canon, depending on the spiritual power of the user. Thorik''s gun let off steam with the continuous firing. He has fired 300 rounds approximately in 1 minute, managing to hit the beasts hidden behind the first three. Naturally, if it had been a real gun with bullets mag, the muzzle of the gun would have melted completely. The pistol grip would be hot for a person to hold and the cartridge would have softened. But since the Uzi Thorik is holding is presented with elemental stone in the place of bullets, the gun is in perfect condition, other than the light steam and warm pistol grip which is compensated with the red and black gloves that Thorik is donning. *"The spiritual power of this captain must be less based on the size of bullets he is firing. But the bullets are pretty fast, even if they''re smaller in size."* Arald starts evaluating Thorik based on his assault. "These beasts of 8th realm regenerate in almost no time. You need to shoot more than one of your puny bullets to affect my beasts. How do you plan on taking all of them and me? Useless effort!" Arald says while he bursts out in laughter. The kong beasts are of many classes starting from domesticated house class to general class. The special ability of these beasts, however, is that they regenerate and heal quickly. The regeneration state is faster as the class of the beast increases. "Heh! Seeker and gifter, noble and general. You have been talking non stop all this while. A barking dog never bites. Haven''t you heard of that saying? You monkey!" Thorik lets out a faint smile from the corner of his mouth. *Snap* "EXPLODE!~" Thorik snaps his finger and shouts out loud. His face is filled with excitement as if he cannot hold any longer to show something new to Arald. *Sliiiiiiiiccckkkkkkkkk!!* The three beasts that have been shot by Uzi bullets have suddenly started acting weird. Their skin grows lumps at some places looking ready to burst out. Out of nowhere, 10 huge red spikes grew out of the lumps tearing the kong beasts from the inside out. The brain, eyes, gut, organs and finally, the heart is shoved out, pierced by the red spikes. This left Arald more confused while Thorik reveals a smile on his face. "I-impossible! W-what did you do? Those were just normal bullets from your gun. The bullets are also small sized. How did the spikes come out?" Arald is starting to get scared. A seed of fear is planted in his heart. The two girls from Thorik squad also look astonished. They do not know what happened, but they are starting to have a hope that they will be defended for a while until the help arrives. "Hm... Don''t tell me that you have never watched this type of reaction? It''s simple. The large amount of bullets I shoot into each person or body is not because they are small. I mean- they are small because of my spiritual power, yeah." "But! The bullets I shoot are magnetized. Thus, the blood spikes killed your beasts from inside." Thorik was filled with pride, and a feeling of achievement rose in his chest. "M-magnetized? B-but you aren''t supposed to have any gifted weapon." Arald stutters. Thorik starts moving forward while he unequips the mags of both of his guns. He reaches out to brand new mags in his pockets which consist of not one, but three red elemental stones in each mag.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. The mags he used till now only consisted of one red stone. But these new mags consists of three of them, more powerful and effective bullets. *"Dammit! Why do weaker people face stronger ones in a fight? Why do the weak act cocky at first? And then, the stronger one will reveal the ace up his sleeve and the weak ones run away! Life is so unfair. Especially my life."* Arald''s shackles broke on seeing a gifted weapon in his hands. He is thinking of the most effective strategy on a war ground. The ''Run away without looking back'' strategy. The magnetized bullets that Thorik fires, work on a basic principle. The north and south poles of magnets. Each gun of his is a pole of the magnet bullet that ejects out of his gun. The gun in his left hand only fires north poles and the gun in right fires south poles. At first, more than 2 bullets are shot inside a flesh. They magnetize the water content and blood of the body. Later, Thorik fills the body with either all south or north bullets, which repels the magnetized blood. And in the end, the blood move away and spikes protrude out of the body, leaving it deceased. For example, Thorik first fires a South and North Pole bullet inside a body ''A''. The magnetized bullets magnetizes the blood of body ''A''. Later he fires all same pole bullets inside the body ''A''. The same pole bullets repel the blood inside the body causing it to spike out as thorns and smoothly eliminates the foe. This is the gifted weapon for the gifter. 55 Gunslinger - 03 Get him!" Arald turns the beast he is riding on, back to his city to escape from Thorik while buying time, by sacrificing the kong beasts. "Ah Captain! Arald is running away. You need to chase him down and finish first with your flashy moves and guns!" The crying girl shouts from behind of Thorik. "Why? Are you a stupid or what, kid? Why do we need to chase and fight him when there is no use in doing so? I will take down these beasts fastly so we can collect the lost stones which were dumped by your idiot newbie squad members. Then we head back to our realm." Thorik replies using the presence of mind, instead of being impulsive. "Huh!?" The girl is puzzled. *"Every captain acts high and might and like a noble. But what kind of captain is this person? who acts rough and delinquent alike, no he is a delinquent in and out. Geez! he does not even know how to utter sensitive words from his mouth to a helpless beautiful girl like me! I''m quitting this squad after we go back. I''m jumping over to some charming and handsome captain who treats me, Charnie the beautiful doll with respect and food."* She thinks to herself pouting and clenching her fists, cursing Thorik with her eyes, and pursing the lips. *"The God arts from many years ago. And a humanoid that is made of all the elemental stones. A doctor who has escaped with the humanoid. I want my hands on everything. I want to rise to the top with such power. I want to achieve my dreams."* Thorik is lost in ways to quench his lust for power, in his own thoughts.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. He starts shooting at the rest of beasts that storms towards him. Even though Thorik is lost in lust of power, his body moves on its own. Fancy jumps and turns, he movess elegantly with the guns with a fierce glare in eyes. He doesn''t take his finger off the trigger even if all the beasts are down. It''s almost like his muscles are reflecting his cruelty, on their own based on muscle memory and insightful lust for despotism. He stops firing in the end while thinking about the God arts. This is his Everytime routine whenever he gets sent to eighth realm. He seeks the power that is lost in history. And yet again this time he is lost again with no clues or leads. Thorik heaves a sigh, turns back away from the beasts as all the beasts grows spikes from their bodies at the same time. The view is ''beautiful'' scenery like a thorny garden full of blood roses. Meanwhile the two girls inject a nanoresuct into the guy laying down on the ground with half ripped out gut. The wounds of the guy starts repairing themselves and the open wounds starts to reattach themselves. *"The wounds are stitched back and the body is repairing itself no more death threat now."* The other girl that is along with Charnie thinks while moving far from Charnie slipping away slowly like a kitty. "Huh? What? Why are you moving away, Amy? It''s ok, I''m here to protect you. Don''t worry, our captain is apparently a gifter here so we are o-" before Charnie finishes her mother like warm words. A huge Chunk of green intestines and green blood pours down in the area that Charnie is sitting. Her Blue aquamarine hair is drenched in green slime like substance with intestines dripping from her cheeks. Charnie is more than grossed out, and to top it off all the organs are flying towards her. The lower part of a beast covered her legs making the beast legs look like an extension of her body. And more parts including the green fur which is like the hair on caterpillar covered her. "EEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!!! I HATE THIS CAPTAIN!! EEEEEEEEEEK YUCK INTESTINES!" Charnie shouts in panic! The organs of the beasts that are dead due to the spikes are flown towards Charnie and decorated her self proclaimed beautiful and curvature body. "Stop being such a sissy! For real, why did I have to be the one to babysit such weaklings. What about the elemental stones? Have you both even started collecting them?" Thorik yells at both Charnie and Amy. He shifts his gaze around Charnie looking for Amy. Suddenly he finds Amy on his right side. She is innocently picking up the stones like a good innocent kid without a care for the world. As if the stones are her first and foremost thing to her. "Aren''t those the stones you dropped on your way? That''s why they''re lying so close to where you both are." Watching Amy''s Oscar like acting, Thorik raises his voice about the stones that Amy threw while she was being chased by the beasts. A quick shiver touches the body of Amy suddenly. She realises that Thorik sniffed out the culprit, she still maintains her composure and acts like an innocent who has been accused. "And you! The good for nothing one! How long are you going to be laying down hugging that huge head of beast?" Realising that it is no use in talking to Amy, Thorik turns towards Charnie who is passed out because of the terror she faced. "Tsk! I know you girls never listen to me. That''s why I bought another weapon with me today." Saying that Thorik slips his hand inside his sleeve with a smirk on his face. Both Amy and Charnie feels a twitch suddenly upon hearing Thorik. He pulls out a whip from his hand sleeves and swayes the leather whip in air, the torturous thing flung around in a circular motion before it hit the ground biting a rock causing loud noise. Both Amy and Charnie instantly knew what it was from just the thunder like sound it made. They instantly start to sweat and looks back from the corner of their eyes. Before Thorik takes a step forward towards the teen girls, an arrow made of gust pierces the land before him and draws a line made from the gust. "I don''t think you''re supposed to treat a trainee squad in this way, Mr. Thorik." A male voice is heard from behind Thorik. 56 The Meeting "What are you doing here, Mr. Obsessive with those pants of your female captain?" Thorik annoyingly questions to Darren who shot the arrow from his crossbow. Both Darren and Shamian have same weapons, that is the crossbow. Rather than the arrows their crossbows have a dial attached to it with three green stones that can shoot invisible air arrows. This is a basic captain level crossbow, the one starting General class crossbow consists stones of different attributes. "T-talk with some shame Thorik! I''m not a pervert like you who would want to whip teen girls while they''re working." Darren yells at Thorik on top of his lungs but at the same time, blood drips from his left nostril as the words of ''whipping and teen girls'' came out of his mouth. "I don''t want to hear that from someone who grows proud below the navel everytime he sees his captain from behind." Thorik throws an insult at Darren, sticking his pinky finger inside his ear, he rotated slowly and arrogantly and blows the wax off his finger taking his time. "Eeeek! Stop, Thorik. Behave like an elegant cap-" Before Darren finishes off someone interrupted him. "Oh my! I never knew you only like me from behind." A beautiful and husky, seductive voice is heard. Shamian turns her upper body backwards while she wonders what''s so special about her back. Her already short skirt lifts up slowly exposing her red inner clothing. Nosebleed intensifies for Darren and the faces of all men standing behind Shamian brightens up with sparkling eyes. "Captain! I will always be behind you and protect you with my body!!!" A soldier shouts from behind her while his gaze is fixated on Shamian''s back cheeks. "Whatever! Anyway, moving on. Aren''t you banned from being sent to this realm, brat?" Shamian asks Thorik. Thorik just lifts his middle finger up pointing towards Shamian as a reply. That is true, Thorik always messes up his missions in this eighth realm of evolved beasts. He always goes for the information on God Arts and about Ares. That is why his house, the House of Asura''s stopped giving him any missions that involve going to eighth realm. "Nani! How dare he show finger to our goddess, just one word Queen and we will kill him." A soldier with squinty eyes shouts from behind. "Yes yes! How can he talk act like this with the Queen." "You are just jealous that you are not in Queen''s squad." "Die virgin, you cocky brat!" "Die virginnnn!"Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. All the soldiers behind Shamian causes a havoc and goes crazy starting ranting whatever they want. "Hey!!! Calm down you guys, Queen gets angry when someone yells from behind her." Darren tries to control the squad for his captain. The thing he is most afraid of is the anger that is building up inside Shamian. She closes her eyes and grits her teeth being annoyed and trying to suppress her anger. "Pop! my cherry Thorik you beasty man! Kyaa." An old man''s unspoken desires too goes away in the ranting of the crowd. Yes you heard right. It was an old soldier that said it. "Korraaa!!! Who the hell said that just now! What kind of an insult is that you pervy men!" Darren too yells. "SHUT UP PIGS!" Shamian losses her anger and Shouts out loudly. That is not the scary thing, her crossbow is shining in green color and the dial on her wrist is turning fast. This denotes that her spiritual power is rising above her peaks, instantly sending fear down the spines of all her soldiers. Shamian takes aim at Thorik and before Darren can cool her off. A powerful green arrow is made from the swirling of winds and is released on to Thorik assisted by gusts. The arrow lands at the feet of Thorik causing the arrow to explode into a gust of wind. The jacket and the thin shirt inside that Thorik is wearing constantly flaps in the air and raises above his abdomen revealing his steel like abs which looks like they have been sculptured every inch carefully, making even the men behind Shamian jealous of his body. "Heh you are still in my to do list before you get kicked out of the house." Shamian suddenly changes her tone and tells to Thorik with her seductress like eyes fixated on him. "Tsk." He turns his face away from her. "Help us collect the stones and take care of my squad and take them back to earth for me. I will be back after a few days." He folds his sleeves of his jacket up and says to Shamian. Shamian turns her face to her side looking at the ground she lets out a groan and all of her soldiers starts spreading out looking for and collecting the elemental stones. Some of them takes in the wounded guy and Charnie into their care and carries them on scoop stretchers. Shamian however walks towards Thorik with a smile, but before she could say something. "The guy fought well. He stood up to a captain class Kong. The two girls stayed back to guard the injured kid. The guy gets ''A+'' the girls gets ''B'' and the rest failed." Thorik says without Shamian asking him anything. Thorik is the captain of his own squad ''Dwellers'' who are scavengers and mostly mid range combat squad. Every captain of these official squads are to take the trainee soldiers to any respective realms and judge their capabilities and combat and judging skills. Thorik is in the middle of that with a trainee squad. Where all of his squad members escaped to earth when he showed them the way other than for Charnie, Amy and the injured guy. This is all part of training for them. He hands over Nanoresucts to Charnie and Amy to inject into the injured kid to save his life. And the moment Shamian arrives the test ends and Thorik hands the responsibility over to Shamian. "Me and my squad had to come here because you extended this training period! Seriously? Eight days in this evolved beasts realm? Don''t make Theodore kick you out of house. That old man is hard to predict." Shamian says. "But there is more to it At first I thought it was because of the meeting of all captains from a week is the reason they sent you to this realm. But I was wrong. They sent you off so they can have this meeting about the things that you are very interested in. Want to know what they are?" Thorik stopped in his traces after hearing Shamian. Shamian takes out the ear receiver magnet from her ear. A warm rubber that looks like the part of her ear is her receiver-"The mic is planted in the meeting room." She says holding her palm out with her receiver in her hand. 57 Why Cant People Just Be Nice? As Thorik turns around to face Shamian, she closes her palm withdrawing her hand back and plants her receiver back in her ear. She lets out a faint smirk -"The information comes with a price you have to pay." She says - "If not we can just walk our own paths." She raises one of her eyebrows and gives out a faint smile as of saying ; ''you know what I want''. "Eh- let it be, I will find the info on my own in this realm." Thorik writes her off. He knows the tricks and traps this woman uses to get what she wants. "Ugh! Why are you so hard? Are you only into teen girls? Tsk! Fine, I will give this to you for free." "They have the possible suspect name" Shamian pauses to catch a breath and continues "Of the doctor that flee the mainland with the humanoid kid." Thorik appears to be beady-eyed, he seems to be attentive more than before. The arrogance and cocky manner he had shown earlier is nowhere to be seen "And? What is his name?" He muttered under his breath unknown of what was awaiting ahead of his utterance. "Huh? You said something? I could not hear you." Shamian questions with a puzzled expression while she lowers her head a little and becoming all ears, as to hear carefully of what Thorik said. "His name! Did they say his name?" Thorik impatiently shouts. "Oh well." Shamian rolls her eyes. She thinks to herself what is wrong with this human? He gets so interested in this topic that he literally spaces into his own world. Taking a deep breath, she says. "The name is Gus Hughes!" The name of that doctor." Shamian replies exhaustingly. *Sigh~~* "Gus Hughes huh" Thorik lifts his head and looks up above thoughtfully. Only cosmic dust can be seen high in the sky. There are no clouds, it is plain dark night sky. All the stars are clearly visible to human eye and comets have filled up the sky travelling like a flock of birds. He lets out another sigh. Shamian is confused with his expressions, she does not know whether he is relieved or more worried. *Back in the House of Asura''s* "Just by knowing that some doctor ran away with a newborn baby, can we assume that the baby is a humanoid and he is the person? If so, are we hunting him now?" A captain asks Theodore in the meeting room. "He is a doctor for a reason. Who knows if he wanted to raise the kid or dissect him to gain the power. Keep your eyes open on every other houses and the islands they own and the people that come to their houses to enroll in the military. And when you find a person with last name Hughes. Bring them back here." Theodore orders all of his captains and generals. "And soldiers, prepare our house to buckle up for the enroll tests. In five months, kids from Mindoro will be here to take the test." He also passes an order to his soldiers for the test that is about to happen. Where Nick, Tim, Roy and Faust are selected for by Yang to showcase their talent to be taken into the House Of Asura''s. --Five Months Until The Test-- *Back in Medellin in the dark streets* "Haha yes! Get him! Beat him up!" "Don''t waste this opportunity guys, let all your anger vent out." "You blind piece of shit! How dare you not visit us the past week, you know we need to let out our frustration every week don''t you? Why! Why the fuck!" A blind kid is on the ground in the middle of a very narrow and dark street. And teens of 16 yr old are stomping on his head. His hair is dirtied by their shoes and clothes are not able to hold the hard blows. His eyebrow is cut and swollen, a guy is stomping on his face hard, the kid can feel the hardness of the guy''s shoe heel on his left cheek. It is crushing his skull deep into the dirt. It is getting harder to even breathe. Storm like punches and stomps are raining over him. *Heavy breaths~* "You better be here on time next week. Or we are going to expose your little truth that you are not autistic to the people of this city and we will rape your mom and little sis you got it? You blind fuck!" "Haha well said Akhito! you better remember that blind kid! You are going to spread your blindness to us and make us foolish blind people too if we let you loose on the streets." A teen with curly hair shouts in the face of Markos who is barely breathing on the ground. The 7 teens walk away after peeing on Mark and kicking his gut once and twice as a parting gift. They''re not satisfied with this but wanted to save their punching bag for next week. Mark searches for his bags of food and snacks for his mom and sis. He realises it is spilled all over the place. Stream of warm tears crawl down his cheeks ; instantly, breaking his strong emotional fencing. The punches, insults and kicks did not break him internally but the thought of having no food to feed his mom and sister tore his heart and the sadness he held in his throat. The money he earned by acting like an Autistic, killing his pride and doing what people made him do has gone to waste. He left the rice but tried to pick up the snacks. He gently wiped off the dirt and started putting them in his bag.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. His whole body is hot and his legs are quivering and jittering like the legs of a newborn, making him unable to stand. He tries to stand up twice and fails to do so. His frustration and tears increase with the fail of his 3 more attempts. He finally gives up and sits in the dust to catch a breath. Footsteps are heard coming from behind him but Mark is lost in his own thoughts to notice any sound. Suddenly two hands grabbed him from behind and started applying a medicinal gel gently to his bruises. Being startled from the touch Markos shouts out loudly "Wh-Who is it?" From his lungs. "It''s me Markos! Don''t be scared, I will carry you home." A warm and soothing voice of an old man is heard. It was the old blind man from the retirement house that Mark sits with all the time. "G-grandpa! Why can''t people just be nice? I just wish I could die and be released from this pain." Markos asks with pain filled voice. The words from the kid breaks the heart of the old man. It is beyond his imagination that a kid has spoken these words. God knows what he is going through in his life to have said it. --Four Months Until The Test-- On a pleasant sunny day, a street is filled with laughs and shouts of kids playing. They are pushing and throwing paper balls at each other. A house nearby is filled with grief and darkness to it''s already rusted door and dead wooden walls. "Heh! I will give you 200 kani''s and no more than that." A guy speaks to a women dressed in inappropriate clothes. "Reginald! Please, I just gave birth two weeks ago and it still hurts. I do not even have milk to feed my baby. Please do not decrease the normal price of 300 kanis you used to give normally." A woman begs Reginald, the guy who was in charge of the food supply ships that go out of the mainland. "You bitch! How many times do I have to tell you? Look at the scar on your tummy, it creeps me out so I''m not going to pay you regular price. Now I''m going to fuck you and pay you 150. If you want to live in this city, you better not talk back to me." Saying this he shoved the lady back into the house. He ignored the cries of the lady saying "Not in front of the baby." The lady kept begging with tears filled eyes. He heartlessly pushes her back into the pile of clothes formed like a small mountain after laundry. He tears her undies, bra and forces the lady to submission. --Two Months Until The Test-- "Ah! We are going out in the summer again to catch and stock the food to save it for winter huh. Outside the mainland, it is always cold. It does not even look summer." A fisherman in his 30''s talks to his fellow workers. "Ah the cold increased since the last time I came here. This old man cannot bear the cold anymore." The old man covers his shivering body with a warm coat hoping to finish his job and sail back home soon. --The Day Of Test-- "Faust! Hmm you are disqualified. Please try again after two years!" 58 Festival *Back In Mindoro* It is the time of the tests, and a huge battleship is docked at the shore of the island. The crew along with a captain are making their way into the neatly paved streets of Mindoro. The festive sounds surrounds the village of Mindoro. The streets are covered in a carpet of extravagant flowers along with green leaves, spread like a carpet decorated by nature itself at the entrance and bright lights, welcoming the people of Mainland. There is a decent sized fountain in the middle of the junction, where all streets meet. The flooring of the fountain is a transparent glass filled with lucid water. Purple colored lights are fixed under the flooring glass and also in the fountain where the water comes out from. The water takes on a purple color with the reflecting of lights turning to a purple waterfall. There are different sorts of food stalls that are opened on either sides of the streets. The smell of fried and grilled meat assisted by the sizzling sounds made by the meat on a grill added with vinegar, spices and sauces, making your stomach rumble the instant, you enter the street. There are also hot brown perfectly made steaks served to you right next to the side of a road. What stands out most are large burgers with two patties and extra fillings with flavoured french fries served with ketchup and mayo. Lastly, the pork cutlet sandwiches welcomes your taste buds with the pork meat fried crisply until it looks golden colored, are present on one side of the street, totally opposite. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. The other side is filled with different kinds of noodles to savour, Ramen noodles with pork slices, half boiled egg which is neatly cut in half, decorated with fish cakes, firmly boiled noodles all immersed in thick and rich hot broth. There are also dry noodles without soup but chunks of sliced chicken fried along with manchurian meatballs and also Pad Thai noodles fusioned with red Sichuan peppers. The street food stalls really looked inviting for the people that are passing by. There are also streets that are filled with fruit vendors only to satiate your hunger. Most of the stalls are filled with fresh yellow ripened mangoes to lure the customer with just plump texture, the sweet tangy taste begins to linger on your taste buds and fills your nose instantly, with fragrance as soon as you step into that bustling street. All kinds of dragon fruits with their strange spiky outer texture and fresh ripened grapes are just a feast for the eyes of every bystander. "Brrhahaha enjoy this all while you can boys! We won''t get this devouring sight in our land. We only get this level of welcoming and respect in this island, wuhahaa." A man laughingly tells his soldiers. "Wow captain Skiouros! We did not believe you when you said it. But it is so true! Ahhh we envy you captain. You get to receive this kind of treatment now and then. Why is it that only soldiers change every two years to visit the islands and not captains?" A soldier questioned his captain with the wish. "Brrrhaha, become a captain and you would have the same privilege." Skiouros replies with his abrupt laughter. Skiouros(35) meaning squirrel in ancient Greek is also a captain like Thorik and Shamian. He has a heavy middle aged body, blonde hair with ocean blue eyes, oval shaped tummy covered with loose clothes. He wrapped a scarf around his head that served like a cap and a cream colored cape. His clothes are brown colored with his shirt tucked in his pants with a cream colored belt. Meanwhile the school that Faust goes to is in chaos and drama everywhere. "Woot woot! Aren''t you all excited to see the soldiers and Captain Skiouros! Damn why do we still have school on this festival like day! Aren''t kids supposed to go watch the carnival and eat food? I hate school!" A girl in Faust''s class is annoyed while talking to her friends. Every kid is having their lunch in the class with colorfully designed napkins spread on their desks. They talk about different things, discussing hot topics while eating. "Faust! You are disqualified! Please try again after two years." A classmate of Faust yells out loud from a group of guys who are sitting in the middle of the classroom. He hides back into the group after saying the words. Faust is sitting in the last row and last corner, just beside a window. He pretends like he did not hear the group even when he did loud and clear. He pulls down the left sleeve of his ash colored hoodie and covers his arm up to his wrist, in a worry that the group of guys might comment on the abnormal scars on his left arm. "Ohhhh look! He is hiding his skin diseases. Yuck! Looking at it, killed my appetite." But a kid from the group noticed Faust pulling his sleeves down and bad mouths Faust. The whole group chuckles at the comments and takes pleasure while Faust gets uncomfortable in his place. Faust is having a hard time swallowing the food. He still keeps eating with an intention of ignoring the group. He doesn''t want to pay attention to such comments and make the group think that he is hurt because of their words. That will just make them keep going. The girls that were near the window talking about the carnival and the soldiers arriving, observes everything that is going on in the class. And suddenly one of the girl says "Ew Faust! Your teeth are all yellow. Don''t you brush?" She adds fuel to the fire with an evil grin on her face covering her mouth with her left hand. Faust pauses eating. He slowly takes his spoon out of his mouth. He pulls his lunch box closer to his body, bends his head down and eats slowly in a way that his upper lip doesn''t expose his teeth. The words clearly hurt him and made him attentive of his body. Faust''s teeth are healthy and white, yet the girls leave an abusive remark. Taking this as an opportunity, the group of guys goes again at Faust "why are your teeth so nasty?" Says another kid and this time the whole class laughs at him. "Your hair is so dirty, and what kind of hairstyle is that Dude!" "Don''t forget, he have skin disease. He doesn''t brush daily. That''s why he got skin disease." The kids in his class goes on blabbering different things. About his hair, his habitual left hand as to why he does things differently with his left hand and the fact that he is smaller than all the kids in his class. He is seen as weak and became a target for everyone in no time. Faust doesn''t say anything or retorts back. He feels frustrated and the words and mocking laughs of his classmates become a ton of weight on his shoulders and unbearable. He eats fast, slides his box back in his backpack . Gets up on his feet avoiding eye contact with everyone and walks out of the class fast. 59 Caitlyn Even after walking out of class, the group of kids followed Faust out, they kept commenting insolent things, throwing insults at him while maintaining their distance between them and him, as if Faust was some dalit to stay away from. "Who is the shorty of our school? It''s the amazing Faust! Hahaha." "Creepy! hey creepy! We''re calling you, why do you run away?" *You are thin and short Faust! You have diseases, prone to them." "He is going to be a dwarf even when he grows up." "Where are your parents? Did they die? You should have just died too." Each kid from the group takes turns to pass mean commentary about Faust. Even the kids in the corridor bursts out in mocking laughter when they saw a kid of their age getting bullied. "H-hey you guys, why don''t you give it a rest? Let him be." Finally a kid in specs from another class stands up to the bullies yet hesitatingly.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Faust notices that someone stood up for him, his steps become smaller and he tries to see who it is from the corner of his eye. He tries not to turn his head all the way back. His eyes gets widened at the sight before him. He immediately turns his head back and scrunched his eyes shut tightly. Standing there, was an average-looking girl, definitely not some overbearing delinquent to ''protect'' him. Her fair complexion made her silky, long, chestnut coloured hair stand out, those strands were dancing around her back, the cold breeze slightly messing them up. Her floral scent was alluring, a whiff enough to make anyone sigh in love. If she were to be described in one word, it would be ''refreshing''. Faust instantly felt ashamed of himself. *"A girl raised her voice in a corridor filled with thirty kids to defend someone. Why can''t I, stand up for myself?"* Faust is annoyed with the thought and tries to keep walking in despair, with an inner battle going on. "Hey look who it is! the inhibited girl of the school. Hahaha, what are you going to do? Go on a rampage? Go home and take your anti-depressants, if you don''t want the whole school to bully you too." A kid leading the group of bullies answers back to the girl, threatening her. Faust stops again in his traces. But before he could open his mouth. "Hey isn''t it the rude girl Caitlyn who cusses? She even goes crazy fighting with teachers." "Yes! It''s that crazy girl, she''s even selected with the top kids of our village to take the test and go to the mainland. Why is she standing up to that diseased kid? Eww! I Can''t even look at that guy." "Oh! oh! what is happening? The Noble''s daughter is going to make a scene again here? Are we going to see another rage moment from that crazy girl?" All the other kids in the corridor mutters mean things in a low voice about Caitlyn. But it is loud enough to reach both Faust''s and the girl''s ears. She immediately clench her fists and bends her head low not being able to control her anger any longer and takes a long breathe. She turns back away from the group of bullies and starts walking fast. "I''m not crazy, you people made me crazy." She whispers under her breath as she walked. Faust''s ears caught the painful words of the girl, he understood that she is lonely in her own world, isolated by everyone. "Yes yes! Keep walking without looking back before we call the asylum. Crazy chick!" Another kid mocks at her while she keeps walking. Her momentary breathing becomes faster with every step she takes. *"It''s all his fault! His fault that I am like this! I do not want to shout or yell and make everyone listen to my voice. I do not want to be enraged and slap my self later for the stupid things I say. It is all your fault dad. This is my destiny, my life that I hate so much."* She crosses her arms by placing her hands on her elbows while feeling lonely, the poor soul was insecure, afraid and scared of her fellow human beings. "She''s is not crazy! Take it back." Faust finally yells out loud, his voice resonates around the corridor loud and crystal clear. He turns back to face the bullies. His face does not show any kind of fear, eyes doesn''t even flinch for a millisecond. He stares right into the eyes of the kid that mocked Caitlyn as his eyebrows meet together. Caitlyn is surprised and frozen in her steps. She turns back instantly without wasting anytime to see if it''s really the voice of Faust that she heard. *Two years ago in the school* Eight year old Caitlyn is focussing on what her teacher is teaching. It is the math class, her least favourite subject. But she is still trying to focus her every brain cell in learning the lesson. As her teacher enters into subtraction of two big numbers. Ears of Caitlyn perks up upon hearing noises from the ground which is on her left. She is sitting next to a window on her left, so she casually lifts her head up stretching her neck, to have a look at the noises appearing from outside. It is Physical Development class (PD in short), for the kids from other classes. Her gaze first lands on a couple of kids playing tag with chuckles and laughter. The faces of those kids are lighting up with excitement and happiness . Shifting her gaze she finds two people running quickly from point A to point B to see which one of them is first to reach point B starting from A. "Ahh! how lucky right Kay? They get to play in PD class. And we are stuck in Math and this is a hell of a boring class." Another girl sitting behind Caitlyn talks to her while sulking on their current situation. "Hehe, yes. I wonder who discovered this math, I want to go back in time to kill them so we won''t have this math class." Caitlyn replies back with a mischievous smirk towards her friend. "Hahaha yes girl! You read my mind. Ahh I know you all are playing, why are you all so loud." Saying, the girl looks at the same couple of guys that Caitlyn is watching. "Well? Are you crushing over those big guys? One of them is a noble like you too." She says. "Ah no! The game they are playing is nice! Competing to see who wins in a running race. I like competitive games. I''m cheering for the noble though, since he is smaller than the other one." Caitlyn replies while pointing to Roy. "Ah! That is Roy, you don''t know his name? I thought being Nobles, you guys know each other." "What? No, I just saw him a couple of times. When I visited my dad''s work." "Ahhhh the other one''s name is Nicholas by the way, he is the son of the chief guard.* "Oh! No wonder he is bigger than all the kids in his class haha." Both Caitlyn and her friend laughs together. "Oh! Wait! There are three of them!" Her friend says in a surprise. "What? Oh yes! How come I never noticed him all the time we were watching?" Caitlyn asks while looking at little Faust. "Oh probably cause he is too little and thin to be noticed right?" Her friend laughs while saying. "Hmm.. you must be right." Caitlyn stares at Faust, kind of being impressed by him. "I changed! I''m rooting for that little guy now!" Caitlyn says in an excited tone. "Oh you always cheer the weak looking ones. Weirdo!" "No! I like it when weaker ones, try their best and win. Strong guys already have an advantage, so I root for weaker ones." "I think his name is Faust." "Faust, huh¡­?" "Ahhh ahhhh ahhhh I-I will win this time for sureeeee." Faust yells at Nick and Roy while trying to catch up to them. *"He is trying hard."* Caitlyn muddles in her head, concluding from his expressions and efforts. 60 The Four He is trying hard." Caitlyn muddles in her head, concluding from his expressions and efforts. *Present* "Take back what you said. Or I will make you eat those words." The look on Faust''s face was pissed and grimaced with pain, of everything he heard till now. Every kid in the corridor looks shocked, and faces of the group of kids who bullied Faust showcased mixed emotions. All of them gritting their teeth and balled their fists. "Ahito! You need to do something. Teach him a lesson! How dare he say something against us." "Yes Ahito, We need to teach him a lesson!" "Why aren''t you doing anything Ahito! Let''s go gang up on him." The kids around Ahito, leader of the group burst out, as he was still calm, telling him to do something while grabbing his arm. All of the kids are only strong when it comes to hitting with words. When someone talks back to them, it is always Ahito they all look towards to. "Look Ahito! How dare he look at us with those repulsive eyes, why don''t you do something? Don''t you feel anger? Come one Ahito! Let us beat him up!" A bald kid beside Ahito says furiously. As the kids beside Ahito raise their voice trying to rile up Ahito to start a fight. All of their faces goes into shock assisted with fear in their eyes. Faust starts walking towards them as soon as the bald kid runs his mouth, and they get more scared as Faust walks closer to them. Faust stands in the face of Ahito, looking into his eyes without a hint of fear or discomfort shown. "Y-you wanna have a taste of my punch Faust?" Ahito swings his right arm aiming for Faust''s face. He has to make a move to keep his head up in front of all the kids watching him. But his blow was all in vain as it completely fail to even graze Faust. Faust elegantly leans back, lifting his chin up. The punch travelled from under his chin without even grazing. He then leans forward staring down at Ahito he says. "Take the words back! Or none of you will be in good shape." His eyes turned cold and dead and his voice becomes more confident as if he entered his battle mode, completely transforming. Ahito in the class barely scratched the surface of kung-fu from his father. His elder brother in higher class is selected to take the test as well. So the group of bullies look up to Ahito as someone who could beat up everyone. Seeing that Faust dodged his punch without even trying much, the group of bullies got more scared as chill settled into their backs on the sight. "W-we will get back at you for sure some day, you creep! Remember this!" Ahito and the group of bullies runs after saying it. The scene left all the kids in the corner silent and dumbfounded. Faust glares at all the kids in the corridor giving them a cold stare as if he is questioning and mocking them, if they got something to say. And nobody dared to speak any word or tilt any inch. He sighs and turns back, and to his surprise Nick, Tim and Roy were present just in front of him. "Huh?'' his jaw dropped in surprise. "What are you guys doing here? Since when were you here?" Faust asks while being surprised. "We saw a commotion here and took a peek, and to our surprise, it was you staring at that group. So we decided to come check up on you." Nick replies with a majestic tone with his hands resting on his hips. "Well, my little junior did not train his arms in the past six months. So we came to see if you need assistance. But you scared them off yourself all alone!" Nick wraps one of his arms around the neck of Faust and rubs his elbow on Faust''s head playfully while the four laughs loudly. Caitlyn''s face calms down watching the four laughing together. She was happy that Faust stood up for her when no one else did and she keeps staring at the face of Faust. His bright laughter warms her heart with an unknown and new feeling creeping in. "Haha stop it Nevada poop! My arms still burn, let go of me! Have you guys eaten anything? Let''s go to the canteen!" Saying that Faust remembers Caitlyn and looks back in the corridor for her. He scans through every face that is standing and walking in the huge place but doesn''t seem to find her. He thinks that she might have been hurt and walked away and lets out a sigh. "Sigh! Anyway let''s go!" Faust and the other three says with a cheerful voice with their hands punching the ceiling, they head to the canteen. Caitlyn hides behind a wall in the turning of the corridor. She wore a small smile on her face as her cheeks turn slightly pink, as a baby pink colored rose petals, thinking about Faust. After lunch the group of kids that bullied Faust were silent in all the classes. Faust too did not even take a glance at them, he was focussed on the board and his books. After school Gus and Bella both came to pick up Faust. Faust is more than delighted to see Bella too. She was not hyper upon seeing him but Faust was merry to see she is wagging her tail upon seeing him. The three went to their house on the hill. Faust again went into the woods to train with his heavy armor and his sword. After coming from the forest, he and Gus sits on the dining table on opposite sides, facing each other for dinner together. Gus had prepared a salad with various types of greens, lettuce, shredded onions, pieces of broccoli and topped with shredded cheese. Two perfectly cut slices of egg on the side, a piece of moist gravy fried chicken and bacon oozing with juices and decorated in chilli flakes. Also, a piece of peeled garlic shrimp which is steamed and fried with garlic and pepper, served with light vinegar dressing. And for the main dish he prepared a steak which is fried with cheese and garlic sauce. The steak is perfectly cooked until it''s medium brown with grill marks on both sides and a layer of tender red meat in the middle that shows up when you cut a piece, it is very well cooked that the meat just melts in your mouth. He complimented the steak with two red looking spicy shrimp, one chunk of flat chicken tempura fried with seasonings and crispy batter. And the dish is served with his own recipe smoky BBQ sauce to dip and eat.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Faust! I want to ask you something." Gus say in a low voice. Hide quoted text "Yes?" "Quit the Mainland test tomorrow." Gus utters the words with seriousness filled in his voice 61 Trust Me Woahhhh! Grandpa! You cooked a feast tonight!" Faust''s eyes widened with all the food in front of him, he hurriedly sits on his chair, closes his eyes and prays to God in single breath. "God! Please let all this food be digested." Faust says and grabs his fork and knife. "Haha what kind of prayer is that Fausty? Since you couldn''t come to the carnival and eat tasty food, I figured I would cook it to you for dinner." Gus says while looking at his grandson happily with a smile on his face. "Ahh! How are your eyes now? You haven''t told me the progress for you training for today!" He asks with a rather reserved tone. His face is smiling yet a hint of sadness hidden beneath. "Oh sorry! I was distracted by the food hehe. And we''ll, it is taking less than one minute now. And also depending on the distance grandpa!" Faust says while happily chewing his salad. "I see, don''t overdo it and hurt your eyes. And nobody caught you practicing right?" "Yeah well some did! But I didn''t care." "What! Are you out of your mind? Faust! You need to me tell me, are you for real?" "Well yes¡­ the birds, small animals saw me practicing right¡­" Faust says with hesitation, trying to hold his laughter back. "Oh ok! No dessert for you tonight then. I''m going to go eat it all by myself." Gus understands the mischievousness and teases Faust with his favorite dishes, as Faust lived for desserts and sweets more than anything. And as Gus is about to leave his chair to go into kitchen for the dessert, Faust realises the danger. "No No No! Why don''t you say there is dessert too grandpa haha. I was just kidding, such a cool I am right? I''m a kid right? I get the dessert right? Right? Pweaasee?" He says with puppy eyes trying to please Gus. "Well, ok, finish your salad first." Gus sits back in his chair and eats with him. He waits till Faust is done with salad and enters steak. Faust gently cuts the tender meat. He didn''t even have to put any pressure on the steak. The knife teared in and cut it smoothly like butter while juices began ogling on the surface of it, the piece which was cut is so delicious looking as steam blows off from it. The red meat in the middle layer of the steak is pink, the texture is smooth and full of flavored juices. Faust purposely eats slower than he normally does to savour the taste in his mouth. As he is done with half of the steak and shrimp. Gus clears his throat to talk to him. "Um so Faust! Can I ask you something?" "Yes Grandpa? What do you need?" "Do you trust me Fausty?" "You and Bella are my only family grandpa, do you even need to ask hehe." "Quit the test for mainland tomorrow, I don''t want you to be participating in that." Gus utters the words with seriousness filled in his voice. It hit Faust out of the blue, the piece of spicy chicken is still in his mouth and the spices kicked out of nowhere. He coughs with the spice kick, reaches out for the glass of water oh his left and settles himself after drinking the whole class of water. "Wh-ah you are playing a trick on me like I did with you before grandpa! Don''t tease me." He still doesn''t believe what Gus said. It was definitely a joke, there was no way grandpa mean it for real, he thought. "I am for real Faust! We don''t need to join the Asura''s. I don''t want you to, for reasons that I cannot say. Please listen to me, once I come back from the mainland with resources and sending off the kids. I will explain everything to you." Gus explains with a sad face, Faust could clearly see that Gus is definitely hiding. If not he would allow Faust to do whatever he wanted. He drops his fork on the table and jumps out of his chair while slamming the table with his hands while his voice is raised. "Grandpa- i-it is my dream, I have been working from 2 years all to showcase my skills and prove myself in the test tomorrow. To get taken into the elites and go to the mainland, to train and learn from better people and grow stronger." Faust doesn''t understand why Gus want him to quit, He would have done what Gus wanted if it was just some other day and some other things. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. But after the feud with Roney and Lucifer in Yui''s place, the hunger for power grew in the heart of Faust. He wants to explore the world and get stronger to be able to protect whomever he wants. Gus too jumps out of his chair, he is so desperate in making Faust to quit this test. "Faust! I swear you will be in mainland but not in Asura''s house. I''m going to the mainland, I will confirm a ticket for you in another house. Just wait patiently until I come back and take you with me. Trust me! I want you to be with me on this one." The face of Gus shows fear while saying the words *"Grandpa definitely is fearing something. What is happening and why now! Why! WHY! AHHHHHH!"* Faust closes his eyes tight while gritting his teeth. He is so confused and unsure of what to do now. He is not a rude kid to disobey Gus, he feels bad if Gus is saddened by his actions. He screams in his head while slamming his hands on the table again, this time harder. He then pushes his chair to a side and walks away to the upper floor. *"I''m sorry Faust! I don''t mean to hurt you, but it would be for your best if you don''t show up for tomorrow." Gus mumbles in his head and sits back on the chair. He rests his elbow on the dining table, joins his hands together and rubs his two thumbs on his temple with his eyes closed. The night passes away with both Faust and Gus not sleeping and not talking a word to each other. In the morning, Faust doesn''t go for his regular exercise session. He wakes up at 7am, hurriedly walks over to the bathroom. He takes a hot shower. Goes back to the upper floor again. After an hour. He comes down, fully dressed in enthral clothes, small shining armor on his chest, elbows and shins and a waster sword on his waist. He looks all ready to partake in the tests. Gus is really surprised, what he feared from last night that Faust might not listen to him has happened. He just stands there looking at Faust. Faust on the other hand, does not speak a word. He goes out ignoring hot breakfast that is served on the dining table for him. He breathes in the fresh air, fills his lungs full and calms himself. He turns his face towards Gus who is just standing still without any reactions on his face. "Do come and watch me grandpa!" Faust says and heads out to the carnival street for the try outs. 63 Without A Cause All the contestants filled the stage standing as one big long line. In front of them in the middle of the stage are three wooden chairs painted and crafted exceptionally giving them a look of thrones that are made out of stones. Skiouros is seated in the middle seat with Yang and Roy''s father Clayton (31) sitting on either sides of Skiouros. Roy and Caitlyn are standing beside the chair of Clayton. This whole stage is right in the middle of the stadium, there is another stage just in front of this main one which is built at 3 foot tall and 20 feet width. "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the festival that takes place once every two years. As you all know, this is a two-phase test. The first round will be a 1 V 1 and the second round will be awakening." The announcer announces on the Mic, goes back down from the stage and stands in his designated place. "The one who passes both phases will be judged by the three sitting on the stage and the chosen ones will be going to the mainland." Yang gets up from his seat and walks up to the mic, he leaned forward in front of the mic with his head lifted above, he says - "The matchmaking for the first round will be given on the big screen and both contestants are to face each other in the arena. Let''s begin the match making!" He says enthusiastically and goes back to sit in his seat with a proud smile on his face. The matchmaking then begins. Many contestants face against each other, the one who lost and the one who won, both come back to the main stage when they are done with their fight. Even Roy, Caitlyn, Nick and Tim were done with their fights and emerged victorious. The screen starts to shuffle the remaining participants. And the matchmaking ends with Faust and the elder brother of Ahito. "Faust & Barkha!" The announcer announces and the whole stadium goes nuts! Faust is the top candidate recommended directly by the village chief Yang and Barkha is the villagers'' underdog. Barkha is also 2 years older than Faust. He is tall and well built. Completely opposite from how Faust looks. "Skiouros, he is the kid I have spoken about." Yang says while his eyes are filled with pride watching Faust getting off the mainstage and walking towards the fighting stage. Skiouros takes a look at Faust while keenly observing his body upon Yang reminders to him, "He didn''t catch my attention in the first look, let''s see what he is capable of." Skiouros replies to Yang with an unimpressed look on his face. Yang just smiles at the reply of Skiouros, he doesn''t want to use words to describe talent. One will automatically know what Faust is made up of if they see him in action he thought. Both Barkha and Faust face each other as the crowd cheers for both of them equally. "*Both of us worked hard eventually, who knows how many hours of work we have both put into this. But, this is a good opportunity for me to see if I can read his moves."* He holds his wooden waster sword with his left hand which was strapped to the left side of his waist. He scans the entire stadium to see if he can come across Gus or Bella. "Get ready!" after hearing the words of the referee, he takes a deep breath and stands still taking the stance of unholy sword. "Sheathe your sword and be ready, you won''t be able to once the match started." Barkha says with a smirk on his face as he takes gets into his martial art stance. *"What a weird stance- the balance of his body is unevenly distributed."* Faust doesn''t move a muscle but keeps staring at Barkha. "Start" As soon as the words come out of the mouth of referee, Barkha jump starts his Sprint towards Faust. *"Too slow"* Faust stands still and observes the movements that Barkha makes. *"Starting off with a knee huh?"* He says while watching the moments of Barkha''s left hand, as if he is uninterested in this fight. Suddenly, the left arm of Barkha comes swinging at Faust and in the blink of an eye, a powerful knee is shoved into Faust''s gut. The impact is hard and painful and it''s a clean hit. The whole crowd goes crazy, hands of Yang twitches in disbelief, he becomes even more shocked than anyone. *"The speed of Barkha is not any impressive, but why? He got hit easily."* Yang disbelieves his eyes. Faust''s eyes bulge out and his whole body trembles. He falls to the ground on both of his knees. He widens his eyes to the extreme to focus on his enemy and backs away a few feet from Barkha and rests on his one knee while holding his stomach and breathing hard. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "I told you, you should draw your sword out, or it will be bad for you. Now, I won''t show you mercy from the next hit." Barkha says with his hands folded in front of him. Faust gets up on his feet while wiping off his mouth. He again holds his sword with his left hand and stands still. "Ok if that is how you want to play it cool. I won''t show no mercy." Barkha storms at Faust. This time, he flips on the ground with his hands touching the ground, balancing this body with feet up and head down he lands another kick on Faust''s face. He doesn''t stop there, he quickly retracts his feet to his chest while his hands still on the ground and throws his both feet on Faust''s chest sending Faust back three feet away. He quickly gets on his feet and throws another thunder like punch in Faust''s gut again, many attacks from many sides start landing on Faust without giving him any time to recover. *"Too slow¡­ too slow, I can see each and every one of his moves. Yet my body doesn''t dodge. Dammit! This is - definitely a wrong choice. I should have quit rather than taking this beating.''" *"The whole crowd is silent, they must have been shocked huh! I can only hear a dog barking." Faust thinks as the whole crowd goes silent as Faust is taking the beating. The only sound that can be heard is of a dog barking. "*Wait- dog? Isn''t it Bella?"* Faust watches to his right from the corner of his eye. Gus and Bella are standing and staring at him. "Barkha finally ends it with a blow from his two hands combined and he thumps on the back of Faust making Faust instantly collapse on the ground. His tears roll out as he still watches Gus and Bella. Suddenly the whole crowd goes loud in cheers for Barkha. He won so easily, Faust did not even land a hit on him. This made the crowd go crazy. "What happened?" Yang says as he stares at his disciple lying cold on the ground. "I think he went down on purpose, wantedly lost." Skiouros bends over to his left side, tilts his head down and tells Yang what he feels. 64 Awakening "Are you sure? Did you think he lost wantedly?" Being surprised by the words of Skiouros, Yang observed both of them. The referee have already stopped the fight considering Faust''s safety. Barkha is walking off the stage while Faust got up on his knees, letting out a hint of smile with happiness upon seeing Gus and Bella. Two people approaching the stage with stretcher in their hand are surprised to see Faust getting up on his feet. They hurried over here upon seeing the kid beaten up so badly, but he is already on his feet. They were shocked. Faust walks back normally to the stage and stands with other participants. Everyone has shocked expressions taken over their faces while Barkha has anger filling up his head. *"There is just no way he is up and walking so soon."* He thinks with his mouth open. Caitlyn, who is standing on the other side, gives a sad look at Faust from the corner of her eye. Faust averts her eyes as he feels like a weakling who lost the fight He does the same to all of his three friends. After the first phase is done, the announcement of the next phase about to be starting soon surfaces. "The awakening", involves different kinds of weapons placed on the stage, all are enhanced by a replica of elemental stones. When a contestant goes on to hold a weapon. His spiritual power is calculated by the stone and is displayed by the counter on the big screen. Normally, kids above the score of 500SP (spiritual power) are taken as a soldier level Kids with SP above 1000 are taken as ''Seekers'' soldiers. Which are suitable for any kind of missions, their spiritual power are well suited. The kids with 500SP may or may not make it into the house as any soldier but the 1000SP kids will definitely become a soldier class and from there, they continue to seek the power and become Gifters one day. "Now, even if he purposely lose in the first round. He cannot do it in this one. These kids haven''t been trained in spiritual power, so they can''t decrease it. Let''s see how good he is." Skiouros continues with Yang. "You are right." Yang tells as he tightens his grip around the hands of his chair. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Roy goes as usual to start off the test. He walks up to the weapon and picks up an Assault rifle. Dark red aura immediately surrounds the gun he is holding, the replica red stone which is just a counter stone implanted in the gun shines. He then goes on to place his index finger on the trigger. The red stone does not glow brightly but the faint red glimmering light is sparkling and beautiful. Everyone turns their heads towards the big screen, the number on the screen starts running. It already crossed 500 in super speed, 900¡­.950...1000¡­ it is not even stopping. The number on the screen keeps running 1100¡­.1200¡­.1300 the number slows down by a moment. 1350...1400. The speed of the numbers slows down more it slowly reaches to 14500 and from there it becomes a snail. It slowly stops at 1490. Roy still keeps staring at the screen with a brink of hope that it reaches 1500. But it is frozen there. "Tsk" He gets annoyed with the results. The whole crowd however goes crazy. "Of course, he is the noble what can you expect?" "Congratulations Sir, Roy" "Our little master is already so strong. He will definitely become a captain on day for sure." People from the crowd floods Roy with their praises. Roy takes a small breathe and maintains his composure and tries not to show all of his emotions. He slightly smiles, unlocks the rifle and points it towards the dummy in front of the stage. He takes a deep breathe slowly while focusing on his spiritual power. The guns starts quivering in his hands. It becomes hard for him to hold the gun still. He holds it in his right shoulder supported by his chin bone pressing down on the gun. Instantly 10 bullets were shot from a gun and only 3 hits the dummy. Faces of Yang and Skiouros lights up upon seeing the Roy. His father, Clayton, becomes delighted as he lets out a road followed by his barbaric laugh. Following him, Caitlyn, Nick and Tim takes the test. Results are : Caitlyn - 1200N Nick- 1000 Tim - 1090 All of them are qualified and turned out to be the best in the entire village, they have received praises from all the villagers. Next turn is Faust''s. As Faust is getting down the main stage after the announcement. "Why does he get to come? Isn''t it Barkha who is supposed to show up now?" Some villagers showed their disagreement with it. All the participants till now came according to their power. Now they are riled up to see Faust being sent. "This is not fair, you guys are showing favourites clearly." Soon the disagreement became argument and people were throwing water bottles and food into the arena. Seeing the public''s reaction, they quickly changed the contestants and Barkha was sent out. He picks up a sledgehammer with a bigger head. To the crowd''s surprise, the counter in the big screen started off slow. It ends on 490 barely even reaching 500, the whole crowd is silent. "It''s ok, it is just a matter of stones. If you had picked up the guns you would have more points." A guy in the crowd yells. Barkha however is so tired already and could not yield any other weapon. He stands and watches the guns helplessly. The elemental stones sucks up your spiritual power, unless you have tons you cannot withstand this awakening stage. After 10 more participants. It is finally Faust''s turn. He leaps forward with slight hesitation. *"If my SP is at the same level as Nick and Tim, I don''t think I can slip free. So this is why grandpa told me to forfeit. Because this stage is non cheatable stage."* Thinking that, he holds a katana which is standing lonely among a number of weapons while his eyes are closed he thinks *"please don''t let me qualify this round."* After a good five minutes, Faust stares at the screen and to his surprise. The counter is at zero. Everyone in the arena is surprised along with Gus and Faust themselves. 65 He Is Strong! "Huh?" Faust is surprised by the results. The villagers starts to laugh but the people on the stage are even more surprised. A referee from the management goes on to check if the katana or the enhancer is malfunctioned. He hands over another straight sword to Faust. Faust takes a deep breath before he wraps his fingers around the grip. "Haha forget it, he has no talent for it." "You guys shouldn''t have bought him into this. He cannot do anything. ''Useless'' is the only.word that suits him." "Oh my God! Try holding it tightly and the counter might give you a good 10." The villagers starts making fun of Faust while laughing and clapping their hands looking at Faust. The prestigious test have suddenly become a comedy show. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Faust looks at the counter to only see that it is still at zero. "Your time''s up!" The referee grabs the sword off his hand and channeled his energy. The counter runs to a good 3000. "There is nothing problem with the counter, I guess this is a rare moment to ever happen." The referee concludes, turning back and bowing his head to Yang and the rest who are sitting on their thrones. Skiouros lets out a sigh and turns towards Yang as his lips part open -"I don''t think he has a talent for this. I have never seen a person with no spiritual power manifestation." He turns his head towards Faust, who is by now has become the villagers'' laughing stock. He is still on the stage with a shocking expression on his face. Gus himself looks pretty shocked. "Honestly, I feel bad for him at this moment. I don''t think he can even be a guard for your island. Let alone becoming a soldier in the mainland." "I thought he would be special, since you yourself directly enrolled him to partake in this." Skiouros passes serious and insulting judgement towards Yang''s decisions with a pitiful face towards Faust. "Faust! Kid! You can leave the stage." The announcer tells him on mic. The loud voice from the mic helps him to snap out from the shock. He lowers his head and quietly walks back to the main stage while the villagers mocks him with insults and laughter. He stands with his head lowered until the end of the second phase test. In the meantime, the results came out. Many people including Barkha has been selected to study in the best schools of mainland and pursue the career of a soldier by staying in the ''House Of Asura''s''. After the announcements have been done with little appreciation of words from Yang, Skiouros and Clayton. The final candidates have been decided. Roy, Caitlyn, Tim, Nick, Barkha along with other kids, a total of ''Ten'' were selected and all of them are sent to wait in the contestants room. Meanwhile, a soldier comes to Skiouros with papers in his hands. "Captain, this is the report from the three days of meetings between captains and generals. It seems that they have found out about the doc-" before the soldier finishes. Skiouros realises it a confidential information and that it shouldn''t be leaked in front of Yang. "Ahh! Yes, keep it in my room, I will check it while we are on our way back." Skiouros orders his soldier, who just understood that he is saved by Skiouros, before the important information gets leaked from his mouth. "Ohh and by the way who is going to be my companion this tim-" before Skiouros completes his sentence, someone has cut them in. "Oh! If it isn''t Skiouros." Gus came by walking towards the two. "I am here to know when I have to start soon. So I can do my arrangements?" Gus asks with a bright smile on his face as he squints his eyes. "Gus, I''m sorry about your-." "Ah by the way, let me first congratulate you on your grandson''s achievement." Gus cuts in between Yang''s words. "Yes, he is the third strongest in the entire village, I''m so happy with his performance but fau-". "Ah! No wonder, we never Thought Tim would achieve this feat. But Roy''s performance is as we accepted." Gus intervenes again. He does the same couple more times without letting Yang to bring up the name of Faust during their conversation. Yang feels that Gus''s pride was hurt and doesn''t want to talk about Faust so he does not push him over the edge. But as Yang, Skiouros and Gus talks about their departure, something else goes inside the head of Gus. *"Strongest? Third in the village? Heh! Faust is probably stronger than all the kids. I have witnessed his Spiritual power. He will be the person to surpass Ares. He will be the person to answer the questions of this insane world "* Gus is thinking about a whole new thing. Gus witnessed Faust''s blood filled eyes and his aura. He knows more than anyone of what Faust is capable of. But he wants to try to avoid taking the name of Faust in front of Skiouros. "So you guys will be leaving in 2 days!" Yang shakes the hand of Gus, he grips it tight thinking that it is his responsibility to lift the fallen spirit of Gus. "Definitely, I will meet you after 2 days Captain Skiouros, i''m going to go take care of my preparations." Gus nods while saying and bids his farewell for two days. He comes out of the stadium to find Faust, who is standing with his head lowered and Bella beside him, barking and growling at the villagers that are mocking Faust. But everybody stops with the laughs and become silent as they see Gus approaching Faust. "Let''s go now." Gus pats the back of Faust as they both starts walking. Faust''s head is lowered all the while until they reached home. "Y-you did good Faust." Gus utters. "Heh! I made myself a laughing stock in front of the whole village didn''t i? I should have listened to you and forfeit. But I didn''t even know why I wanted to go. But you and Bella are my only family grandpa. I was sad to see that you did not come to the stadium to watch me. I wanted to do what makes you happy. So I did that on purpose." "But what is wrong with my spiritual power? It was zero."'' Faust yells as his fists are clenched and his eyes are closed trying to stop and hide his grieve in his throat. *"He is still a ten year old kid, not able to take the loss huh."* Gus thinks as he watches with a shocked expression. He gulps and takes a deep breath before saying "Uh, let me cook something delicious for you tonight. It will help you loosen up your mood " He replies to Faust trying to cheer him up. Faust gets more frustrated with the words of Gus, he thinks as to how Gus can take this matter quite lightly when he is seriously asking him a question here. "Let it be, I''m going to sleep, I''m tired." Faust heads to upstairs saying that. He sits in front of a window while staring at the evening skies and birds. He quickly realises he forgot something. He reaches out to his pockets to take a piece of paper folded horizontally. *"I wonder why Caitlyn handed me the paper without anyone noticing her "* He unfolds the paper with a faint smile, curved his lips as he gets delighted wondering what was written inside. 66 Time To Train "I wonder what is written inside." Faust opens the paper with curiosity filled eyes. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. ''Never Give Up. Love, Caitlyn.'' The head of Faust which is filled with all kinds of thoughts and helpless feelings have been eased by that one line of letter. She still believes in me is the thought running in his head. *"Yosh! I''ll be positive no matter what happens and I will keep practicing and I will become the strongest."* He says to himself as his palms kisses his cheeks with a jolt of pain. The next day, he wakes up on his routine before the sun is out to take a lap around his villagers along with the guards. "Yo Michael, everyone! Are you all ready to do laps?" Faust greets the village guards who have been doing the laps with Faust since he started training. Michael heaves a sigh as he ties the laces of his shoes. His face displays the expression of a burden. "Fausto! I think you should stop these exercises from now on. Y-you won''t even be taken into village guards. Your spiritual power is literally zero, you know?" Michael shows his concerns. "And all the guards are laughing at you right now, I suggest you to not do this talk with them." He advises Faust who is shocked at this point of time. "B-But what? We all used to train together, you are just worrying about me, Michael. It will be perfectly okay, let me go talk to our buddies right now." Refusing to believe the words of Michael, Faust moves forward to group of 20 guards who train with Faust. "Hi! G-guys, shall we start the laps now? And I messed up in the test but I will get better ok? I hope you guys are not taking it seriously." Faust says to the guards who are stretching and warming up their bodies with multiple exercises. All the guards stop what they are doing and gaze at Faust. "Go home Faust, you don''t fit to be with us." Michael utters from behind with a cold voice. Faust turns his face around while being annoyed with what he said. "No matter what you do, you cannot be strong. We don''t want to run with a wimp." Michael concludes as he walks past Faust and joins the group. He is standing tall and full of pride in his posture and the way he walks. Faust does not believe his ears. None of the guards talk to him. "Gu-guys! We were so close till yesterday! Even though you all are 18 and I''m 10, you called me your brother. Why this sudden change?" Faust does not understand what changed them so much, he cannot convince them nor go on to do his laps so he heads back home with embarrassment and sadness taken over him. "Oh! You''re not going to train now?" Gus, who just woke up to take care of his housing needs, asks Faust. His eyebrows curves and raises up and this eyes filled with suspicions. Faust goes back into his room without even saying anything. He sits in front of his window with a long face and just stares at the guards who are doing their laps from the full height glass walls. "What did I do? I would understand if I harm them or something, but to banish me from them without any reason is just..." He balls his fist tight, the nail of his thumbs digs into the skin of his index finger with blood. . . . Later that day, he gets the same treatment in school, and worse in his class with Ahito. Faust lost to his older brother, Barkha, in the test in front of the whole village. He with the whole class including his homeroom teacher are laughing at Faust for his nonsensical spouts from the last two years that he will be the top one among the ones that are chosen to go to the mainland. He comes home with the same feelings while feeling down, he goes on to see the piece of paper that Caitlyn gave him. He changes his clothes, wraps his hands in bandages around his fingers and wrists like the tapes that boxers put on. He also ties an axe on to his back and get ready to sweat blood. "Faust, let me come with you today." Gus tags along with Faust just as Faust is about to head out. Faust without replying anything, heads into the woods with Gus following behind him. He reaches deep into his self-built training ground. The grass have been cleanly cut in a twenty feet space like a ground of oval shape, a heavy three feet stone is placed in the middle which is rectangular in shape. Another boulder like stone is placed a few feet away from that which is 5 feet tall and 4 feet thick. It seems like Faust has been using it as a punching bag. There are wooden dummies with stones wrapped in soft cloth have been placed. There are also stones of different kilograms. Starting from 5-8-10-12-14-16 according to their shape and size are placed in the middle. *"He is training really hard huh, I wonder if his bones are withstanding practice on rocks, that is the most risky training to go against the hardness of a rock with the hardness of our human bones. Unless we have good bone density, it is impossible for a person. But Faust! His bone structure and density are built to make him a fighter."* *"Even his smaller blows could do much damage if it lands perfectly."* Gus thinks as he sees Faust practice. Faust on the other hand is searching for a bad infected tree to practice his skills. Gus notices and realises what he was about to do. "Oh Faust! Try to practice your tree falling without the axe." Gus utters to Faust, who is about to go look for a tree. *"Huh? What is this old geezer saying? Has he lost his mind?"* The thoughts of Faust when he first heard Gus. "Watch me and learn" Gus says as he approaches a tree. "Hmmmmm!" He gently, yet carefully observes the trunk of the tree by touch it slowly at every inch. *"This is good "* he thinks, landing a barrage of three punches on three sides of the trunk of the tree. 67 The Stronges The tree is chopped at the places that hands of Gus came in contact with. While Faust is lost in admiration to the power that Gus''s fists had in those punches, the huge 15 feet tree has collapsed in front of them. "This works on the same principle of ''Hodu kyusyozyutu'' the martial art that you are learning from Yang." Gus says with a smile. Faust however, seems to be lost in admiration for Gus''s superhuman strength. He doesn''t listen to a word but stares at Gus with a goofy expression as his brain has stopped working. "Anyway, practice this technique until I come back from the mainland. The main attribute you need is strong knuckles and self belief." "If you think you can break the rock with your fists, you will do it. If you think you cannot, then you can''t even break a small twig of a tree." "And, I''m leaving to mainland tomorrow, It takes 10days before I show up. We shall think about more ways to train your body and to take you to the mainland after I come back." He concludes. "Woohooo! That was so powerful grandpa! I''m definitely going to get this done in 10 days." Faust says while he watches his knuckles in hope that one day he will be doing the same thing as Gus. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Hehe go on, try your best." Gus turns back facing away from Faust with a grin on his face and starts walking away slowly. "Oh! But grandpa! After thinking, I think this skill is useless for me!" After walking a couple of feet or so Gus instantly turned back with a question on his face. "Huh??? What are you saying Fausty? I took the time to go through the trouble of hurting my fingers, punching that tree." He asks in surprise. "Well, I use a sword grandpa! It''s better than knuckles and close fights! Also, slicing is better than punching don''t you think?" Faust replies casually as he taps his chin with his finger. "Haha makes sense, but Faust! What if you have faced an enemy who is extremely fast, strong and doesn''t even give you time to think? And kicks your sword out of your hand?" "Would you be able to defeat him? Wanting to be strong is not simple, not that easy. Only a person who can face hundreds of thousands of soldiers, without a hint of fear on his face. Only a person who can defend himself and every little thing that he wants to protect, with or without a weapon, even with bare fists if cornered. And the one who can face any enemy who is equipped with any kind of weapon or posses any martial art." "Those are called - ''the strongest person.'' Strong enough to protect everything. Even if the enemy is infinite times faster or stronger than them. They always come on top. And you need to put your body under such vigorous training. Just a mountain of strength is not enough in this day." Gus advertently smiles as he looks up, he stands still and fills his lungs with air as pride is taking over his body and he looks like a hungry beast. He thinks about Ares in his head, and while thinking he looks towards Faust to say "Even the strength of the earth as a whole doesn''t matter. Get the strength that could rival the world''s. That could rival every living being. ''BE THE ONE, WHO CAN QUESTION GOD FOR HIS PLAYS.'' heh." Gus bends lower to look into the eyes of Faust. "You can stumble upon paths with god someday, remember - that day- you should be strong enough to question him." Gus goes back to his previous posture and stares at Faust. Faust doesn''t respond in anyway, he has his head lowered as his hair covered his eyes. He seemed to enjoy the words said by Gus, the hairs on his body stood up with goosebumps and a kind of electrical feeling passed throughout his whole body. Being strong enough to question the god! The supreme and strongest being of all creation. This thought made his blood went rushing to his head as the adrenaline pumped up and spread to every nerve and cell of his body. His eyes widened and his fists clenched. "Grandpa!" He called in a whisper under his breath. "Ye, let me hear it." Gus replies in wait. "I want to be stronger! Not just normal strong! I want to be the strongest than any person has ever been!" Faust says as he holds himself back in his excitement. "Heh! Sounds good, get back to training! I will be starting tomorrow morning. Make sure to become stronger before I come back." Gus turns back and walks away. He again stops to the sounds coming from behind him. Faust is punching the rock with thick cloth wrapped around his hands. Gus turns his face to the side as he watches Faust from the corner of his eyes. "Fausty! I don''t know what ideas you have gotten. But it would break your knuckles to punch a rock with your knuckles." He says with a puzzled expression. His eyebrows are raised up with an unimpressed look on his face with the silly thing that Faust is performing. "It''s ok grandpa, I won''t become the strongest if I keep punching the sand. Let my knuckles break and reattach and become stronger." Faust keeps punching the rock like a mad person. Ever punch is clean and hard, and the impact is felt on his forearms. He felt as though the nerves were splinting and getting pierced by needles. He still continues in his crazy ways of training. Gus continues walking with his lips turned to curve. *"He is just like you Ares! I hope I put him in the right path. Now all that is left is to come and find you in this short time I have left."* Eyes of Gus shows signs of life, once he started thinking that he would get to meet his old friend. 68 Demon Faus *"Strong.. Strong¡­ Stronger!"* The word has been constantly stuck in the head of Faust as he pushes his body up from the ground, fast and heavy gaspings sounds he makes resonate around the whole area, his shirt totally drenched with his sweat and his whole body lets out hot steam as he does push ups on the ground. "200!" The muscles of his arms twitches and shivers, his wrists felt constant pain as if they are put under a moving bulldozer. His palms have turned numb minutes ago. And he has lost the count of his pushups. "200" Is the only number he has been repeating from the past hour. His chest muscles felt as if they are falling off. *"More¡­ more.. just a bit more."* The red bruises on his knuckles shine brightly as if someone has painted them, after a bit more of his trembling pushups, Faust falls on the ground not being able to move a muscle in his body. As time passes Faust wakes up in a whole.new different world. The sky looks pleasant with pure white cotton like clouds. The whole sky is reflecting on the land. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Faust gets up on his knees checking his surroundings. "You!" A voice is heard from his right and as he turned his face to his side a guy is standing really close with his face in Faust''s. It was the same person as him, Faust is basically looking at himself, but the eyes are filled with blood. "You cannot be strong with just this training. You need me eventually." Faust with demon eyes tells to Faust. Back in his house, the sword of Ares slowly starts to vibrate and the handle of the sword shines in bright golden color. "Wh-who are you?" Faust asks as his voice trembles and stutters. It was the second time for Faust to meet with himself. Last time when Lucifer pierced Faust''s heart. Suddenly the demon Faust in front of him disappears. "It''s ok, I will always help you." He reappears on the left side of Faust and says as he rests his hand on Faust''s shoulder. A dark shadow like mist appears beneath the golden color emitting from the handle of the katana. Slowly the dark mist overwhelmed all of the golden color leaving only the dark mist swirling around the handle. It looked as if a bright star just fell into the never ending pits of a blackhole. As the dark mist too disappeared slowly, a brief change happened to the handle. The whole pattern of the handle and the pure white color turned to black with red carvings. The signature of the sword ''The sword of Ares'' written in Japanese Kanji has also turned from Golden carving to red carving. But the name of Ares remained in Golden color. Faust is startled with this. *"Did he just teleported?"* He thinks and suddenly he wakes up in the snow in his village. Faust notices that the soreness in his arms and fingers is completely gone as he tries to get up. "What the hell was that?" He felt as though he has once again woken up from the same nightmare as before. He picks up his belongings and heads towards his house. He finishes his dinner with Gus and helps Gus with packing clothes. On the next day, Faust goes to the port with Gus. But Gus insisted that Faust stayed back without coming all the way to the ship with him. "But grandpa! I want to send you off! Why are you so stubborn?" Faust asks with disappointment written all over his face. "Trust me, this is for your good. I can''t let the soldiers find out that you are my grandson. So stay here." Gus says as he takes all his bags from Faust and really looked like he wanted m Faust to stay back. *"Dammit grandpa! I wanted to send off Caitlyn with a bye. I want to see her one last time. What do I do."* Faust is in a tricky situation. He cannot tell Gus the reason for wanting to come to port, nor can he put up with Gus''s selfish request. "This doesn''t even make sense anymore! Why do I just stay here without appearing in front of them? Ughhh!!!!!!! This is making me so mad." Faust yells in desperation. "Ok, i will see in a few days. Stay safe and take care of house and animals for me." Gus totally ignores him and continues to walk in his way. Faust helplessly walks towards the edge of a cliff where he can watch the port from a distance. He sits on the edge with Bella settling down beside him. "Ah! There he is! He really left me here to cry didn''t he?" "Ohh! Bella look, Nick, Tim and Roy are there. And that is the grumpy captain. I will one day become stronger than him." Faust watches Gus, his friends, the captain and also Barkha and Caitlyn making their way into the ship after taking their leave from Yang who is wishing them a safe journey. "Woof woof" Bella instantly gets up and starts barking towards the ship as she too wanted to give a send off. "Offff! Stay quiet bells. We cannot let the people in the ship know that we are here." Faust closes Bella''s mouth and calms her by telling her different things. The face of Faust displays different mixed expressions for every person he sees entering the ship. In the end he did get to see Caitlyn but she had no idea that Faust came to watch her and give her a send off. "Dammit man! She would think that I''m too gloomy to give her a send off. What do I do when I meet her one day? Gosh this is so embarrassing." Faust mumbles to himself. Not being able to give his grandpa a send off is not the thing that is bothering him, but the girl. As he and Bella watches, all the contestants and Gus stands on the deck and waves their hands off to their families taking their farewell. Suddenly curved lips of Faust comes back to normal and opens up. "I don''t feel bad, but my friends are going far away from me and that thought is sort of making my heart to be in pain na." Faust places his palm on his heart while looking at the ship. The ship slowly starts to move and the tears slowly rolls down the cheeks of Faust. "Dammit! My eyes are responding without my order. They are getting wet for no reason. I will go there soon too." Faust felt as though he was being left back alone. And it reminded him of his past with his cousin and his friends. The contestants including Gus goes inside the ships from the deck except for one. And as the ship passes from the hill that Faust is on. He sees a girl in black clothes with her hand raised up. "Huh?" He sees Caitlyn, looking towards him and replies with a kind smile to Faust''s tears. Her smile immediately warmed his heart and Faust too smiled back and waved his hand. "Give me the reports from out house." As soon as he enters the ship, Skiouros immediately goes into the control room to check the reports. His aura immediately changes from a cheerful elder person you meet in the park at evenings to a vile, ruthless officer. "Contact the house and tell them we are coming there with Gus Hughes." Skiouros orders his men with an evil smile taken over his face. One can easily say that he is plotting something big in his head. 69 Start Of Happy Times For the next 10 days, Faust lives on his own, cooks his own food and for Bella. He trains all by himself. He built a training ground all by himself in grass fields after being turned down by Yang to train him. Even though, things are hard at school and with any person he makes contact with. As they look at him like a loser. He started to ignore the insults and curses and moved forward with positivity. He knows he won''t be staying long on this island anyway, so he does not bother about the villagers and the kids of his age making fun of him and calling him a loser. "Bella oi! Eat up your food fast! Grandpa will be coming today." Faust says as he pushes a plate of dog food towards Bella with a bright smile on his face. It is the 10th day and he cannot wait to meet Gus. "Yosh! I cooked spinach and fried tofu with spices, I hope they will be sufficient for lunch! Grandpa will be tired all these days so I shouldn''t tire him more by burdening him with work as soon as he arrives." "Mmm and fresh, sweet tangy mangoes as dessert! Nicely done." Faust gives a pat to himself on the shoulder for the work he has done. "Let''s goooo!" He and Bella heads out, he ties a rope around his waist with the other end of the rope is tied around the collar of Bella. It is to be cautious while getting down his hill. He could not leave Bella alone on slippery snow. The villagers and the old people that come across him in the path stares at him in an odd way. Finally, as he reaches the tip of a hill a little far from the port, the ship is already here in the port and many people seem to be walking out of the ship. "Ahhhhh! We must be late, Bells, let''s go soon." Faust hurries quickly once he sees the ship, he is not able to hold his emotions back. He laughingly reaches the port and stands in front of a huge ship. It is a cruise ship so Faust is caught off guard with the vastness and beauty of the ship. Faust stays in awe with his mouth open. He walks slowly while his eyes are still fixated on the shining colors and the material of the ship. "Oh! If it isn''t Faust, Fausty! I''m here! It''s your grandpa!" A voice is heard from a distance. The face of Faust instantly lit up with what is before him. Gus is running towards him carrying his bags, "Woahhhh! Grandpaaa!" Faust immediately takes a leap and hugs Gus tightly, his arms are wrapped around Gus'' neck and his body covers his face entirely. "Ow ow ow. I-i''m I''m nowt ab-ble to br-brweathe" Gus suffered with Faust covering his face and choking his neck, he repeatedly taps on Faust''s back to let him go. "Ohh! Grandpa!!! I missed you so much! Look at you, you became chubby in these 10 days. You must be eating lots of new foods and slacking off on bed huh?" Faust lets go of Gus'' face and starts evaluating Gus as tears roll off his eyes. It is just frustrating for Faust that Gus left him and spent a long 10 days on the mainland while he is left alone in his small house. "Anyway, I''m so happy to see you again, so did you made sure my friends are settled well and in a good neighbourhood? In a good school? Is everything good for her?" "Especially Nick! He needs a place with lots of food. So does that place have lot of food huh?" Faust attacks Gus with a question after question while showing concern towards his friends. "Ah, let''s talk about these things at home, I''m hungry, let''s go eat and talk." Gus replies. "Heh, sureee, let''s go. I have cooked delicious food for you, your mouth will be filled with water instantly as soon as you see the food I prepared heh" Faust climbs the back of Gus and goes for a piggyback ride while boasting about his cooking. "Faust!" As him and Gus are about to go, a voice is heard from behind. Gus stops moving forward and Faust turns his face back to see who called him. Gus however does not move or talk or show any emotion, he hides his face as he looks down without taking a step. There are a bunch of people seem to be standing in a circle, a person is seems lying unconscious in between the circle. "How did he faint suddenly?" "Did you see someone attacking?" "I don''t think so, Yang is here too." "What is happening? He suddenly fainted while standing here." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The crowd gather around keeps talking about the fainted person. *"Huh? Fainted while standing? What kind of pathetic person he is?"* Faust thinks to himself while being a bit annoyed. He wants to go home and eat with Gus but it seems like it is being delayed for him. "Faust!" The voice is heard again. Faust being surprised, he looks either way to see who is calling him. "Let''s place him on the table under the shade of the shelter." The crowd of people decided and carry the fainted person and placed him under a shelter and are trying to wake him up. "Faust! Wake up" the same voice is heard again. Faust slowly opens his eyes. His is in between a crowd and on the table in a shelter. He is confused as to how he ended up here. "Are you ok Faust? You suddenly collapsed." One of the crew members of the ship asks Faust. *"Huh? I? Collapsed? Fainted? How can I?"* Faust holds his head while trying to remember what had happened. Suddenly a stroke of lightning hit him in his head, his eyes widened and his breath becomes heavy. "Wh-who was the one?" Faust asks in a shock. 70 Start of Happy Times - 02 Wh-who was it? Where is my grandpa?" Faust asks with confusion, he doesn''t know why he is in-between a crowd or when he has fainted. "Faust, I- you just fainted after a crew person spoke to you and left. We have not seen Gus till now." A villager who is kneeling beside Faust tells him. "Faust? Is he the loser kid? Haha who else would faint in broad daylight? Of course this weak kid!" "We all wasted our time with him. Let''s go! Let''s go and do our work." "Aishhh! You really wasted our time kid." The crowd of villagers who had gathered around started to leave while complaining that they have wasted their efforts by coming to aid a kid who has fainted. Faust just sat down with his head lowered, he did not talk back or reply. "You are that crew member." Faust says to the person who is still kneeling beside him. He turns his face towards the person slowly and asks again. "Y-yo-you were the one who spoke to me earlier right?" Faust asks as his voice is trembling. The person beside him lets out a gloomy sigh and places his hand on the shoulder of Faust. "It was me. Do you remember what I told you?" The person asks. Faust starts to tremble, tears roll out of his eyes and he breaks out completely. "We tried to save him. But, it is a heavy storm and he fell inside square waves. We couldn''t do anything than watch him drown. Gus had died in the shipwreck." The person tells Faust. The entire world seemed empty for Faust, these are words that Faust heard when he came into the port at first and fainted after hearing what happened to Gus. While he passed out, he dreamt about Gus coming back from mainland and him spending happy times with Gus. "I''m sorry kid!" The person says and goes away, Bella who is sitting before Faust barks at him suddenly after noticing changes in Faust. "N-no¡­ no¡­ n- he¡­ grandpa is" Faust is trembling and gasping for breathe, the tears are not stopping and he seemed to be lost in despair. "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Faust holds his face as his nails are digging into the skin of his forehead. He screams loudly as his cries resonate all over the village. "Dammit! Dammit! Ahhhhhhhh" His cries are mixed with anger and sorrow. He drags his hands from his forehead to his chin as his nails peeled his skin. Bella is barking at the sudden change in Faust''s behaviour. The poor animal does not understand the human language and does not understand why Faust is crying with a broken heart. "Wh-what happened to that kid?" "Why is he crying like that now? Let''s go have a look." The ship''s crew who are docking by the ship rushes towards Faust, but before they reach him, an old man cuts between them and stops them with a gesture of his hand. "Chief Yang! That kid just fainted a while ago, and now he is crying in pain." One of the crew members tells Yang who is standing in the way between the people and Faust. "Let him cry¡­ he will be relieved later on," Yang says in a cold voice while staring at Faust, he sends all the crew members back to the ship and he too walks away. "Can you guys do me a favor? Once that kid stops crying, carry him to his home and leave him there." On his way back to the village, Yang asks a favor from a group of fishermen who were standing and watching the whole scene from a while. "Definitely chief." The group replies. *"Why you Gus? Why does it have to be you?"* Yang clenches his fists as he walks. Faust is still crying without the care of his surroundings. - "Grandpa! Where is my mom and dad?" Faust remembers the first time when he asked Gus a question at the age of 6. He went to school and saw that every kid was holding the hand of their parents while coming to school. Mother and father of all kids, came and happily took pictures with their kids on the first day of school. Faust have an aunt, uncle and a cousin in the same village. The aunt is like an elder sister to Gus, who grew up with him. Whenever Gus had to visit the mainland with Yang to get the resources and food. Faust was left behind with the aunt to stay for a month or two. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. He always noticed little.things between him and the cousin. His cousin slept with his parents on a comfy bed while he slept on the ground with just a cloth under him. His cousin however did not like Faust and refused to communicate or to play with him. "Brother Zeref! Let me also play tag with you guys." With a bright smile.on his face and excitement filled eyes and innocent face. Faust asked his cousin who is the same age as him. "Tsk! How many times have I told you? I don''t like you. You can''t play with us." Zeref replied in an annoyed voice. Faust still had his smile on his face, while feeling a little sad in his heart, he lowered his head and stood at a distance as he saw his cousin and his friends played. He did not move an inch from where he was standing, he continued staring at them helplessly. He did not understand why his cousin hated him, nor did he know that hate is a strong word that the other person does not even like your presence. "Zeref! He is your own cousin, why not let him play? He looks sad." A kid from Zeref''s friends spoke up as he questions Zeref words. "I don''t like him, if you feel sad for him then you are welcome to go join him. You don''t need to play with us anymore." Zeref replied his friend and turned towards Faust who was standing in a corner. Zeref picked a small pebble and threw it towards Faust, targeting his leg. Faust immediately trembled with a jolt. "Brother Zeref!" He shouted as he was surprised. 71 Start Of Happy Times - 03 You are standing there and making me look bad in front of my friends with your disgusting sad acting. Go away from here!" Zeref yelled at Faust with an exasperated look. "B-But I''m just." Faust tried to redeem himself, but ended up walking away, he didn''t want to say anything else to get hit with a pebble again. Even when Faust was eating with the family, Zeref who sat opposite to Faust glared at him with a hint of resentment. Faust would lower his head and he could feel warm tears rushing out from his eyes. "Don''t eat all of our food." Zeref said in an undertone, like a subdued thunder. Faust felt the anger in Zeref''s voice. Faust always ate food in less portions whenever he was eating with Zeref. He was ordered to wake up at 5 every morning to draw water from a well and fill a huge vessel by his aunt, but even though the drawing of water with a small mug that could be pulled up easily, it took him a 100 trip to fill out the vessel. "Aw little Faust! Who assigned you this work? Take it easy, I will draw the water with something big later "His uncle who just came to the farm advised Faust. Faust was relieved to hear the words, his arms and shoulders were already turned hard as a stone and hurt him even more when he lift his arms up straight. "What? He is a boy! He will grow up to be a man. You shouldn''t spoil him like that, let him do it." His aunt intervened and said in an irritated tone. "Faust, my kid! You keep doing it, you will become a good dependable man when you grow up, keep doing it." She alluded with a smile, her voice was sweet as honey to the ears. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Uun! Definitely aunty, I will do it." Faust innocently agreed with his aunt and went back to doing his work, feeling that he should somehow make his aunt proud and appreciate him. "Why don''t you wake up your son too and make him work? He would need to work too if he is going to grow up to be a dependable man." The uncle asked his wife who was so thoughtful about Faust, but not her lazy son. The face of his wife turned ugly and is filled with rage. "He needs to work for what he is eating!" She fumed as she walked away in anger. The words fell into the ears of Faust. He realized how he was being used, but he acknowledged it lightheartedly. . . "Is Faust asleep?" His uncle who was late to home that night asked his wife in a low voice. "He certainly is." His aunt replied while checking on Faust who was sleeping in a fetal position with his legs was curled up, facing the opposite side from them. His uncle then went on to wake Zeref up with an ice cream and dessert in his hands, he made Zeref sit in his lap and feed him the desserts while he fondled his kid''s cheeks and patted their hair. "My little kid, my good boy, go to sleep now, daddy''s here, he will be here when you wake up." Later he put Zeref back to sleep while showing his love cuddling to him. Faust who was still awake all this time pretending to be asleep starts crying as he hugged his knees. "Having a mom and dad is a good thing." He thought as tears kept rolling from the corner of his eye. His pillow turned cold and wet after he cried for a while. They all used to go to a playground to play and his aunt only made Zeref try out every swing, slides and seesaw and many while Faust stood at a distance clapping sadly. His uncle offered to give a swing to Faust but after a few minutes, he was called by his wife and he never came back to Faust. Faust just had to stand and watch everything the whole time, his sorrow increased more as he saw parents hold the hand of their kids and walked in happiness. He stopped all the sorrow in his throat and cried his heart out at nights when everybody was asleep. . . All of these things repeated for a few more days until Gus was back from the mainland. Faust who was sitting alone on a stone outside his aunt''s house was startled as soon as he heard a familiar voice. "Fausty! It''s you grandpa yo! I''m here!" Gus said with a smile and his arms spread wide open. "G-grandpa!" Faust quickly went to hide his face in his grandpa''s chest. "Huh? Huh? Looks like somebody is missed eh?" Gus tried to tease Faust but he still didn''t let go of his hold. Soon, Faust started to cry while holding the shirt of Gus. "Huh? Fausty? Why are you crying? I''m here now hehe, don''t cry my little hero. Who will save me if you cry? hehe." Gus said as he gently patted Faust''s head. The aunt who realized that Gus had come back came out in a rush. "Oh! Gus! My my how many days has it been?" She said with a nervous smile. "I''m good sister! How are you? I just came back and saw Faust is crying for some reason." "Ahh ahh it is nothing! He missed you so much all these days, poor kid heh, he misses you. Say Gus, why don''t you come in and drink something?" The aunt quickly tried to divert Gus'' concern from Faust. "I appreciate your thoughts sister, I need to go back and look at my animals I left in the care of Stella. Bella would be missing Faust too." Gus politely rejected her offer. "Ah Stella huh? Her kid is Nick who is the same age as Faust and Zeref right? It''s a good idea, take Faust there. He will play with the kids and his mood will be okay soon." She said with a frantic smile. Gus took his leave and walks as he carry Faust in his arms who was still resting his head on Gus shoulders while looking sad. "Grandpa!" Faust who was sad and silent all this while spoke up with a sad tone. "Hmm?" Gus answered while wondering what happened to his grandson, who mean the world to him. 72 Start Of Happy Times - 04 "It feels very alone¡­ it- it feels like I''m completely different from the society. I feel left out, as though people don''t consider me a human anymore." The only sound that is heard is the sound that Gus''s shoes is making with every step he has taken. The silent hovers above them with neither speaking a word to each other. Faust looked down and tears started filling his eyes but it did not leak out. He cleared his runny nose as the cold breeze ruffled through his hair gently. Gus became stricken instantly by the words of Faust, he stared at Faust speechlessly with a surprised face. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "I feel as though I do not have anyone to depend upon grandpa. Everyone have a family that they depend on, b-but i don''t have one and no one considered me as their family. They don''t like me¡­ they are selfish, mean, evil and greedy." Faust''s spills his hurtful words out as he tried to hold back his tears from bursting once again. But once his first droplet of tear broke out, the rest followed in an unbroken stream. "Faust!" Gus feels the heartache of Faust and held him tightly in his arms. His soft shirt and his familiar scent comforted Faust with relief. He poured in all of his feelings he has been holding and cried out like how every little child would. "Did something happened with you?" Gus asked with concerns. "N-no" Faust replied, he did not want to create any conflict or spoil the relation between Gus and his sister. "Faust Listen to what I''m about to say okay?" Gus softly said to Faust. "Life is unfair to everybody, and it is like the waves of the ocean, there are good days and bad days both. No matter how hard things get, never give up. Life will give you something better than you expected." "Build patience and preserve, always learn to give first, what you give comes back to you." "No matter what happens, try to be good. Goodness lasts with you. Be good and kind to everyone, even if you have money, power or excellence, never even think about harming someone." Gus added and settled Faust on a small stone and kneeled before him. He cupped the face of Faust in his palms and wiped the tears with his thumbs. "As for a family." Gus whispered in a low voice and hugged Faust close to his chest. "I am your family Faust, I cook for you, like a mom. I hold your hand and hold you in my chest and protect you like a father. I will be beside you every night and I will read you stories and put you to sleep." Faust hugged Gus back and he sniffed his runny nose. "You will always be with me right?" Faust asked in an innocent yet happy voice, he hugged Gus closer and rubbed his cheeks on Gus''s shirt. Gus chuckled seeing how cute his grandson is acting like a cute little puppy. A few distance beside them, a sound of running noise can be heard. Gus and Faust turn to face the sound and a boy running in the snow can be seen approaching them. Faust curiously wonders why the boy was in a hurry. "G-grandpa! The boy who came running chipped in. Another man came running from behind the boy, "F-faust! Your grandpa drowned and died, we couldn''t save him." The man came running bellowed. "Huh? Grandpa?" Faust and the boy both responded. The boy who came running is 10 years old and present one. He recognized that the little boy Gus is holding is the 6 years old him in the past. The present Faust panicked with the confusing scenario and was helplessly starring at the faces. Gus, who was holding the little Faust suddenly turned blue as he got up on his feet. Present Faust just watch in distress, the child Faust stand up and held the hand of Gus. His hand by now has turned cold, blue and bloated."He is my grandpa." The child Faust with tears welling up in his eyes. "Faust, your grandpa! He is.. dead!" The man yelled repeatedly. The eyes of Gus who is standing had filled back and water was leaking from his mouth and he seemed to be suffocating. Faust instantly reacted and moved forward to hold Gus and to protect him. To his surprise, the kid Faust and the man who came from behind to pass the news of Gus held Faust tightly without letting him go. Faust is surprised that he is not able to push a kid and a man away with all of his strength and training. He helplessly witness Gus fell on the ground breathing his last breath and water swallow the whole body of Gus and disappeared in a flash. - "He cried and passed out again!" The villagers shout out loudly. Apparently Faust has passed out after 4 hours of constantly crying. They carry him to his house on the hill with Bella following behind them, they place Faust near the locked door and carelessly went their way. - After a couple of hours, Faust wakes up at night, to see the dark sky. He saw Bella who is sleeping on him, *"Is she trying keep me warm in this snowfall?"* Faust mumbles in his head and tiredlessly goes inside the house. He lits up a lantern in a corner and gloomily walks towards a cupboard. He takes a huge cardboard out of the cupboard, comes to Bella and dumps a month worth of dog food on Bella''s plate. He then walks over to a wall and settles down with his back resting against the wall. 73 What Is Life? Faust spends the next 5 days just by sitting and looking down while reminiscing Gus'' words. He has been crying without food or sleep, he didn''t even flinch to the barking of Bella or to her bites. Word spread around the village that they haven''t been seeing Faust the past 5 days. His school teachers, and everyone who sees Faust training or walking did not see him and so everybody passed a word to Yang. Yang decided to check up on his friend''s grandson and came to his house. As he opened the door, a foul smell struck him, it''s the smell of stale food Faust prepared for Gus on the day of his arrival. As he took a step inside the dark room, Yang saw Faust and Bella in a corner, Bella is laying on the ground whereas Faust is sitting down with his back against the wall and looking down, seemingly lost in another world. His body has become thinner and weak. He has not eaten or drank something from the past 5 days, his eyes and lips have turned dry, his body dehydrated and he looks like a skeleton with skin, looking like he is going to die soon. Yang collects all the stale food into a cover and throws it outside in a trash can. He stands and watches Faust after his little errand, he leaves loud helpless sigh and says "He is not going to come if you keep crying." Faust does not reply, he does not even seem to respond, he doesn''t even seem to notice than a man broke into his house. "If you were strong, you would have gotten on the ship and Gus might have been alive, or at least you would have gotten to see him in his last moments." Saying that Yang opened the front door widely, left it open and went back the same way he came. "The kid is alive, If he passes out, just take out his body and throw it in the ocean." Yang says with a commanding tone. *"If he has no talent, this village doesn''t need him. Gus was useful all these years, this kid doesn''t even qualify to help. He''s better being dead."* Yang convinces himself. At night, cold winds combined with snow stars to enter inside Faust''s house. The bone chilling cold is freezing and already froze Bella and Faust. Faust doesn''t seem affected but Bella is howling in a very low voice, it breathes quickly trying to keep itself warm. Faust still seems to be lost in his own world, the blood freezing cold increasing after a couple of hours. The nose of Bella has turned cold and frozen into ice, the corners of Faust''s eyes has become frozen. "Faust! How can you leave Bella like this? She did not eat anything, since you have not eaten anything." A voice is heard. "Gra-grandpa?" Faust saw Gus who seem to be in a hurry, he took off his shoes quickly and rushed inside the house, closed the door. Faust is watching with a shocking expression. "Faust, heat some water and bring them to me, we need to warm Bella " Gus went on to bring a warm blanket, he wrapped the blanket around Bella and started rubbing the blanket on its fur. "Fausty! You do remember the treatment right? Also put some wood into the fireplace. Faust! Move! Don''t just sit there!" Gus yells while he is carrying Bella in his arms and carrying her towards the fireplace. "Bu-but, yo-you" Faust doesn''t have enough strength to even talk, he is still taken by surprise with the sudden entrance of Gus. "Faust!" Gus turns back to face Faust - "You have already abandoned Bella once, are you going to leave her to death again?" Faust snaps out to reality, he observes the room, there is no sign of Gus. And the front door is still open, Bella is still laying beside him. "Ha- hallucinations?" Faust utters in a very tiring voice and falls victim to cough, thrust and hunger within seconds. He quickly realises that Bella is in trouble, he strongly slap his face with both of his hands, gets up on his feet with lots of effort, immediately rushes to close the door, brings rugs and blankets and wraps them around Bella. He arranges some wood in the fireplace and fire them using matches, he goes on to heat water after placing Bella near the fireplace, he brings a huge tub, places Bella inside n slowly pours the hot water onto her while rubbing her fur with his fingertips. He later wrapped her again in the blankets and slept with her in front of the fireplace. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. He woke up the next day to drink a whole barrel of water, he cooked up some food for himself and Bella. Even though he is walking, eating and cooking. He does not seem to be himself, he does not go to train nor go to school. He sits on top of the hill for hours watching the ocean. He visits the port everyday, waiting for Gus to come back. He did not lose his hope. This went on for days and months. Two months passes by without Gus, no training or school. Faust looks soulless and a robot walking and doing the things to survive and live. "So, I just wanted to check why you were not coming to school." A beautiful woman sits in front of Faust questioning his absence in school. 74 What is life - 02 Faust doesn''t reply back anything, in fact it has been 2 months since someone saw Faust talking, he has not spoken a word since the death of Gus. "I know, you have been having tough times since three months." The woman perceives how thin Faust has become, she takes a deep breath before continuing. "You shouldn''t stop your studies no matter what happens in your life, it is a basic necessity for anyone. You won''t be able to live in the world without any knowledge about it." The woman utters while being concerned. The woman is a teacher named Clara (29) from Faust''s school. She wore a long sky blue dress with a long brown handbag which is resting on her legs. Her long black hair is fluttering due to the air blowing from the window behind her, the ends of her hair is also dyed in blue color with a sea shell shaped hair pin. Her face is showing how much she is worrying about Faust but at the same time, hesitating to really cheer him up. She has never communicated with Faust. Nor does she teach him. She heard that a student from her school lost his grandfather and haven''t come to school from two months. She just wanted to tell him ''no matter what happens in life, we need to keep going, keep fighting, to eventually have good days at some point.'' But she feels hesitant since Faust doesn''t talk back or say anything, she grips her hands tight cracking her fingers. "Faust! Come back to school, like will be good once you give it a chance." "Please, come to school, be around lot of people, school teachers you lots of things." Clara says with a helpless pleading face. The eyelids of Faust slowly folds as his eyes roll up to look at the woman in front of him. *"School teaches everything?"* He gets down off the chair that he sat on till now, he goes towards a basket which was placed in the corner of the room. Clara looks with a puzzled face as to what Faust is doing. He picks up the basket and wears it on his back like a backpack and turns towards Clara and stares at her, he then walks towards her with a dead face. *"Di-did he agree to what I say?" The atmosphere around Clara eases up with a smile curving on her lips, as she thinks that Faust agrees with her. *"I wonder¡­ if school teaches about life? Is there a meaning to life?"* Faust casually walks towards her, passes her and walks out of the door which was just beside her. Realizing that Faust is leaving with a basket, Bella joins him on his journey into the forest to collect fruits, bamboo and some meat for their meal. Clara lowers her head in disappointment, she doesn''t understand what Faust really is thinking and leaves on her way. From the next day, Faust starts off by getting ready to school. Bella sleeps near the front door as a guard as usual. Faust walks out of the door, stops in the middle and turns back as he is about to reach outside. He turns around and looks back inside the house with sad and murky face reminiscing how Gus dropped him at school everyday. *Woof woof!* To his surprise Bella comes out running, wagging her tail, she joins Faust. On the way to his school, Faust received many glares from the villagers who looked at him like a trash. To his surprise Bella comes out running, wagging her tail and joins him. On the way to his school, Faust received many glares from the villagers who looked at him like a trash that deserves to be thrown away. Bella heads back it''s way, once Faust enters inside school. Even though Clara is happy to see him back, his classmates and his bullies did not show him any mercy. They made mean comments about how Gus left him because he is a failure. Faust does not say anything back nor does he respond in anyway, he stays as a dead person just taking everything that comes his way, this angered the bullies more. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "You won''t say anything back huh, let''s see." The bullies places spikes on his seat, on which Faust sat, the whole day without caring, they also glued a note on his back, which says ''hit me''. As Faust took walks in the corridor, every kid came from behind him to mark their hand prints on the back of Faust. Some kids even compete to see whose slap made big sound. They tore and colored his shirt with curries and sauces in lunch, Faust walked with his torn shirt and spikes at the back of his pants. Clara notices what was happening and comes to remove the note from his back and she punishes the kids who were mean to him, Faust still walked around with the spikes and a half torn shirt. "What is this? You punished our kids for some no namer?" "You are not even a head teacher, who have you the right?" "Why don''t you open a service to save orphan kids, if you like to blame the innocent kids and punish them." After school ended, a group of parents seem to be shouting at Clara at the front gate for the punishment she has given to their kids who bullied Faust. Clara, even while panicking, tries to explain to the parents that their kids are at fault for bullying, but the parents are not ready to buy it. Clara is in a tough situation explaining things to the parents and dealing with her higher-ups. "There, the idiot is coming!" One of the parents says in a despised tone upon seeing Faust coming out of school. One of the mother walks up to Faust, she pulls Faust towards her by hastily grabbing his arm She lowers her upper body to look Faust in his eyes. "How dare you frame our kids for something they did not do?" The mother glared at Faust, her teeth are gritting against each other in a rage and her eyebrows are raised. All the schoolmates and kids of his age are staring at Faust, even some parents and old people who were once nice and kind to Faust are among them. But nobody jumped in to help Faust. *Groan* 75 What Is Life - 03 Bella jumps forward and groans at the mother who was holding Faust, soon bella starts barking making the woman leave her hold on Faust. The mother goes back to the crowd while eyeing Faust and Bella. *"They don''t care about me."* Faust pulls his shirt up and arranges his backpack before walking away with a murky face. "Really! I wish it was this kid who died in place of Gus." The mother yells as Faust is leaving. "Please! You cannot say that to a kid." Clara tries to intervene but the mother of the bully doesn''t heed her advice "What will happen? He is an orphan anyway, nobody would stand up for him nor take him in. Talentless trash." The mother goes on. "Ahito! Are you okay my kid?" The woman goes back to check on his kid. "Yes Mom! I''m okay!" Ahito says but his eyes are glaring at Bella. *"Damn dog! How can you bark at my mom without respecting her."* He thinks to himself. For the next few weeks, Faust is left alone by the bullies. For things to settle down, before they get back at him. "Do you know that you need to pay the fee? Or you cannot come to school! I know it''s hard on you since your grandpa has died¡­ but we cannot let you study for free, there shouldn''t be any partiality shown among students." The head of the school explains Faust with a rather unpleasant face. She is sitting on a luxurious chair befitting of a Queen. Her face expressed her despise for Faust, not because of any personal grudge, but because of the fact that he has no money. It''s as if she respects people only based on their stature. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Every item or the decorated artifacts in her room are worth a fortune. Some are even made of Jade. Faust just bows his head down as he has accepted the norms, his eyes are encircled by dark circles and he has become more skinny! As if he has been Malnutritioned. Without uttering a word, he leaves the room and the school for the day.. "Not on the chair! Sit down." On his way back home, Faust stops at Yang''s house. He wanted to ask Yang who is like the big brother of Gus to help with his issue in school. As he is about to rest on a chair, Yang tells him to sit on the ground instead. As if the people of less strature than him are not allowed to sit on a chair in front of him. ''Belittled'' is the only word that is running in his head. He tells Yang, the reason that he came to seek their help. "I have no obligations to help you, and to give you that huge amount is too risky." Yang replies, he doesn''t even look Faust in the eyes while talking. "I''m not running a charity here! Lending a helping hand to every indigent that come to my house. And you can just give up on studying, you have no spiritual power, you are not cut out for this." Before Faust could say something else, Yang intervenes to let Faust know that he is not going to involve in any issues regarding him. Faust just looked soul-less, he got up on his wobbling feet, worrying that he might lose his footing and collapse. He walks while his eyes are wandering on the ground, trying to comprehend every tile he is walking on. Everything Yang spoke took him by surprise, he no longer know whom to rely upon. Never felt so lonely. He left with all hope lost, feeling helpless, not being able to do anything. Without knowing the reason for being disliked by everyone in his village. Just a month ago, he was the most loving, very talented and considered a genius. His world flipped all of a sudden and his feelings twisted. He reaches home while feeling mild annoyance, hurt. Thinking that he is being hated for the things he never did. "You are here?" To his surprise, Clara is waiting outside his door holding her hands before her thighs. "Do you- Do you have money to pay the fee?" - "I figured, don''t think that I''m doing this with pity but. I will pay the fees." Clara concludes the solution, filling the void of Faust''s silence that manifested his unspoken queries. Faust still looks to be in a puzzle, he could not believe his ears at first. But then-"Of Course not for free. You need to do something in return." She inferred with a smile. "W-what do you want me to do?" "Heh! Come with me" she came closer to hold his hand and took him into the village. 76 What Is Life - 04 Faust is standing in front of a cottage. It is stranding in the outer parts of the village. Looking dull and worn out with cracks appearing on the walls and roof. The cottage is looking pretty old fashioned. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Faust is standing outside with an unsure face. Clara went inside the house, asking Faust to wait outside. It''s been fifteen minutes and no sounds of human movements can be heard from inside. "Ahem! I see, leave it to me!" Clara is seeming to walk outside, beside her is an old man, seemingly in his sixties. The old man has a lean looking body with a small grey beard without a single strand of hair on his head. His eyes travelled from top to bottom on Faust, scrutinizing his body. "Eh! He looks too little, are you sure he is 10?" He asks in a surprise. "Yes! Trust me dad! he is. Just give him the work, pleaseeeeeee?" Her eyes suddenly goes round as she lowers her head pouting her lips. "Ah ah! I get it, stop with those puppy eyes already." He arrogantly gestured a stop sign with his hand. "Yay!" Clara bends lower to plant a kiss on the old man''s cheeks. She hurries towards Faust, bending down with her hands resting on her knees she continues. "You can stay here with my dad if you like. You need to just help him in his work and I will pay your school fees." "Not a bad deal huh? I hope you both get along." Clara says with a bright smile, her face is so pure and innocent. *"Is she the same age as that kid or what? Acting like a little kid. Tsk!"* Her father mutters under his breath. "Th-thank you! I will do my best. I will never forget your help." It did not take a second for Faust to lower his head and appreciate the help of Clara. He is almost sure that nobody is going to help him out of this, but Clara appeared out of nowhere to solvel his problem without him even asking her. - After two weeks, Clara visits the house again to check up on Faust. The old man is sitting outside of the house, smoking a cheap cigarette. "Dad! How can you smoke with Faust around? You are going to become a bad example to him." Clara yells at her dad as soon as she sees him fill his lungs with the warm smoke. "I already offered him a Cigarette, he said he doesn''t need it. Anyway what are you doing here?" The old man answers calmly showing his coolness and composure. "Huh??? Dad! Don''t be so harsh with him! He is just a kid! You did these same things with my boyfriend when I brought him to introduce to you. You offered him alcohol and when he did, you kicked him out." "But Faust here is a little kid! Stop testing him. You weirdo!" Clara bursts out of anger. "I don''t care! Men will be men! Even if it''s a 10 year old. So I tested him out, he spends very little time with me though." Her father replies in a strict tone. "What? Why? I thought he was living with you?" "He said he have someone to take care of in his home, so he is only spending little to with me." "What? That can''t be! He doesn''t have anyone anymore. Could he be lying to escape work?" "I don''t think so! That kid!" The old man blows the smoke out of his mouth in an enjoyable manner. His eyebrows touches each other. "He is exceptional!" "Huh? What are you saying now? What are you saying? Did he visit you today?" Clara doesn''t understand what was happening at all, her concerning sides takes over her as she sits beside her father asking about Faust. "Yes of course! Can''t you see him?" The old man points his finger towards the farming fields before him. Clara doesn''t notice anything at first. But after a few moments, she sees a small boy pulling a heavy metal fork like equipment. "H-huh? Huh???? Huhh?" Dad! Have you gone crazy? You are making a small kid cultivate and farm our land? What are you thinking?" Clara gets up on his feet and walks fast towards Faust. In the meanwhile, the old man grabs the hand of Clara pulling her back beside him. "What are you doing? He said he wanted to do that work, so he is working hard everyday. You shouldn''t disturb his focus." He utters. "That kid is not normal, he is not weak like you think. He is filling the ground with that huge metal tied to his back. He is raking the very ground. Shovelling it and picking it and separating the land." "Isn''t he the laughing stock of our village? He is doing this for 5 hours straight. Without a break. He is farming our land." The old man announces with a hint of pride. Clara is lost in her own thoughts as her father is telling her what Faust is doing everyday. And while she is lost, Faust comes from the fields, wiping the dirt off his face, hands and legs. "I have completed today''s work! Let me know if you need help with chopping wood. I can help you with that too." Faust casually walks up to the old man and talks to him as if he has done nothing out of the ordinary. He isn''t even gasping for air, nor withering in pain. "Ah yes yes" the old man gets up to go inside his house, comes out with a vessel. "That is your dinner for you and the person you are taking care of. Come back tomorrow, I will give you your lunch box." The old man hands the vessel to Faust. Faust bows to the old man and also to Clara who is still in shock and leaves to his house. He enters the house, turns on the lights and the chimney and places the food on the table. "Grandpa¡­" 77 What Is Life - 05 "Grandpa¨Cplease look over us." Faust prays and goes on to feed Bella, arranges his bed and goes to sleep. However, Bella pulls her bed to where Faust is and lays down on her bed. She stays up until Faust falls asleep. She then goes on to check every corner of the room and goes to sleep. Bella took up the role of Faust''s guardian, protecting him while he is sleeping. She wakes up whenever she hears any movements near the house, she goes on to inspect the area. After Gus passed out. Faust and Bella are protecting each other in their own way. Bella is looking out for Faust, going to school to walk back home with him. While Faust is trying to bring Bella her food without having to hunt like before, he is not letting Bella go out in the wild. Their bond has strengthened as both of them is looking out for each other like.siblings. - "That dog is coming to school everyday, to walk back home with that kid? And it is perfectly alright if it''s a good dog! But this one barks at kids and make everyone stay away from the gate." "This questions the safety of the kids in our school, the parents are also very much worried about this dog barking on their kids." The head of the school is talking to Clara regarding Bella. Clara took the responsibility of Faust by paying his fees. "I-it has been a year since Faust is working for my dad and I had spent a lot of time with his dog too. It is really nice and sweet. The dog is only barking at people who are bullying Faust. I''m pretty¨C" "Enough! There is no such thing as bullying in our school! Everyone is being friendly and nice to each other. I won''t let you distract the issue of a dog towards innocent kids calling them bullies." Before Clara can clarify, she is getting yelled at by the head for being unreasonable. As per the head of the school: Bullying doesn''t exist in their premises. The meeting of Clara with the head is coming to an end by Clara agreeing to solve the issue of Bella. - Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "I know that for a year that Bella and you are walking home together. But, Miss Audrey doesn''t want Bella to come to school anymore. Because she is barking at the kids and parents and terrorizing them." Clara is trying to explain the situation to Faust while she, Faust and Bella are walking home from school. "Uun~" Faust nods his head in response while looking at Bella who is a huge ball of fur walking alongside him, thinking what threat does it possess to the people who are complaining. "Bells! You need to stop barking at my schoolmates. They will not let you wait for me near the school gate anymore." And i''m going to go to the old man''s house now, you can safely go back home and wait for me." Faust stops in his tracks, turning towards bella, he pats it''s head as he gives instructions and sends it on its way. Bella just replies with a soft moan with its head lowered as she agrees and walks towards their home. "There! She won''t cause us any problem anymore." Faust turns towards Clara to assure her that the problem has been solved. "Okay! It was pretty easy huh? Okay, I will be on my way too now." Clara replies with a smile as she heads her way. ¨C "Heh remember it next time old man." A group of goons lead by a young 25year old male is walking out of the housing premises. The old man is getting up from the ground as his blue pants and maroon tee shirt are glittering sand particles. And a blood decorating his lower lips "Huh? Who is this kid? I will kill this guy too if you don''t tell me your decision by the time I have given you." The male leading the goons shouts as he walks out of the gate. "Ahh! Don''t worry, I''m okay." The old man wiping off his blood says. "I did not ask." Faust replies with innocence, while his eyes are displaying concern for the old man. "He is Clara''s ex-boyfriend. I put him to a test and he failed. So I kicked him out of my daughter''s life. It happened three years ago. Now he is leading those goons, threatening me to give up the farming land, left for me. He got agitated to see that the land is now cultivating crops and he took it out on me." "It''s ok , I will talk to Yang about it. You can go chop the wood behind the house, I will prepare the dinner." He says as he leaves into the house. He must be feeling lonely. He acts tough in front of his daughter Clara. Which is why he cannot tell her these things and make her worry. He must be feeling lonely, so she said all these things without even questioning. Faust understands the old man, he expressed his respect without interrupting the old man in between or by feeling pity for him. He cannot show pity to the old man by saying stupid things like to seek help from others. ¨C For the next few days, Bella is still visiting Faust after school to walk back with him and this gravely hurt the pride of the headmistress. For her, she is always thinking about herself as a Queen who rules upon her empire like school. And anyone who doesn''t follow her commands needs to be punished. . . . One day after school, as Faust walks out of the main gate, his eyes wanders.around searching for Bella. After he takes a couple of steps, he hears cries in a very low voice. It''s the cries of Bella, coming from the opposite side of the road to Faust. Faust instantly runs to the other side of the road. In front of him is Bella. Lying lifeless on the ground, her body is withering, covered in bruises and blood. Her fur seems pulled forcefully at spots with the traces of blood, marks of bites can be seen and she is covered in dirt all over as if she was kicked like a ball in the dirt. Faust panics, lifts his head up while trembling in fear, looking at the parents and people standing in front of him waiting for their kids. And none of them seem to care that a poor soul is badly injured. He wants to shout for help but his mouth doesn''t open. Because of the look in everyone''s eyes. All of the people are just glaring at Faust and Bella without remorse as if they have nothing to do with them. Their faces say that the dog, an animal which cannot talk or hate, which can only smile, wag it''s tail and love endlessly without expecting anything in return deserves to be beaten badly. "Oh oh! Look over there boys! Seems like someone is hurt over there. Why don''t someone call an ambulance haha." Ahito and his group of friends says as they seem to be entering school gate from outside. Their clothes seem untidy and their shoes full of dirt and their faces are smiling brightly. "That dog deserved it for being with a weak owner. How dare it bark at my mom. Now it can''t even groan. Heh." Faust turns his head around for the words from Ahito. 78 What Happened? . . . Two years later. In the colorful city of medellin. The gentle breeze of wind carrying the delicate perfumes of humid on concrete roads. Peaceful clear skies with few clouds passing by, without a care for the world. Sweet fragrance of fruits and flowers being docked in their respective outlets. Heavy sounds of rustling metal as the escalators are getting ready with purple glow from beneath them. *Knock~* "I''m coming!" A lady in her early thirties. Cream. Colored skin, with velvety, silky smooth skin. Long red fluffy hair up to her hips. She is gifted with two big, round, blue colored eyes with the glint of gold hooded by double eyelids and thin black eyebrows. She is wearing a long dusky grey colored sweatshirt, that is covering up to her thighs. Leaving her long slender milky legs exposed. "Ah Faust! Are you done with today''s training? Go get ready soon. You don''t want to be late on the first day of your highschool do you?" As soon as she opens the door, she notices that it is Faust (14) who came back from his training. And starts nagging him to do his stuff right away like a mom. "Miss Neith! I know I know, I am going to now." Faust says, his black hair is at moderate length at sides but the front hovers above his right eye stretching to his right ear, with a small ponytail behind. It is almost one year since Faust is living with Neith, who is known as the most kind and beautiful woman in the city of Medellin. "Today is the awakening right? I hope you get the lightning or healing elemental stones Faust! Neith will be cheering for you!" "You know I don''t have any spiritual power right? I don''t know if I will get kicked out of the school after failing the awakening." "No no! Don''t be full of negative thoughts Faust! I know you awake a powerful and strong one!" Their conversation continues like a battle between positivity and negativity. With Faust on the brink of giving up on school. After the breakfast, Faust gets ready to go to school. He is still hesitating whether to take the awakening test. Where the students awakes a certain elemental stone that best suits their spiritual power. He doesn''t want to become a laughing stock again. At the same time, he wants to see if he really doesn''t possess any spiritual power. "You got it Faust! I believe in you." As Faust is about to leave for school. Neith comes closer, bending her upper body, she presses her lips on the forehead of faust, planting a kiss. Faust turned red immediately, especially since the huge busy of Neith is in front of his face. Strands of her hair is slowly slipping her shoulders onto her neck, landing on her soft, squishy round orbs. Faust instantly retracts and turns his face aside, realizing that his thinking is wrongful. "I will take my leave." Faust leaves quickly. "Huh? Oh did you take your bag? Ah! Have a great day." Neith says in a confusion as to why Faust suddenly left in a hurry. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The school that Faust goes to is the best school in Medellin. But is considered as one of the poor schools in the land of common people. The orphans, kids who cannot offer fees and children who want to learn and possess knowledge is taken in by this Medellin high school. *"If I do not awake any elemental stone. I will still be in this school. I will learn about this world. K will become stronger."* *"I still have my power."* Faust thinks as stands in front of the school gate, an old building with dull Maroon color, cracks in walls but crowded with kids from the whole city. "Fausto! Nervous are we? Don''t think too much about the awakening! I''m sure we both will awake the best ones." A voice comes from behind. A hand pats on Faust''s back and says with a confident tone, as he walks inside. He is carrying a bag on one of his shoulders and smiles as his sharp eyes curves. "Aion! You will awaken an exceptional one. That is for sure." Faust follows in the traces of the new guy, pulls his blonde hair from behind as a tease. "Tsk! Do not touch my hair. My little kitties like my hair of all." Aion replies as both of them head into their new class. The new class is so noisy with everyone playing tag inside class, dancing on the desks and every one pairing up and talking about different things of their lives. Both Aion and Faust quietly walks to the last row and settles themselves in the last two seats. "You bought your bag? I thought you were going to bring ''that'' since you said you will, from the start of highschool." Faust watches Aion arranging his backpack on the desk as he takes out his lunch box. "Ahhh! Not everyone is a rich bastard like you to carry that. There''s only three people in the entire school who carries that. You are the fourth person." "Miss Neith gave me that. It''s not like I have bought it myself." Faust replies as he moves his desk closer to Aion''s. "Whatever" Aion, hands one of the boxes to Faust and they both starts eating hot food without a care for the class. In the meanwhile. The door opens with a middle-aged man coming inside. He is bringing a table with him pulling it into class with him. "Woah! Dude! Awakening test!" "Are those the elemental stones? I have never seen them." "Omg! How much I wish I could awake that purple stone! Lightning element is the strongest of all." "Really? Lightning? Imagine awakening the rare healing element! The stone itself is looking so majestic." All the faces of the students light up as soon as they see the elemental stones inside their class. "Ok class! Are you all ready for the awakening test?" The person who bought the stones inside asks in excitement. And the reply he gets is the cheerings and unresting shouts of the students. 79 The Day Of Awakening – A Lightning User? The trolley that entered the class have 7 stones placed on top of them. There are two hand imprints on the slab like table for students to place their hands on. There are very small canals from the handprints that connects each of the seven stones. "Hi students! I''m your homeroom teacher for this year. I go by the name of Peter. Nice to meet you all." He pauses to take a breathe while scanning throughout the room to continue. "Now! I will have you people stand in front of this trolley. Then you will place your hands on the handprints and channel your spiritual energy. Then the respective stone which resonates with your spirit will choose you." The teacher that came inside announces to the whole class. "Oh! And you two are eating in the first period? It''s not a lunch break yet." He raises his head high, asking both Faust and Aion. Both of them doesn''t talk or respond to the teacher. They behave as if the teacher doesn''t exist in their world. All the other kids are surprised to see how they don''t even bother about the teacher. "Wow! They are so cool they are not even a bit scared of the teacher." "Oh my! They both are hot too." "We have delinquents in our class? from the very first day? I will not let those punks ruin my study." "I''m ok as long as they don''t cause disturbance in our class." The whole class is talking about Faust and Aion. Some are admiring their bravery, while others are despising. "Well I''m ok! Kids your age Should eat a lot and stay healthy. And so, you both are last in the line to take the awakening test." The teacher makes it clear in a demanding voice. "Tsch." This affected the pride of Aion and faust. They still continue to eat. There are seven stones on the table on total. A ''White'' stone: which enhances the physical properties of a human, which let''s one to move at an insanely fast speed. jump to greatest heights and superhuman strength. A ''Red'' stone: which is the bombarding/fire element, the energy that is released from these stones have a high bombarding nature. A ''Yellow'' Stone: which is the light element, the person using this stone have the light on their side. With the help of latest technology, the light stone users can be fatal. But they are vulnerable during nights, since they cannot produce the light itself from their body. A ''Green'' stone: which is the air element, helps the person using this stone to control air bullets/arrows/manipulation of the air. A ''Blue'' stone: which is the ice element, is the stone which is mostly awakened by martial arts. The stone enhances the weapons used by the practitioners. A ''Purple'' stone: which is the lightning element, is considered the strongest elemental stone of all. With only limited people being able to awaken this stone. An ''Orange'' stone: which have another crystal embodied within, that gleam of jadeite, is the spirit/healing element. An extremely rare element with only one in thousands awaken this stone. "Ok! Please come in the order that I call your names." Peter emphasizes while examining the names, on the paper he is holding in his hands. "Li Ming Jie" Peter looks up at the spirited class. "Wow! Isn''t it the one who ace''d the entrance test?" "No kidding! His spiritual power is on another level." "I''m not out to be surprised if he awakens lightning or healing element." Li Ming Jie immediately stands up as he hear people chattering continually about him. His chest fills with pride, even though he pretends like he did not hear anything. He walks to the front and stands before Peter, with a humble get confident smile surfacing on his face. "Ming Jie! You came first in the entrance test. I should say that I''m pretty impressed with your scores, if you keep working hard, you will reach greater heights. Now let''s see which element you will awaken." Peter states with a kind and warm smile. Li Ming Jie nods but stumbles upon seeing another stone among the ''seven'' elemental stones. It is a black stone that is sparkling among the other colors. It looks plain at first sight but really stands out between the others. Ming Jie is not able to avert his eyes off from the black stone. Unpleasantly, he places his hands on the table. Closing his eyes, he channels his spiritual power. Which travels through narrow tubes towards where the power stones are placed. *Brrrzt~* As the class is watching in quiescent, electricity surfaces like a spark around the purple stone on the table. Every student including the homeroom teacher is in awe looking at beams of electricity sparking out of the stone. "Woahh! The first lightning element user in our entire school!" "This guy is amazingly! Full scores in entrance test and a lightning element here?" "Dammit! I must be a little jealous, watching him." "And he is good looking too.. I might actually fall for him." All the students started gossiping about how amazing of a person Ming Jie is. Ming Jie, who just opened his eyes to see what was happening is left with happiness on his cheeks. He realizes that he doesn''t need to live in poverty in the lower city anymore. "Wow! Our class has its very own lightning user. With him, we may be able to aim for the top 10 in the annual school competition." Peter starts showering Ming Jie with respect and praises. His very first student to take the awakening test has awaken a lightning element. He is more than happy with this. Ming Jie goes walks back to his seat with a cocky smirk in between the cheers of the students. After him, many students awakens basic elements. Most common one among all stones. ''Bombarding Element''. Eight in the class with Air Element, Four of them with Ice, two of them with Light and only one Lightning Element. "Hmm! The next one, Faust!" 80 Its The Delinquents Time Only students who are yet to take the test is Aion and Faust. Peter goes through the papers in his hands to see if he missed any names, after his evaluating, Peter looks at the last two students. Both Aion and Faust look so bored with nothing to do. Clearing his throat Peter continues. "Ok, next one, Faust? I believe it''s the gentleman sitting in the corner?" Peter shouts. With a strong thump from his leg on to the ground, making a huge sound, Faust gets up from his seat and walks towards the teacher. He shows his anger by thumping his shoes on the floor at every step he takes. "Heh! I don''t think these guys will do anything." "They basically look weak too if you see." "Apart from good hair and dressing styles. These guys lack talent." "He looks kinda cute though! Not going to lie." In between the glares and starry-eyed infatuations from the students, Faust stands in front of the table. He wipes the moisture off his hands, placing his hands on the table. He closes his eyes and with a deep breathe he starts focussing on the stones. ¨C A good five minutes have passed and no stone is reacting. Peter comes forward to check if the stones have been affected by the spiritual power of the others. "Ah perhaps!" Peter grabs his set of papers, reading the last page. "So you are the one who cannot use spiritual power!" Peter says in a surprise. The whole class turns completely quiet for a minute. No one has ever heard of a person without a spiritual power. "Ahh! No wonder your hands are sweating before." Faust steadily opens his eyes. The first sight in front of him are the stones, laying dormant without a trace of energy in either of them. "Are you done ''channeling'' you ''spiritual power''?" Peter remarks, "I think I need to talk to the principal regarding you. I don''t know how you will be able to survive in this world without spiritual power! I really pity you." He continues. The whole class bursts out in laughter once they realize what is happening in front of them. A human without spiritual power, really took them by surprise. "I thought maybe the water stone let out a drop of the light stone became dimmer. But man! Talk about pathetic." "What? No way! Does he know about this before?" "Why did he come to school if he knows he doesn''t have any spiritual power before?" All the students passes their own conclusions on him. *"I knew this would happen! These guys would definitely bring a bad name to our class."* Ming Jie thinks to himself, as if he has already anticipated this would happen. "Shut up!" Faust mutters in a low voice, enough to reach every student in the class. His face is still looking down towards the stones. "I don''t care if I don''t have spiritual power! I don''t bother with flashy weapons." The shadow of Faust on the wall flutters slowly and the place that Faust is standing became dark all of a sudden. "In the end, I will be the strongest, you guys have ever heard." Faust declares. But what the whole class including Peter notices is, one of the stones is emitting energy. The black stone which is dormant all this time is suddenly glowing and from within the stone, a dark cloud of aura is bubbling out. Within seconds the aura, filled up the table and overflowing. Spreading out and reaching the students that are sitting. The students on the other side starting to hell and panic, seeing the dark aura coming closer to them. Faust instantly retracts his hands from the dark cloud that creeped up to his forearms. He did not understand what was happening either. And while everyone is watching a light glows from within the dark cloud that surrounded it. "S-so beautiful." A girl utters with a blank face, she did not force the words out of her mouth. The words came out of her heart. The dark cloud with a small light glowing from within looked pretty in its own way. After the dark cloud has disappeared without a trace and the heart beats of students calmed down. "I have never seen one before." Peter opens his mouth. "I have never seen this black stone awaken before. There is only one person in the history of mankind to use the black stone." Peter is lost in a dilemma on how to react. He wanted to shout and yell out loud and at the same time appreciate Faust. But regaining his senses, he left the class in a hurry to inform the principal and other renowned teachers about Faust. Among all this chaos, there is only one kid who is calm. Aion is sitting still with an evil grin on his face. "Well done Faust! I told you right? That you would evoke something. Now are you happy?" Aion welcomes bewildered Faust, who is walking towards his seat. "How Aion? I don''t have spiritual power and I know about it. Just how?" Faust questions in a surprise. He, himself could not believe what he just witnessed. "Well, nobody knows a thing about the black stone or it secrets. So it''s hard to assume anything right now." Aion snuggles. "But look at you! You have the altered space and you are a black elemental stone user. What else this school needs?" "What? You have altered storage too? Isn''t that an expensive tool? You need to show me once dude!" A student in front of Faust, turns back in excitement after hearing Aion talk about altered space storage. "Altered storage too? And tell us more about your black stone! What kind of things can you do with it?" Another student Sitting in front of Aion joins in the conversation. *Faust of class 9-B! Please come to the principal''s office as soon as possible!* "Woah! Principal''s office?is he going to get rewarded or something?" "They must have called him to negotiate the fee. Now that they know he is a black element user, they don''t want to lose him to other schools." An announcement aired from the speakers created a stir among the students, increasing the hype around Faust. 80 Its The Delinquents Turn Only students who are yet to take the test is Aion and Faust. Peter goes through the papers in his hands to see if he missed any names, after his evaluating, Peter looks at the last two students. Both Aion and Faust look so bored with nothing to do. Clearing his throat Peter continues. "Ok, next one, Faust? I believe it''s the gentleman sitting in the corner?" Peter shouts. With a strong thump from his leg on to the ground, making a huge sound, Faust gets up from his seat and walks towards the teacher. He shows his anger by thumping his shoes on the floor at every step he takes. "Heh! I don''t think these guys will do anything." "They basically look weak too if you see." "Apart from good hair and dressing styles. These guys lack talent." "He looks kinda cute though! Not going to lie." In between the glares and starry-eyed infatuations from the students, Faust stands in front of the table. He wipes the moisture off his hands, placing his hands on the table. He closes his eyes and with a deep breathe he starts focussing on the stones. ¨C A good five minutes have passed and no stone is reacting. Peter comes forward to check if the stones have been affected by the spiritual power of the others. "Ah perhaps!" Peter grabs his set of papers, reading the last page. "So you are the one who cannot use spiritual power!" Peter says in a surprise. The whole class turns completely quiet for a minute. No one has ever heard of a person without a spiritual power. "Ahh! No wonder your hands are sweating before." Faust steadily opens his eyes. The first sight in front of him are the stones, laying dormant without a trace of energy in either of them. "Are you done ''channeling'' your ''spiritual power''?" Peter remarks, "I think I need to talk to the principal regarding you. I don''t know how you will be able to survive in this world without spiritual power! I really pity you." He continues. The whole class bursts out in laughter once they realize what is happening in front of them. A human without spiritual power, really took them by surprise. "I thought maybe the water stone let out a drop of the light stone became dimmer. But man! Talk about pathetic." "What? No way! Does he know about this before?" "Why did he come to school if he knows he doesn''t have any spiritual power before?" All the students passes their own conclusions on him. *"I knew this would happen! These guys would definitely bring a bad name to our class."* Ming Jie thinks to himself, as if he has already anticipated this would happen. "Shut up!" Faust mutters in a low voice, enough to reach every student in the class. His face is still looking down towards the stones. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "I don''t care if I don''t have spiritual power! I don''t bother with flashy weapons." The shadow of Faust on the wall flutters slowly and the place that Faust is standing became dark all of a sudden. "In the end, I will be the strongest, you guys have ever heard." Faust declares. But what the whole class including Peter notices is, one of the stones is emitting energy. The black stone which is dormant all this time is suddenly glowing and from within the stone, a dark cloud of aura is bubbling out. Within seconds the aura, filled up the table and overflowing. Spreading out and reaching the students that are sitting. The students on the other side starting to hell and panic, seeing the dark aura coming closer to them. Faust instantly retracts his hands from the dark cloud that creeped up to his forearms. He did not understand what was happening either. And while everyone is watching a light glows from within the dark cloud that surrounded it. "S-so beautiful." A girl utters with a blank face, she did not force the words out of her mouth. The words came out of her heart. The dark cloud with a small light glowing from within looked pretty in its own way. After the dark cloud has disappeared without a trace and the heart beats of students calmed down. "I have never seen one before." Peter opens his mouth. "I have never seen this black stone awaken before. There is only one person in the history of mankind to use the black stone." Peter is lost in a dilemma on how to react. He wanted to shout and yell out loud and at the same time appreciate Faust. But regaining his senses, he left the class in a hurry to inform the principal and other renowned teachers about Faust. Among all this chaos, there is only one kid who is calm. Aion is sitting still with an evil grin on his face. "Well done Faust! I told you right? That you would evoke something. Now are you happy?" Aion welcomes bewildered Faust, who is walking towards his seat. "How Aion? I don''t have spiritual power and I know about it. Just how?" Faust questions in a surprise. He, himself could not believe what he just witnessed. "Well, nobody knows a thing about the black stone or it secrets. So it''s hard to assume anything right now." Aion snuggles. "But look at you! You have the altered space and you are a black elemental stone user. What else this school needs?" "What? You have altered storage too? Isn''t that an expensive tool? You need to show me once dude!" A student in front of Faust, turns back in excitement after hearing Aion talk about altered space storage. "Altered storage too? And tell us more about your black stone! What kind of things can you do with it?" Another student Sitting in front of Aion joins in the conversation. *Faust of class 9-B! Please come to the principal''s office as soon as possible!* "Woah! Principal''s office?is he going to get rewarded or something?" "They must have called him to negotiate the fee. Now that they know he is a black element user, they don''t want to lose him to other schools." An announcement aired from the speakers created a stir among the students, increasing the hype around Faust. 81 The Delinquents Turn - 02 "But it is strange that there is no spiritual power I you. And yet the-black stone released an aura." One of the experienced teachers is asking Faust in an impatient tone. He is tall and slender, black hair with purple gleam at the ends of his hair and a thunder symbol on the collar of his shirt. "Let him be Brass, he is still a kid! Don''t go mocking them in place of asking questions." A female teacher with a tattoo of a tree inside a pentagon at the side of her neck just below her ear, intervenes in the middle to reduce the unpleasant atmosphere in the room with her smiling face and dusky voice. "That is true, but it is really strange to come across this strange incident." Another teacher with a yellow feather badge on his hat adds in. "We can use this opportunity, see what he can do. Train him and who knows! Our school might earn a big name and the parents would be more interested in their kids going to our school." Another teacher utters. "I don''t think it''s the right thing to do, to use a kid and earn a name for our school. We should leave this to principal to decide what to do." The one wearing a water wave shaped badge on his shoulder speaks up. All of the teachers discussing among themselves agrees and turns towards the table in the middle of the room. Faust, out of curiosity takes a peek from in between teachers to the old man sitting on a chair with his elbows resting on the table, he seems to be sleeping while everyone is busy discussing. He is wearing a black suit with a red cloth wrapped around his left shoulder. *"What''s the big deal of this old man?"* Faust is not impressed with the old man in the first look. He just looks like a normal old man in a suit. "Ahem~" one of the teachers attempts an oblique way to wake him up, also not to be rude at the same time. But it is of no avail. "Hello! Mr. Principal! It''s morning, time to wake up." While everyone is thinking on how to wake up the principal, Faust goes beside him and tries to wakes him up by tapping on his shoulder.. "You insolent brat! What do you think you are do-" before the teacher with purple hair finishes. The principal wakes up suddenly in a panic! "Ahhhh! Ahh! Where is that black dragon?did I chase it away?" Waking up from his sleep the principal asks everyone in the room. "Here he goes again." The female teacher mumbles, holding her forehead. "Mr. Principal it''s actually about the black stone-" "What? The black stone is missing from our school? That is only rare stone we have for our school! Gifted to me by my father. How can you guys lose something like that! This is what I get for trusting you guys with it!" The old man who just woke up stars complaining and starts crying like a little girl. "Sir the black stone is perfectly alright!" "Ahhhh Casey! Why didn''t you said that earlier. I wasted most of my tears." His mood immediately changes from sorrow to colorful as the female teacher informs him of the stone. "So what''s the matter now? Why was I summoned?" He asks with a serious stone. His eye brows meets together as his eyes become sharp and he covers half of his face with his hand. "This young man right here! The black stone- responded to him." The eyes of old man turns to a side to where Faust is. His stare is intense, tinted with shades of Amber. One can see an untold story full of pain is behind those eyes. "I can see it." The old man utters in a low voice. "Is it his spiritual power? So he has it in him after all?" Dimitri, the teacher with a water badge asks. "I can sense it¡­ I can clearly see it! It''s enormous!" The old principal adds. His. Eyes gets widen as if he is looking at a mammoth of power. "Wh-what are you saying sir? How could we not sense anything in him?." The tension in the room increases listening to the words from the principal. Peter almost trembles in excitement. He is complimenting himself internally for having such a student in his class. Faust is intrigued with the words spoken by him. A seed of hope is planted inside his heart. He is starting to think that he too can use spiritual power now. "Ah! Nevermind! I can''t even sense any power from him." The old man cuts out his acts of serious face and says it as he gives up on acting serious. "Huh????" Everyone in the room is electrocuted, they did know how to respond. "Don''t go around playing your jokes if you don''t know what happened! If I''m not needed here, I''ll leave." Faust says in disappointment, he curses himself for even hoping for the impossible. "Ah this kid sounds too depressed." The old man gets up from his chair. "Give the black stone to him!" Staring into the eyes of Faust, the old man smiles with admiration. "Huh? Is-isn''t it passed down to you from your father? Weren''t you just crying a moment before thinking of.the stone?" Jack, the teacher with a hat asks curiously. "Eh! It''s of no use anyway being in school! If it responded to him, give him the stone. Oh, I just remembered some important work! I''ll be on my way." the old man declares and starts walking out of the room while everyone in the room is surprised including Faust himself. *"Is he back? Asura! Heh! Interesting days are here."* He smiles as he walks out of the room. While walking in the corridor on his way back to class with Peter. He tells him to collect the black stone after the awakening test. "Mr. Peter!" A student from Faust''s class comes running from the class. "Sir! The delinquent kid and Li Ming Jie had a fight! The delinquent kid is hit by lightning and lots of blood is loosing.!" "I''m going to the infirmary to bring the bring the doctor! Please stop them." Student says while panicking and rushes downstairs. As Faust and Peter are processing what was told to them. "Zapp~~" A huge lightning resounds from the class, the electric beams are seen from the corridor itself. "What the hell! On the very first day?" The teacher runs to the class, while Faust just stands still letting out an evil smirk. 82 The Delinquents Turn - 03 Peter stays in a shock after reaching the class! "Oh!" Even Faust who enters the class from.behind Peter Is in a surprise. "Oh! I know it''s not that bad but damn! Even you?" Faust mutters at Aion. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. In front of Aion is the purple stone, emitting lightning and thunder. It''s not a weak spark of electricity like Li Ming Jie. The lightning is roaring out visibly as branches of a tree. "Thi-s much for someone who just awakened his element? The spiritual power is probably more than anyone in the class!" Peter is talking, but his face is pale. He has never been surprised so many times in a day. "I thought they are delinquents! Are they not? Could they be genius?" "I''m wondering¡­ th-the same! I mean, look at that surging power!" The students are shocked and scared at the same time. They are happy until a while ago, thinking that their class and everyone is normal. But a lightning user with toms of energy on the first day and a mysterious black stone user. They feel as if their whole life is about to take a wrong turn. Aion withdraws his hands from the table, letting the lightning to settle. He let out a cocky smirk at Peter. "Well I guess that settles the awakening test?" Aion could not wait any longer for Peter and Faust to come back. He took the test by himself. Luckily, Peter made it in time to witness the deadly lightning element of Aion, fighting to be released from it''s cage. "But then! That kid said there''s a fight in this class?" Peter asks in confusion. "Its Seth sir? he said he is going out." A student helps with Peter. "Of course! He lied! I figured it." Faust says as he and Aion walks back to their seats in harmony and joy. "See! I told you that you will awaken a powerful element!" Faust nudges Aion on their way. Later both of them quarrels on who awakened a powerful element. And after the period, Peter explains the students that they have to actually buy their respective elemental stone by paying the school some money before taking Faust to the.staff room to hand him the black stone in front of all the teachers. For which Faust received mixed reactions from the group. Some teachers are happy and clapping, while others glared at him with slow claps. It''s either jealousy or trying to be strict towards their student. - "Haah! Today is an exhausting day! Walk quickly, we won''t be able to get into the bus if we get there llate." Aion tells to Faust, as they both are walking towards the bus stop after school. And as Aion keeps telling Faust to walk quickly, they reach bus stop and in front of them is a huge crowd. "What the hell? Why so many people are here?" "I told you to walk quickly Faust! Look what happened now!" Aion says with a long face. "Oh look at that! It''s the bus that is going towards our house!!" Faust gestures his hand towards a bus that seem empty with only a few seats occupied. Aion thanks gods for their luck and starts running towards the bus. But in a second, a huge mob comes running along with Faust and Aion They both try to keep up with the pace and get into the bus. "Faust! I got in! Come quickly!" Faust hears the voice of Aion in the crowd that is rumbling and wrestling to get into the bus. He dashes inside hoping Aion too got in before him, he looks all around the bus but could not find that familiar ''im cooler than everyone'' face of Aion that he is looking for. Thinking that it is not helping him, he now knows that his only option is to shout Aion''s name. But he it is embarrassing for him to do it in front of all the people. It is not shy to yell in front of a huge crowd, but he feels as though it is not a thing that he could do. Since he always maintains his cool posture. "Aion! are you here?" He utters in his usual tone as he scans through every single seat hoping for Aion''s reply. Instead, he caught the attention of every single person in the bus turned back towards him, staring at him as if he has committed some sin. It is becoming more awkward for Faust. he is thinking if these people don''t have any other work rather than just keep staring at him. "Ummm¡­ Aion is my friend,I thought he got into this bus as well! Please don''t mind me." Faust tries to explain to the passengers in a shy tone. When Faust is thinking, nothing could go wrong. The doors of the bus closes tightly and the bus starts to move. He just lowers his head, as the bus has picked up it''s pace. The truth however is, Aion ditched Faust to go out with a girl, as Faust is from a remote village, he used to speak whatever that comes to his head. Which made many girls feel weird and left middle way from a double date, which also ruined Aion''s date. Which made Aion abandon Aion this time. Seeing that there is nothing he can do anymore. Faust walks up and stands a few feet away from the driver and looks all around facing the passengers head on. All the people in the bus are busy talking to each other or looking somewhere else, but whenever Faust is scanning through every seat to see if Aion got in. The passengers catches Faust looking at them and gives him glares at the same time he looks towards the seat. It gets more embarrassing and uneasy to the point that Faust feels guilty for even looking at them. "Kid I don''t know about your friend but are you going to pay for your trip or stand there and leave without paying? Tsch I know the tricks you kids play these days." The driver says to Faust with an annoyed tone. Faust''s face shrunk all the way inside. First it was passengers who glared at him as a weirdo, now the driver called him a scammer. He did not say anything than feel embarrassed to his core. He is thinking how he even ended up in this situation. "Hai, I will pay you mister, don''t worry about money, I''m not a scammer or something" Faust says with a low voice as he suppresses his anger. On the inside, he want to beast up this cocky driver and Aion to a plump. "Haha if you don''t have money I can pay for you kid!" a middle aged woman joins her voice smiling brightly while watching Faust. 83 Half Dead People She is fair, tall and big for a middle-aged woman, her height is easily above 5''10". Icy blonde hair with beautiful, captivating eyes. Lavendish pink lips and a glint of baby pink blush on her cheeks. She looks young without a hint of any aging on her face. She shines brightly in between all the other passengers. "I-its ok! I can buy my ticket." Faust hurriedly slips his hand inside his pocket to take out some money with his face lowered, covering his blushing cheeks. "Enough! we don''t need to pay for some strange kid that we don''t even know." A middle-aged man, who seems to be the husband of the fair women sits right beside her and speaks in a very strict tone. For which the woman just gives a faint smile elegantly covering her lips with her fingers. Her skin looked so smooth and soft, her fore fingers looked milky white with a gold ring on her index finger that perfectly matches her hand. The woman and her husband have been married for 10 years and have not yet been blessed with a child, but she loves kids very much! Which is why she stares at Faust, thinking: *"if I had a son, he would be as cute and innocent as he is"* Faust pays the driver and stands in front of the door, getting ready to get down at the next stop. The bus slows down as the result of a huge crowd to either sides of the road, as if everyone is getting ready for a festival. "Ahh it''s them again? They are being seen too often nowadays and the cops just doesn''t care huh?" The driver speaks out loud. Faust doesn''t seem to care, he''s only worryingly thinking of Aion, when he sees the stop he''s supposed to get down, but the bus continued to drive away not seeming to stop. The fair middle-aged woman gets up from her seat and stands behind Faust in line holding onto a pole that is beside him. Faust need to push a button that is on the pole in order to indicate the driver to stop the bus, but the woman''s hand is on the pole and closer to the button as if she doesn''t want Faust to press the button. It seems she doesn''t want him to get down yet. Faust however tries to push the button ignoring the woman''s hand, but Faust didn''t pay attention to what the woman is doing and he accidentally poked her hand. *"S-so soft!"* He withdraws his hand in a surprise and his body becomes stiff. His face turns red and he looks back from the corner of his eye. The lady is looking at him, wearing a smile on her face. "Oh! our stop is here, dear hurry up or we will miss our stop." She tells her husband who is still sitting in his seat, seemingly bored. There are 10 more people behind the lady, waiting in a line to get down at the same stop and so her husband stood behind all the people while she stood at the front, just behind Faust. He casually sighs and started walking, but in a glint something bizarre caught his eye. On the other side of the road, the vehicles are stopped due to the signal and there is a body of a middle aged man with no legs or arms, most importantly with no head. Just a torso sitting at the back of a bike tied to the driver. The body looks inflated or fat and seemed to be having a white colored tank top on. Faust couldn''t process the scene he saw at first sight. He kept looking at it, feeling sick to his stomach. *"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!"* The signal changed and the guy took off with the bike. Faust can even see chunks of flesh dropping on the road from the decapitated body as the bike took off. "What the hell? How is this common in this city?" Faust grossed out and starts walking with his head lowered and his sights set on the road, no matter how hard he tries not to think about it. He keeps seeing glimpses of that horrific sight. "AHHHH!!!!!!" A scream came from the same side of his road. Faust immediately looks up, he notices people a few meters away in front of him are running inside the the small shops situated at the roadside. *"What is this, why are they running"* Faust can see the people that are right in front of him are rushing to cross to the other side of the road. Faust can see 10- 20 people walking towards him but something is wrong with the people approaching him. They are inflated and their skin have deep holes like a sponge as if someone spooned their flesh. Faust is frozen on the road looking at them. Some of their limbs are cut and the nerves are hanging out, some are holding their gut as blood seems to be flowing out along with intestines hanging outside and people are running away from them. These people are not going into a crowd nor following the running people.They seem to be waiting for a moment where a person or two is separated from the crowd. In this moment one of the guys from the group sets his eyes on Faust. Faust instantly knew that the guy is looking at him and rushing towards him with all the 20 of them following him. Faust knew that he needed to move now. He needs to cross the road and reach to the crowd that is on the other side, but his feet are not moving. It''s as if they are buried deep inside the earth. Faust is not able to move an inch. He knows that if he gets caught, he is going to die instantly. He can see blood all over the mouths of the people coming towards him. They seemed to eat raw flesh of humans on their way before reaching their current destination. Faust knows he will be decapitated and worse eaten alive if he gets caught by them, but his witless feet are still frozen stuck on the ground. It is their ideal moment for the group to attack since the kid who cannot move his feet is also separated from the crowd. They know they won''t get another moments like these often and so the gutless and limpless crowd starts pacing up quickly to rush towards Faust. *"Fuck!"* Faust is overwhelmed by the fear of the Bizarre sight. He badly wanted his frozen body to move. *"Is this the end for me?"* 84 Half Dead People - 02 "It looks like there''s a fight taking place in lower land." In-between a twenty-five monitor room, a person wearing khakis is talking on the phone, watching the half dead people causing chaos. "Half deads again?" The person on the other side of the phone asks. His voice is filled with arrogance and pride of a noble. "Yes sir!" the person monitoring Medellin through the drones replies. "Which city?" "Medellin!" "Copy! Do not interfere, we can let them do some grocery shopping first. Poor ones don''t even get enough food." The other person declares like he is doing people a favor. "Roger that! Will reach back to you later if I have anything to update." "Good! Keep up your hard work." The conversation of the two went oblique among each other without any concern for the people, who are becoming victims to the enormities of the ones with ferocious weapons. - Faust suddenly realises that his feet are moving, he can see a hand pulling him. It''s the same lady who travelled with Faust in the same bus. She grabs him by his wrist and starts running towards the crowd on the other side. "What are you doing? Keep running, don''t just stand there!" Faust hears her saying even when she''s struggling to run. Faust snaps back from his break down situation. He runs along with the lady that saved him and both of them reaches to the other side of the road safely. Faust rests his hands on both of his knees and gasps for air as he turns towards the lady to thank her. "Ahhhhhhhh!" Before he could thank her, he sees her frightened face as she screams in panic. Tears roll off her face as her hands are shivering looking at the other side of the road. Faust turns to the direction that she is looking. "*So they''re not eyeing at me from the start? Are they planning to run to him from the start??"* Faust watches the husband of this lady, surrounded by 10 of the inflated people. They are carrying butcher knives and machetes. One of them already bite the shoulder of the husband and tore the flesh with his mouth. All of their faces is filled with happiness as if a prey fell into their trap, they are ready to devour him alive. *"What the hell happened with me? Fuck! I normally won''t go helping others, but I don''t want this lady to regret helping me."* Faust instantly leaps forward in one jump across the road Among the half dead that are going towards the husband, there is an old one. He is different from the rest with very thin body and crooked teeth. He is carrying a katana sheathed inside a green scabbard. Faust catches up to the old one who is running on his left. Faust folds his right hand, from under his left shoulder he grabs the handle of the katana. "Sword Arts - Unholy Demon Scythe" *Swirl~~* *swoosh* Faust holds the katana closer to his body and swirls in a zigzag way from within the ones that are running. His blade leaves an after image of silver lining around him as he swirls. It makes it seem as though Faust is holding a curved scythe that is circled around his body. He slows down approaching the 10 half deads who surrounded the husband. He places the katana on his waist and slowly walking inside the middle of the circle made by the half dead. With the sound of a ''swoosh'', the shoulders, limbs, and fingers of the half dead falls apart from their bodies in a split second. People from the other side stand in confusion at the ghastly sight. Faust suddenly stands in front, blocking the half dead from attacking the husband by standing in front of him. "Come closer if you want to die." Faust utters as he shields him. "Look kid! Stay out of our way or we will-" one of the half dead comes closer while speaking in snarky tone and was about to place his right hand on Faust''s shoulder to threaten him, but in a mere second, his huge arm is chopped at four places and his limbs fall onto the ground like a chunk of wood. Faust just stood there without even moving a single muscle and yet the half dead lose his arm. *"This will make them fear and they will run away "* Faust thinks to himself but is left in shock as he sees the face of the half dead that he just sliced. He looks fearless, unimpressed and most of all. There is no signs of fear in his face. "Ok! He got some skills. What are we going to do now?" He lazily turns his head around asking the mob behind him. "You fool! Did we ever let go of our food! Eeeeehaaaaa. Let''s just killll!!!." A half dead from behind exclaims. He has his kitchen knife on the side of his face and cuts his face from the side of his eye and cut into his jaw while laughing like a maniac. This unexpected outcome left Faust in a shock. None of the half dead faces show any sign of pain. The person before him just cut his face deeper without flinching. "We don''t feel any pain!" The half dead who lost his arm speaks up. "It''s not because we are fat though hahaha." All the half dead around him starts laughing like this is all too normal for them. "Kid! The only way to stop us is by killing all of us, you got no choice now kid. Get ready to become our meal!" Faust is dumbstruck with what he just heard. He was told by Neith to never get into any kind of fight or cause harm to people. He tried to solve this by scaring the half dead, but who knows that they cannot feel any pain towards their body. "Unless their brain is detached from their body,they will keep coming for you." The husband of the woman utters to Faust. "Have you ever killed a person in your life? Ehaha" the half dead asks Faust. *"They are not humans, as long as they are not human! If I do this to save a person anything works I guess."* The breathing of Faust increases rapidly. "It''s ok kid! Run away and protect yourself! The woman''s husband suddenly yells at him. He knows a child shouldn''t get his hands dirty at a young age, so he tries to convince Faust to leave. "Whatever! If they just wants me to go crazy! I will give it to them." Faust knows he didn''t want to regret even if the husband of the woman try to make him leave. He closes his eyes and take a deep breath. In a split second his body relaxes and he becomes an entirely different person as though every nerve and every cell had turned cold inside his body. "Farewell." 85 Half Dead People - 03 Half deads are round inflated or fat beings. Their skin is similar to a sponge with holes hinted with the color of blood inside the holes making it into a reddish color. The half deads does not feel any pain over any injuries they obtained on their body, nor the blood loss or any types of diseases can harm them. They are the creatures which mainly feed on meat, especially the taste of a human''s flesh drives them crazy. The half deads are still able to have the same abilities as humans, but they are more insane creatures that savagely attacks human for their dinner. The only way to stop them is to detach their brain from their body. Only then would their bodies stops functioning. "Farewell!" Faust says, taking a step forward. Lowering his body with the kata on his left side. He goes into the sword drawing technique. And before the half dead in front of him realise. *Sleeek~* A sound made by slicing the head of the half dead before him in a smooth cut. "Shit!" The other half dead surrounding the woman''s husband utters with a fearfully pale face. They were cocky and are so sure that Faust wouldn''t be able to kill them, but unexpected to them, Faust had actually drew blood without any hint of hesitation in his eyes. Faust decided to ignore the fear and arrogance of the half dead and dead serious locked his eyes on their heads. The half dead move their eyes from the decapitated head of their companion to where Faust is currently standing, but he is not present in the same place. All the half dead are confused that he suddenly appeared on the extreme right on one of them like a fluttering breeze. He slashed and separated the head and body of one. All the other half dead starts running towards right to attack him. In the next second, he is on zoomed to the left, slashing another two horizontally. The half dead are slow in speed when it comes to running which is why Faust started from the corners as to outwit them. He acrobatically moves all around with an ''impossible to match in speed'' type in a breeze. *"Dammit! Don''t! Don''t! Don''t lose it."* *"It feels so damn good whenever I''m slicing their bodies! Ahhhh ahhhh fuck! Don''t lose it, keep it together Faust!."* Faust seemingly enjoys the massacre, everytime he sliced off a chunk of meat from the half deads. He feels like he is losing his sanity. All he wants to do is to cut more and more. His speed too is increasing with the spike in his lust to kill. He instantly finishes all the 20 half dead including the old one. The lady and her husband, including everyone on the road are dumbstruck and were unable to utter a word. This is a completely one-sided match. The numbers of the half dead did not matter at this point. Everyone thought that it was over for the time being and were worrying about the kid staring at the half dead under his sword. Suddenly another angry mob of half deads approaches Faust. Thirty of them distributed in three equal rows with 10 half dead lined up in each row. "Great!" Faust licks his lips and smiles from excitement. He starts walking towards them with greeds filling in his eyes. "I love this sensation of blood filling the air" Faust casually speaks out and his black hair falling over his face, covering his eyes as he lowered his head. His eyes can be seen glowing in blood red shot from under his hair with a creepy smile spreading across his face. "Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! I''ll freaking kill everyone!" Faust laughs like a manic under his breath. He tries his best to suppress his insane side from leaking to the outer world. He looks plain and normal on the outside but inside he is like a crazy psychopath whose real killer instincts are about to unleash! "Sword Arts - Rapier Thrust!" Faust teleports from his spot to the middle row in a second. He stretches his katana¨Cextending his arm to the extreme to the back of his body like a baseball pitcher would, getting ready to throw a pitch. In the next minute he thrusts the tip of his katana into the heart of the half dead. One!...two!.. three!.. the katana pierced through the half dead one after another along the lined up rows. All ten of them were pushed back with a great force and are slammed against a bus in the middle of the road with Faust still thrusting from the front. "Eahhhhhh! Thrust!" He again lands another thrust on the half dead, his whole hand went inside the chest of the first one. The shock wave travelled in great speed through all ten of them, crushing their hearts in a crunch. The force of his thrust still continued, shattering the windows and windshield of the bus before fading into thin air. He pulls his hand out with little blood gushing out of the bodies of the half dead and he turns around to face the two rows of twenty more half deads that are left. He starts walking with a big smile on his face. The half deads behind him are still moving, they did not feel a thing even when their hearts are brutally crushed. They try to attack him from behind, but before they could make any move, the heads of all ten falls apart. A fountain of blood splashed from the torso''s, all at the same time raining upon Faust. The twenty in front of him could not digest the fact that Faust is so strong. They didn''t know what move to choose from their arsenal. While yelling in helplessly a spear like object is shot into the mouth of the last one in a row. He then teleports to the sword instantly gripping his hand around the handle. He twists the sharp edge of the sword upwards in its mouth. The half dead fearfully moved his eyeballs while being frightened, but Faust swiftly swings the sword upwards, slicing the head of it into two equal halves from between his eyes without any pitiness. Before he was about to move on to the next one. A loud siren began to ring in the area! All the half dead clustered into a group, cautiously looking at their surroundings. Two vans with small circular shaped wings at the back come flying from above. The van is hovering with the air gushing out from the empty circular wings which are glimmering in green color. Small regiment of ten soldiers half of them wearing black and the other half in green uniforms and rifles, along with one cop in khakis walks out of the vans. Faust immediately turns back to normal upon seeing the soldiers. He knows he needs to let them handle the situation now. But before he realizes, eight of the soldiers surrounds him, pointing their rifles towards him. "You handle that sword very well don''t you?" The ninth soldier in black asks, walking towards Faust hauntingly. In this modern world, users of martial arts are hunted and killed. 86 F The Cops - Faust 5068 After getting information from the monitoring room. A cop sent requests immediately to the power houses in the nation, especially to the ones closer to the crime area, to interfere with Faust. The house of Asura''s and the house of Diamonds responded back by sending 5 soldiers from each house to aid the cops. One mere high school kid with a sword is not seen as a threat by the cops and the families. The soldiers, in a while, gathered at a single point to carry out their mission. And within minutes, they have surrounded Faust with rifles on point blank and suppressed his movements. "Identify yourself!" One of the soldiers wearing black, from the house of Asura''s demanded Faust. Faust doesn''t know what the other person wanted to see. He just stands there in confusion without understanding who these people are or why they surrounded him. They should be going after the half dead that are in the middle of the road, after causing a huge ruckus. "But¨Cthe ones who are causing the trouble are over there!" Faust pointed his hand over to the cluster of half dead that are holding weapons to potentially kill a person. "The cop is taking care of it already." With a heavenward glance he gestured his hand towards the cop that is talking to the half dead. He then walks closer to Faust with a poker face, grips his hand around Faust''s neck. He then proceeds on to turn Faust''s face sideways. Faust does not flinch or move. He doesn''t like a guy walking up to him and ridicule him out of nowhere. The soldier tightens his grip with his thumb on the jaw and tries to turn Faust''s face to sideways again. People in the lower land are considered nothing but a bag of meat that can walk and talk. Protecting them is considered useless and a waste of time. The only purpose of these low land people is to produce babies and enroll them into the military. The soldiers only exist to protect the upper land, to protect the nobles and to fetch the elemental stones, the resources of earth, available in other dimensions. Hence the soldier wanted to show his power and authority over Faust, he wanted to behave however he wants, treating Faust like.trash. But Faust still did not flinch, even from the gruesome power that the soldier is putting on Faust. He is simply too strong than the soldier. He stands still glaring at the soldier from within the strands of his hair covering his face. *"Fuck the cops! If only this is a dark alley, I wouldda fucking teach this shitface a lesson!"* Faust hastily thinks to himself. He really wants to beat up this soldier, if this had happened in a place with little exposure to crowds. "Let''s go!" He orders the soldiers around and everyone starts heading towards the vans while the angry soldier pulls Faust along with him. "Soldier! Identify yourself!" As they are about to get into the vans, a commanding voice came from behind. The soldier holding Faust turns around, he only sees a beautiful lady in front of him. He checks on either side of the road to see where the voice came from. The soldier immediately laughs loudly "Do-don''t tell me it''s you who asked my identity! I think you are talking to the wrong people!" He says in a cocky way while belittling the lady. "Watanabe Tsumugi" "Huh!!" The face of the soldier goes pale after hearing the name from the lady''s mouth. "Princess and the only sister of Queen Uzume of the House of.Asura''s" a hint of royalty fuses into her voice as she stands tall as a majestic being. She pulls out a thin chain out from her dress that is resting on her chest. It is not that chain but a bright red stone that enhanced the chain like a locket strikes fear into the soldiers. A Japanese Kanji word ''Asura'' is engraved on the red stone, which is worn by the top tier family members that rules the house. Faust looks in a puzzle without a clue of what is happening. He understood that the beautiful lady had suddenly become someone important to these soldiers. The four soldiers from the house of Asura immediately gets down on one of their knees with their heads completely lowered. Taking his hands off Faust, the fifth shoulder also bows instantly and gets down on his knees. "I''ll reflect upon my words, Milady. Please forgive the rudeness of this humble servant." "I will reflect upon my words to avoid dire consequences, I request you to forgive my rude remarks." "However, this kid is caught performing a martial arts! I am about to submit him in front of the council." The soldier says in a passive tone. The council is the powerful of all houses who rule by their own law. Everything related to the lower land or upper land is decided by the council which is ruled by a religious leader. "There is no need for you to meddle and do anything unnecessary! He is working directly under me! In Fact, I have something else that I need you to do." The lady commands in a cold voice. Her words are like merciless arrows that aim right for her opponent''s hearts without giving them any excuse to turn her down. "My husband is hurt! Do you guys happen to have any results on you? It''s ok if not! Help me take him to the upper land and get him treated. Quickly!" She yells at the soldiers. All the soldiers come to lift her husband on his feet! They apply pressure on his wound and carries him inside the vans. The lady walks up to Faust "Thank you! We are forever in your debt! We will visit your house tomorrow. Until next time we meet." The lady smilingly tells Faust and leaves with the soldiers. 87 The Chakras "Just what the hell happened?" The soldiers and the half-dead has left and with them, the lady who helped Faust too has left and he is standing in the middle of the road all alone. He still thinks about the beautiful lady on the bus while walking towards his home "She''s some royalty! No wonder she stood out so much among the passengers on the bus!" He suddenly remembers that he needs to walk a mile " But WTH happened after that? Ughhhh I''m so mad." He lashes out in anger, without knowing any details of her. - The other day in school, among the buzz of the students and the songs of birds. Students of a class are working and training physically to enhance their physical potential. While the whole class is training, Faust and Aion are sitting on the sidelines, watching the class with boredom taken over them. Faust rested his chin on his palm as he watched. "So that is how it happened huh? You have gone through a lot." Aion replies after Faust told him what happened yesterday. "You see that''s why I told you to walk quickly! I know that the half-dead we''re going to show up, which is why I hurried. But who would expect the bus would already be full!" "I tried to get in, but then the crowd pushed me out of the race to get in!" He exclaims. "Huh? So does this happen often or what?" Faust asks in a surprise. "Yes, every few months in a year, the half-dead barges into the city, abducting humans, cattle and whatever they find to eat," Aion answers him with a bright face. Faust is starting to understand this new land better with every passing day. He also figured that this is the reason why the lady on the bus did not allow him to get down in his stop. It must be because she saw the half-dead from the windows and decided not to let him get down the bus. "Anyway! What''s with the new colour of your hair?" Faust''s face suddenly shrunk to the thirds looking at Aion''s hair. Aion''s wavy ''cool guy'' hair is gone, his hair is all fluffy and messy as if he has been exposed to electricity. "Ah haha hah hah, stuff happened!" He answers back, quivering in fear while one of his eyes twitched. "Weirdo!" Faist says without holding back, turning his face towards the students running in the dirt. - "Today we will learn how to draw the elements from your respective elemental stones." Brass, the teacher with purple coloured hair announces to the class. "Say yass and be excited you, little twerps." He screams to the whole class. The whole class goes yelling loudly which satisfies Brass''s ego. He goes onto to take out a chart and sticks it on the board. The chart is of a human body with different coloured circles at the centre of the body from head to toe. He then takes out a purple stone from his pockets. "There are different steps to draw the power of an elemental stone. Watch how the stone behaves." Saying that Brass looks at the stone as he starts taking deep breaths in harmony. At first, the purple stone starts to emit a dim light before going bright, following, a purple spark emits from the stone that becomes a lightning coiling around the hand of Brass like python. Later the stone takes on the colour of orange-yellow as if the stone is heating up in a furnace. Brass raises his other hand up with his palm facing the sky. The whole premises of school turns dark with metal like clouds covering the bright sky. The clouds then growl and rumble with lightning and thunder. Later on the egg-sized stone, binder like seals appeared at four equal parts. At this point, the eyes of Brass has turned purple with static emitting from his body. It looks like Brass is showing off his strength, wherein he is displaying the stages, the elemental stone comprises. "This is not the final power of the stone yet. There are two more steps that only people of a Captain and General classes could pull off. "You guys must be wondering how I did that, or even how an elemental stone even chose you. It''s simple, allow me to explain!" The way Brass is teaching is so interesting! Every student including Faust has become interested in the topics and lessons he is teaching. "That is because of the ''chakras'' the energies that are present in your body." Brass explains the deep connection between the universe, dimensions and the elemental stones. Everything is connected with reactions and energies. "A human body consists of seven chakras. Which are seven different types of energy! Based on your body and the chakra that is well suited for your body, the elemental stones choose you." He continues. "If you do not work on your respective chakra! You might become like the gentleman sitting in the last!" He points Aion while saying. "You will let your other chakras meddle with the one that is resonating with your elemental stone and end up losing control on the flow of your stone. The colour of the seven ''Chakras'' is the same as the seven elemental stones." He states that the seven chakras in the body are the seven elemental stones. You awake the stone based on the chakra nature that is well suited for your body. In the meanwhile, Faust raises his right hand in the air to ask Brass of something."yes! Let me hear" Brass responds. He became a totally different person once he started the class and began teaching. "What about the black elemental stone? Isn''t it the eighth elemental stone? So-" He pauses to check the faces of the people around him and their expressions while hesitating. "So is there eighth chakra in our body which is related to the black elemental stone?" Faust asks. "Unfortunately, there are no records on the black elemental stone, not the eight chakra nature in the human body. I''m sorry but I cannot help you with anything." Brass answers politely. - *"Manh! What the hell! Why did I awaken a black element for? There is literally nothing about it! Also, why the hell Mr.Brass became arrogant and loud right after the class? It''s as if he is a different person."* Faust, on the way back to his home, curses at his fate, of how he has no spiritual power and how Brass''s behaviour is. He knocks on the door of his flat and notices new, never seen footwear outside. In the next second, he is welcomed by Neith and another familiar voice. "Hi, Faust! How was your day? Have you been expecting me?" 88 A Favour "Hi, Faust!" It''s that beautiful lady that he met on the bus "How was your day? Have you been expecting me?" She welcomes Faust with a bright smile, alongside Neith. "Bow down Fausty! It''s a noble from the upper land" Neith just stands beside the lady with a grey coloured hoodie while feeling embarrassed to accompany the lady in bed small house. Faust on the other side is dumbfounded, he didn''t know how to respond. His main concern occurs when he realized that the lady doesn''t know his address. And yet she is in his house talking to his guardian. "H-how did you know my home?" Faust asks in curiosity. Lady Tsumugi''s smiling face suddenly changed to plain. She did not expect these words from his mouth after they finally met. "Well, the cops know the location of everyone in the lower land. The drones always keep a watch on the people.* Tsumugi clarifies in her captivating voice and beautiful hand gestures. "So¨Cwhat do you want?" Faust asks while still being mesmerized by her. "Faust!" Neith berates at Faust for not being considerate and respectful towards Tsumugi. "It''s okay! Let me state my business with you. Please take a seat before that." Tsumugi walks back to sit on a chair and Faust with Neith sits on a couch facing Tsumugi. "I''m from the House of Asuras! A house that my father established. That formed newly after every powerhouse that supports the military has already formed and reached great heights. Which left my family in an unfair position." Tsumugi begins. "Due to some unusual situations, after my father passed away. I was married to the weak branch of the family and I was distanced from the main branch to the far away weak branches." "Additionally, I couldn''t claim any known martial artists due to the extreme low finance that my branch of the family possesses. I did not have any kids either to fill the hole in my branch. My branch of the family is in dire need of a soldier." Tsumugi reflects her memories as words. Of all the three sitting in the room, Neith looks happy at what Tsumugi said. She anticipates the direction the conversation is headed towards. Tsumugi wants to enrol Faust under the house of Asuras and make him represent her branch. But at the same time she hesitates, Tsumugi''s branch is the weakest and financially poor. There are no experienced warriors in her branch that could train/teach Faust in the military arts. This became an obstacle in her heart. "And now," Tsumugi whimpers as she looks down. She takes deep breaths to calm herself before continuing. "Now, the purging of the clan is taking place." Neith widens her eyes upon hearing these words, whereas Faust cluelessly watches. "It is basically kicking out a weak branch from the family!" Both Neith and Faust felt a hint of pain added in Tsumugi''s voice as she speaks. "Fight?" Faust asks in a surprise, without having a clue of what purging is. "Yes! Purging is basically a war between branches of the family, where the weaker branch is kicked out and replaced with a stronger one." Neith explains to Faust with a concern. "He doesn''t need to fight head-on with everyone! I assure you of his safety. My branch will be kicked out if we don''t even have a soldier representing us. So he just needs to represent us. And he will be safe." Tsumugj assures Neith of Faust''s safety and badly want Faust to represent in the clan purging. "But I don''t need to join if I don''t want to right?" Faust asks Tsumugi surprising both her and Neith. Recovering from the sudden words by Faust, Tsumugi wanted to say something that she has been hiding all this time. "Yo-you have used martial arts in public, which was recorded by cops. And during that time I informed them that you are affiliated with me. So they are expecting to see you in purging. If you don''t, they might come for you again!" Tsumugi speaks in a gentle tone, her voice is kind and pleasant but the way she said it makes it seem like a warning. "Okay! Give me some time to think." Faust asks for a duration of two days to make his decision. Tsumugi jumps out of her chair with a smiling face "Definitely, sure! I will drip you the details about the wars after you decided to join my branch. Also, I will instruct Neith on how to contact me. I hope you guys contact me with good news Tsumugi takes leave after saying. "It is a good opportunity, Faust! This is every high school kid''s dream to enrol into any of the houses." After Tsumugi leaves, Neith starts a conversation with Faust. "But it is the house of Asuras." "Are you worried?" "Not really." "You already is a Captain class!" Neith elucidates. "I don''t like that family!" Faust mumbles under his breath. "But it''s ok I guess, but we did not tell the lady that I cannot use any spiritual power." The words ring an alarm for Neith "Ehhhh I forgot to mention it too! Sh-sh-shall I inform her of it now?" "No, tell her after a couple of days. Also, tell her that I will join her family." Faust declares. Even though he announced that he will join her house, Faust still seemed unpleasant and bothered. ¨C "Faust, I informed to lady Tsumugi everything. Her rule is that she wants you to head over to her house right away and start training." Neith concludes in a passive tone. "Ye, that works! I wanna see what she got in her arsenal as wel-" Faust just gets done completing his cool lines, but suddenly a tight slap lands on his back. "Uwwwaaahhh!" His whole body quivered from the impact and Neith''s all five fingers are imprinted on his skin. "Wh-whyyyy??" Faust yells while trying to hold his emotions together. The area that her fingers marked is burning the skin. "You have school! How can you forget it?" Neith questions with a rather annoyed face? She expected fast to decline Tsumugi''s request when she first told him about. But Faust completely forgot about the school and accepted the request which made Neith mad. "At least get permission from your school, only then you are allowed to go." Neith makes her stand on this and told Faust that she will be stubborn on this as well. 89 A Favour - 02 "Also with the info, she sent this." Neith shows him a black wood-carved shield that is the size of his hand with the words ''Asura'' written on it in Japanese kanji in red. Faust isn''t sure of what to do with it at first, it is a three-inch thick wood. "And? What do I do with it?" He is sure that it won''t get him money even if he sells it to someone. "It is your proof that from this second, you belong to the soldier regiment of Asura''s," Neith explains him as she comes closer to Faust. She bends down placing her hand on the waist his pants. "Waahhhhhh! What are you doing Neith!" Faust becomes nervous and "Huh? Geez, why are you making a big fuss?" Neith holds the black rope that is attached to the badge. She ties it to the belt loop of Faust''s pants. "There you go now it is good. Wear it the same tomorrow, it looks stylish heh." She compliments while Faust is just standing there without speaking a word. "It''s all okay, but I''m not liking this house with each passing day." Fast while rubbing his thumb on the carvings of the badge says while staring at it. "What do you mean, why don''t you like it? Neith questions in curiosity. Faust musters up his thoughts filling his lungs with air, he replies "What family kicks members out? I don''t like such a family." - "Huh? And?" The principal of Faust''s school ask him as while checking the House badge that Faust received. On Neith''s demand, Faust came to school to solicit break for a period of two months from the teachers. He first approached Peter, who directed him to the experienced teachers in the teacher''s room. Who again directed him to the leader of the teachers, the principal. "Like I''m saying sir! I need to partake in the purge! I need to go and God damn fight!" Faust outcries at the principal. Trying to explain to him that it is important for him to go. But the chief is not accepting any kind of excuse, he went on a streak to reject Faust from taking breaks. "It is the final verdict kid, I don''t care where you need to go but you cannot skip school! Now if you acted on your own and broke the school rules, you will be expelled from school instantly! No explanations given!" The old principal warns Faust in a very casual and jovial way. *"The hell is that oldie''s problem? Does he not understand that this is important? I even showed him the proof tsk!"* Faust comes out of the room all riled up and as he is walking while cursing the principal in his head, he bumps into someone. A tall and heavy built person. "Hey! How dare you wear that badge?" The tall person mutters "Oh my God! Isn''t it Awarnach!" "The strongest of all among the few soldiers who are allowed to have the enhancements." Faust just gazes at Awarnach, a six-foot-five inch person staring down at Faust as a dragon looking down on mere humans. "Don''t wear that fake badge and disgrace the honour of the family. Take it off." Awarnach explains in a very deep voice. His muscles seem to be carved and shaped with every minute detail and his voice is deep that can win any type of argument. He could easily be called the king of voices and is the spitting image of masculinity. "President! Looks like Awarnach is picking on someone again!" On the floor above Faust and Awarnach, a group of five people dressed elegantly are watching the two from above. "Let me go and stop him!" A male comes forth, he draws his right hand out in a way that he is holding something invisible. And in a second, the space near his hand starts to expand that looks like space is distorting. And a small pouch-like space opens up. Into which he slides his hand inside and pulls out two pistols that are glowing in red enhanced by the red stone. Before the student with pistols made a move, Awarnach grew tired of Faust and him glaring at each other. He bends down stretching his hand to grab the badge that is hanging from Faust''s pants. "Swosh~* Faust took a step back, swiftly blocked the left hand of Awarnach with his left forearm, he then moved forward pushing Awarnach''s left hand outside. "Move away!" Faust starts walking straight while Awarnach is wondering what happened. The moves that Faust made are really swift and smooth. Awarnach instantly turns behind. *throw~~* A small scabbard is thrown at Faust which he had dodged without turning back. "You are going to listen to what I tell you and remove that badge." Saying that Awarnach too extends his right hand to the side, where another small pouch like a portal opens where he pulls out a white kali knife. "I''m the only martial artist in the school! I''m the one destined to join a family! That too, the Asura''s. I won''t let you mock the house that I adore." Saying that he holds the knife with the blade coming from under his grip. *"Fuck! Why is everybody annoying me today!"* Faust thinks as he turns back, he sees Awarnach standing with a knife in his hand. "President! Looks like we need to intervene." The man with pistols advice a fair woman who is starting at Faust. "A kid''s knife huh! And? What are you going to do with it?" Faust asks, mocking Awarnach. *whoosh~~* Awarnach swings his arm holding the knife, the red glitter on the edge of the sword is sent as a shockwave through the air and travels towards Faust. It was a surprise even for Faust, he manages to dodge it by swiftly moving aside, but a slash that can travel distance? He let out a small smirk. "You sure you wanna settle this here? In the corridor?" Faust asks as he draws his left hand, and gestures as if he is holding something at his waist height. Awarnach and the student council that are watching Faust are surprised by his actions. Their minds refused to believe what they are seeing. A small portal opened just behind the hand of Faust exposing the grip of a sword. Faust grips his hand around the purple grip, pulling a katana out. 90 Who is Faster? *"Neith told me that having this badge on me, I can use my sword in public or to defend myself... so whatever!"* Faust pulls out a sword in a purple scabbard. The portal closes after Faust had his sword taken out! He flips the sword from his left to right hand, back and forth before drawing his sword out of the scabbard, quickly withdrawing it back. *"Now I''m ready!"* He holds the sword to the left side of his waist with his feet drawn forward and the other one back. He looked ready to take off in one leap. Before he could push his legs off the ground a yellow screen appears in front of both Faust and Awarnach. Both of them froze instantly in their traces. Faust however, is fascinated with a thin see-through yellow wall in front of him. In the next moment, he sees a tall girl standing in between him and Awarnach, with her arms crossed and hands pointing upwards. A bright yellow aura is coiling around her wrists and forearms and tiny yellow fragments that look like magic dust wrapped around her hands. Shortly, the two male and two female students join her in a flash. "I suggest you both to withdraw your weapons, such disturbance to the school''s peaceful atmosphere is not tolerated." The tall girl speaks in a soft, soothing voice, it''s as soft as rubbing a soft flower petals with your fingertip.. The president of the student council, Cameron, the girl who uses the yellow elemental stone that makes her take influence over the light element. Faust holds his sword up straight in front of him and leaves it to freely fall into the portal opened on the ground. The yellow wall in front of him slowly disintegrates falling onto the ground. "It''s now your turn Awarnach! Drop your weapon." Cameron warns him with her glossy eyes as she batted her lashes. "Just because" Awarnach walks closer to the yellow screen. "You are the principal''s granddaughter!" He places the stub of his knife on the screen. "Don''t think that you can interfere in things that don''t concern you." Saying that he slowly moves his hand from right to left and the yellow screen is cut like butter. The involvement of the president of the student council really hurt his ego to the core "You! Who only have spiritual power and tools to help you. Don''t think of yourself as my match." He shatters the yellow screen without breaking a sweat. "You bastard! How many more beatings do you want from us?" The two males move forward, standing in front of Cameron, guarding her. Two male students in front of Cameron and two females behind her with Cameron in the middle. Awarnach immediately takes off with agility that cannot be rivalled by anyone of his age. He charges the two guys straight on, he suddenly changes direction by running to his left, ignoring the guys standing between him and the girl. On Cameron''s right are two females and on her left are two males who have no idea where Awarnach is. But the knife in front of her is changing its direction, it''s heading towards the farthest guy between the two that are standing on her left. "You think you are the only one with equipment?" Awarnach charges toward Cameron. He has a device attached to his hand in-between his fingers, the receiver is on the knife. The knife is controlled by Awarnach on his fingertips. Cameron quickly places another shield behind the boys that the knife is heading towards. Awarnach then gestures his hand as he pulled something. The knife that is heading towards the guys changes its direction, now heading towards the females on Cameron''s right. A very thin black string is attached to the handle of the knife which is invisible to the naked eye, through which Awarnach changed the direction of the knife. He is extremely skilled with this knife, changing the direction of the knife in whatever direction he wants. Cameron had been put under a lot of stress, she has to be able to keep up with the moments of Awarnach and now his knife that is heading for her allies. Under extreme pressure, she places another wall behind both the girls. Every time Cameron placed the walls behind the two boys and girls, she ended up pushing them away from her. Which created a lot of space around her. Awarnach immediately pulled his knife back towards him and launched it again, but this time he rotated his arm around his head before throwing the knife. The distance between him and Cameron is reduced and the knife went through the gap that is on Cameron''s left. The string is deviated by the yellow wall that is in front of Cameron, placed by her on the very first move. The knife too deviated coming towards Cameron from behind her. She turned her head around placing another wall behind to stop the knife. She successfully stopped the knife in the last minute and the knife fell on the ground. "You let down your guard" Awarnach is right in front of Cameron with his fists balled up tightly. The knife fell down because he left the strings long ago. So many feints to catch Cameron off guard. The two males and females turned around facing Cameron, just to see that their president is a foot away from getting punched in the face. During this chaos, Faust suddenly appeared in between Cameron and Awarnach out of nowhere. He stood self-centred with the centre of his body as his centrifugal point. He blocked the punch from Awarnach with his left arm and a hit from his knuckles onto Awarnach''s throat at the same time. His block and hit happened at the same time. Faust immediately with his hand grabbed the right forearm of Awarnach. He pulled Awarnach closer landing a kick on the gut of Awarnach, sending him flying a few feet away. The light punch to the throat already stunned Awarnach and the unexpected kick right away made him lose his breath. He tried to get back on his feet but his stomach sank deep, making all of his intestines sore from the inside. He was scared that there may be internal bleeding in his stomach. Fear crept in his heart slowly, making him think that he is dying and he passes out in the next minute. 91 Finally Awarnach really laid out a perfect strategy to catch Cameron off guard, with his agility and feints, he managed to create a room around Cameron, used the space to get into the defence if Cameron and successes in catching her off guard. Everyone including Cameron thought he was going to land a punch, his strategy is hard to read even for Cameron and the people watching. But before he landed his punch, Faust comes sliding to block his punch and hit him at the same time. Having this agility is not enough to get impressed, She remembers that Faust also used the alternate space, which is only with three people in the whole school. Now it makes four including Faust. It is a very costly item that enables people to store items inside an alternate space. Used as a backpack. The supporters normally carry this bag to place the tools, enhancement stones, food and anything that is needed to support the members in the squad. Alex too, who is a supporter of Ares have stored their weapons and stones inside his bag. *"how? Where did he come from?"* Cameron thinks as he stares at the broad shoulders of Faust from behind. She observers Faust for the first time, a long hoodie with blue jeans, long black hair and slender body for quick moments. For a moment she felt breathless and lost in another world. "President! Cameron! Are you okay." She snaps out of the feeling with the shouts of her allies. She realises that she is in the middle of a fight, she searches for Awarnach and finds him laying down near a wall ten feet away. *"He was sent flying 10feet?"* She thinks and looks at Faust who turned back and facing her. Her cheeks become red and eyes tried to avert him. "You! Stay away from the student council president! We don''t know of your intentions either, you might hurt her." One of Cameron''s henchman screams as he comes to stand in between Cameron and Faust. Faust heaves a helpless sigh saying "Do you guys have unsolved business with him or what?" He asks thinking how weird it is for Awarnach to attack Cameron out of nowhere. "He used to be in the student council, we had to kick him out due to his aggressive behaviour," Cameron''s cheeks are still red but she somehow tries to hold her feelings together and replies Faust. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING HERE?" Faust stands silent in front of the student council, while the guys approach Awarnach to cha he him to the infirmary. But all of them gets a surprise when the principal suddenly shows up yelling loudly at them. The old man looks at Awarnach, trying to process what had happened. "Who is the one that out Awarnach in this state?" He asks the attendant council. The two male students points towards Faust without speaking a word amidst the wrath of principal. "Is it you Faust?" The old man asks as he narrowed his eyes glares thunder towards Faust. "It is indeed me." Faust replies confidently with a positive look in his eyes, as though he did not do anything wrong. "I see, so you are prepared for everything then!" The old man grits his teeth, mistaking Faust''s co evidence to arrogance. "Faust! Since you are so violent towards your fellow schoolmates. You became a hindrance to the school. I hereby." While the old man is yelling out loud and clear, Cameron comes forward in a hurry "No grand- Sir! Please listen to what I have to say. It is for" "SHUT UP! Don''t you dare interrupt me when I''m giving the verdict." The old man cuts off Cameron in middle. "I hereby give you the expulsion of two months. Don''t you dare enter the school for two months." He declares. *"He was never angry, never at me. What could possibly make him so angry?''" Cameron thinks while being in a shock with the behaviour of her grandfather. But surprisingly, Faust gives out a smile "Thank you." He replies and starts walking out. After school ended, Faist opens his alternate space, taking out two long blocks that are three inches in length and width. He pulls the blocks apart, which are stocked to each other. A screen with a virtual keyboard appeared in front of Faust. He typed a note and kept it back in his bag. "I wonder if she checks it" Faust walks on the dusty road. The orange clouds with the sun hiding behind it and the gentle warm breeze that is brushing on his cheeks rejuvenates his energy. He smiles all along the way. He finally reaches the destination that he wanted to visit. He can''t the whole area looking for a familiar face that he knows of. Suddenly he felt a person leaning on his back. "Why did you call me?" A female voice resonated from behind him. Both Faust and the girl smiles at the same time with their head lowered, Faust had his hoodie covering his face and the girl had her long hair fluttering on her face as her knee-length skirt is battling against the wind, at the side of a road, where different colours are dancing on them with each vehicle passing by. They both seem to be lost in their own works. "I''m coming to the house of Asuras soon," Faust tells her "You won''t be lonely anymore." Faust takes a step forward, turning around, the girl in front of him turned around to face him. "I will be with you Caitlyn, don''t you be sad all the time." Caitlyn, whom Faust saw in his village, the girl who stood up for him against the bullies is in front of Faust, looking at him as if he is her world. After Faust came to the mainland, he was sad and completely taken over by the demons in his head. He hated humans, he hated the greed, jealousy and malicious human nature. Spending many months inside his room, only going to stores out at midnight to buy food. It was Neith and Caitlyn that helped Faust and made him normal. "I will be happy!" Caitlyn says, adoring Faust her deep brown coloured eyes with the glint of golden dust in her eyes. 92 The Upper Land "Ok! I''m done packing all of my clothes and stuff. Now in ready to go win the fight!" Faust says with passion after he got all ready to head to the house of Asuras. "Huh? Are you perhaps happy that you are leaving me? Why would be so happy when you are leaving your aunt?" Keith asks Faust with a disappointing face. "Or is it because you are going to spend more time with Caitlyn now?" Keith asks with a smirk on her face. Faust has become all red upon hearing the words from Neith! "N-not at all Aunt! You come first no matter what!" Faust even stumbles and stutters to say these words to Neith. "And did you put your two swords?" Neith asks as a final finish up. Faust is now using two swords, both being katana. One of them is Fukitsuna Masamune. The sword given to him by Gus. The other sword ''Kusanagi'' a purple katana which he got in the mainland. "Yes, I have everything packed, I will script you, whenever I can. Make sure to keep checking your COM''s (Communication by Magnetic Field)." Faust replies with a bright smile. The COM device is a magnetic script that delivers messages as a scrip. It contains two blocks of magnets that are attached to each other. Upon receiving a text, the user pulls both magnets in opposite sides, where a blue screen appears with text containing in it. This is also used by the help of elemental stones. The electricity, the busses and fuel that is required is in the form of elemental stones. A purple stone is used as the core to bring power to a whole city. Faust leaves Neith and starts heading towards the House of Asuras. He was told to take certain directions to reach the house. He first went to a nearby city where the towers that balance the upper land exists. It was silver in colour with certain diode marks on the outside. The still walls are carved perfectly. Upon reaching the tower, Faust''s heart skipped a beat due to its height. It is going into the clouds. The way is pretty busy with lots of people and soldiers going in and coming out from two different openings in the tower. "Hey kid, you are not allowed inside de." A security guard who is observing the people that are passing by stops Faust, as the tower is forbidden for common people and kids. Only those with special code marked on their passes or any badge is allowed to enter. "Oh! I almost forgot this step. I have this!" Faust takes out the badge of his house to show it to the guard. "Oh no! You can''t trick me with a game one, you know showing such identity could get you arrested." The guard tells Faust with a smile. It is very rare for a fourteen-year-old to join the powerhouses. "It is a real one! You can check the badge if you like" Faust says seriously, the guard who thought this was all a prank gave it a serious thought and went ahead to check the badge. "Ok, you can pass the checking, if your badge doesn''t have the access the security alarm will ring and we will have to send you off." He informs Faust about the rules. Passing the security guard is a sensor that is placed in a passway. It checks the passcode of each and every passed and evaluates it and distinguishes Original from fake. Faust walks like every other adult that is passing through and he goes in without any unnecessary check. The guard just blames it on the world that made this kid working for the military at such a young age. The inside of this tower is very vast and huge, there are stairs on all sides of the walls. Each start leading to a glass door. Beside the stairs is a round cylindrical way that goes up. And that is the elevator that carries ten-twenty people to the upper territory. Faust goes to the elevator that has the number nine on it. Which is the one that takes him close to the House. The elevator is huge and there are twenty safety bindings on the walls. Every person is going to the safety binding, standing with their backs against the wall, they get ready as the safety bindings come down locking on their shoulders. "Hmmm hello? My one is kinda?" Faust asks the person managing the elevator. "This is why the kids are not allowed here" The managing person replies. The safety binding did bit grip the shoulders of Faust due to him being small. "It is okay, you will fit into it once the thigh gets started." Saying that the person leaves the huge room. Faust did not understand what the managing person meant but slowly the elevator started. Faust tucked his body against the wall while holding the safety binding with his hands. *Riiiffffff~~* The elevator took off with rocket speed, Faust instantly lost his footing because of the speed the elevator is going up where he tightly gripped his hands around the safety. After the elevator, he came out feeling tired, his hair is all messed up and his legs wobbling like a newborn''s. But everything faded away as soon as he saw the upper land. It is nothing like the lower land that he is from, the roads are black and very clean as if they are newly laid. The city is nothing like concrete but wooden. The air he breathes is so refreshing and aromatic, there is no cluster of vehicles and traffic. It is plain, simple and calm. Faust somehow reaches the House of Asura with the details he was told. Is there going to be a huge black gate? A Palace that is as big as his city? Number of soldiers who are walking in their daily drill? Faust''s imagination ran wild and he could bit stop until he sees the house with his own eyes. - And there is a tall two-storey bulging in front of him. Which looks worn out than the buildings surrounding it. Faust stands with his mouth open looking at the small building. He checks if he was in the wrong address but everything is fine. He rechecks again and the address pointed him the same old two-storey building. 93 The House Of Asuras Faust walks towards the main door to the doorbell. He rang the bell but no sound can be heard in the house. He pressed the bell again and still no sound. He goes to the main door, thinking the bell isn''t going to help with anything. As he is about to knock on the door, the handle of the door made a movement. Faust withdrew his hand and stood there, the door opened with a middle-aged man in butler suit opening the door. "You must be Master. Faust." The old man with a humble, down to earth smile on his face, addressed Faust. "Um-Yes, that is me." Surprised by the immense politeness from the butler, Faust replies him back in a low humbled voice. "You don''t need to ring the bell so many times, sir." The butler says. "Huh? But it did not ring. It needs to be replaced." Faust tells the butler. For which the butler points to a watch on his wrist "The bell rings in a low sound, only in my watch." The butler tells him. The upper and has the latest technology is what Faust understood. Both of them heads inside the worn-out wallpaper and the washed-out colours. The creaky old steps have been singing the entire time Faust and the butler travelled to the first floor. The butler signals Faust to wait for him as he goes inside a brown door. "Lady Tsumugi! Faust is here, waiting outside the door." Faust hears the butler talking to the lady that asked him a favour. "Please call him inside," Tsumugi replies and Faust walks inside, Tsumugi stands on her feet welcoming Faust. "Hello, Aunty!" Faust greets her which surprises the butler but then "Faust! Nice seeing you here, and thank you very much for accepting my offer." Tsumugi continues. "This is our branch office where we take up missions and deliver reports accordingly. I wanted to show you the place that you are going to work first, so I called you here." Tsumugi adds. Faust breathes freely after hearing that he won''t be sleeping here, he thanks the god''s and starts "I am very much happy to be working here." He replies as he celebrates inside. All he wants is a big room and time to spend with Caitlyn. For which Tsumugi feels happy and the two of them along with butler, leaves to the house of Asura. - It is a really huge red gate moulded into royal classic style in front of a huge Palace. "This is the house of Asura''s Tsumugi tells to Faust as he watches in awe. The whole gated community is the house of Asura''s. It has four gates to enter from, ten-foot-tall walls protecting it with a two-foot iron fence on top of the walls with a number of soldiers inside. There are dormitories, hospitals and the branch houses and houses of nobles all inside a heavy security and protected by walls. "Wait! Who is the third person with you two?" A soldier asks at the ''main gate number four'' of the house of Asuras. "He is a new soldier, of my branch, recruited by Queen Uzume." The butler Charles replies to the soldier. And all three of them are allowed inside. "A kid! Don''t tell me he is the martial artist for this branch." "Forget it! They are going to be purged and expelled anyway." The soldiers'' talks behind Tsumugi and Faust as they are leaving. "Ma''am?" Charles asks leaning his body forward. "It''s okay! keep walking." She replies to Charles "don''t mind such mean comments." And also to Faust. Our house is closer to this gate, so remember the name and come through this." All three of them enter a royal yellow colour building while Tsumugi is talking. A maid welcomes the three, taking the coat off from Tsumugi. She brings a pair of shoes for Faust which are to be worn inside the house. As Faust is changing, rumbling sound came from the stairs. As if someone is running towards them with great speed. Faust opens his portal to keep his sword ready in case anything happens. "Uwahhhhhhh Lady Tsumugi! Protek meeeeee!!!!!!!" A kid with red hair comes down running. He falls on the floor, performing a kowtow in front of Tsumugi. "He is killing newer!!!!" He screams as tears pour out of his eyes. "What are you doing Jonathan !" Charles comes forward yelling. "Where is that kid!" Another bold voice resonated, coming downstairs the voice got louder. It is a huge guy in his mid-twenties. "JONATHAN!!! How dare you ran from training grounds?" The person yells at Jonathan who is by now is scared and hiding behind Charles. "Fab! We got a new soldier!". Tsumugi tells to the huge person standing in a tall posture with his chest pushed out. He is wearing a tight blue shirt covering till his wrists and a pair of cargo shorts. " Oh!" He observes Faust from top to bottom, comes close to shake Faust''s hands. "Hello! My name is Fabulous! I heard a lot about you." He utters in a bold loud voice. "Uh? Fabulous?" Faust asks in wonder. "Yes! My real name is ''Snow'' everyone suggested that I should have a fabulous name, I cannot find any, so I put Fabulous itself as my name." He replies to Faust. "Since you just came today, I will let you rest. But we will start training from tomorrow." He says in a mighty tone. "Oh! Jonathan ! Faust is going to be sharing your room with you starting today. Show him the way." Tsumugi turns towards Faust. "You can rest for today, we can talk tomorrow and I will introduce you to another member in your squad." Tsumugi leaves after saying. - "Where are you from?" On the way, Jonathan tried to start a combo with Faust. "Medallion!" Faist replies with a bored tone. "Lady Tsumugi really said high about you, and you have competition already. The fourth member of our squad wants to compete against you after hearing your capabilities from Lady Tsumugi." Faust doesn''t reply, he gives a "Hm" and continues walking towards his room. Next day, Faust goes to training grounds with Jonathan where Fab welcomes both with surprising news. "Today will be physical tests for you three newbies who joined," Fab announces. 94 Fitness First! "Huh!!! Physical tests? They better be easy one''s sire, I was already so tired from yesterday, I''m not able to stand on my feet." Jonathan says, pointing towards his wobbling feet. "Is that guy Faust?" A female standing beside Fab asks hastily. "Hm?" Faust responds. "Hm? What are you trying to act cool? I was so frustrated from the day I heard about you from lady Tsumugi!" She rolls her fists tight, ready to throw a challenge. "Let''s have a duel right here and now!" She utters. "Rachel! The test I have arranged is for you! So you would have the opportunity to fight against him!" Fab laughs with his hands resting on his hips. "Shall we go to the test then?" "Perfect! Let''s see what you are made of!" Rachel! The girl that wanted to compete with Faust says. Ever since she heard the praisings from Lady Tsumugi, she cannot hold herself back to prove that she is way better than Faust. "Ok! Twenty rounds around this training ground!" Fab announces loud and clear. "Huh?" Rachel couldn''t believe what she heard. "Twe-twe-twe-twe-twenty?????" Jonathan runs towards fab, takes a long leap and goes for a kowtow in front of him." I will die Fab! I will die, I will die, I will die! Please make it easier for newer Fab!" He starts pleading. "And also, our family would be watching you guys from the sidelines." Completely ignoring the existence of Jonathan fab points at the seatings outside the grounds. Lady Tsumugi with her husband James Fannon. All 8 maids of their house with their head Butler Charles. *"Hmm who is the lady sitting in between Tsumugi and her husband?"* There is one more person sitting in between Tsumugi and James. She''s wearing a long white dress with golden lace that is spread on to her shoulder with a red hat tilted to the side. "Okay, so y''all ready?" Fab gets ready to give the signal to begin the race around the lap. "Oh, btw did I tell to forget! You need to run with your max speed from the very first lap itself!" Fab says in the last minute. "Ready! Go!" Before anyone could put up an objection. Both Jonathan and Rachel bent their bodies forward as the professional athletes would do, before taking off! Whereas Faust simply stands still, he did not even take the opportunity given by Fab to take off his hoodie. At full speed during all laps because this is not a race to see who runs 20laps to come first. This is an endurance test! Run with full speed, even for 5 or even 3 laps. That signifies the stamina, endurance and test to see the limits of your body. As Fab gives the signal, all three of them takes off quickly. Jonathan and Rachel are a bead of Faust from the first because of their technique. They take breath pauses in between and control their breathing which helps their body to go fast at a steady pace. *"Heh! All those praises about him and he is behind us."* Rachel starts to celebrate to show everyone that Faust is nothing more than an average kid. "Woahhhhhh Rachel run fast!" Jonathan shouts in a scared voice. Rachel looks back and Faust is catching up to them with great speed. He looks like a hungry monster, hunting its prey. Without any delay, Rachell speeds up her running but in a matter of seconds. Faust passes her while both are in great speed. She can see Faust crossing her while she helplessly puts all of her strength into running, but Faust keeps getting faster and faster. She notices how he is running barefoot. And looks like he is enjoying running. Very soon, he passes Jonathan too. Both of them still think it''s fine because, at some point, Faust will be tired and slows his pace. One lap is finished! Second! Third! Tenth! Faust is still running at the same speed. Where Jonathan and Rachel gave up, upon fainting in the sixth round. They up to see Faust running his tenth. "Impossible! How?" Rachel says in a low voice, not being able to comprehend what her eyes are witnessing. Barefoot creating a thumping sound on the ground. "I have never witnessed anyone doing this! This never happened! I thought he would be tired but! This is crazy!" Fab watches while being dumbstruck. He completes all twenty rounds around the huge oval-shaped ground. And stops at the finishing line. His breath also seemed to be under control. Without any panting or gasping for air. He breathes normally and comes towards his squad. ''You-" Before Fab tries going to Faust to tell him something. Jonathan runs quickly pushing Fab away, he holds the hand of Faust"Did you not get tired after all that running?" He asks with sparkling eyes. " I used to do 10 rounds around my village back at my home. So this is nothing more than a jog for me." Faust declares. "Tsk! Look at you trying to be all cool! This is a matter of physical endurance. My main ability is sniping! And of course, I''m a girl so obviously, I''m weaker compared to flat-chested guys." Rachel says as she holds together her twin mounds closer, displaying her huge round capes. "Yes indeed! I agree with you." Faust mumbles, with that much fat in your body, it is commendable that you ran six laps." He continues, dealing a lethal blow that results in slow kill. Slow because Rachel is immersed in pride for Faust agreeing with her. But then the poison reached her ears slowly and she was confused and then struck with lightning. "Wha-what-what? What????? You little!" The words hit her hard, directly piercing her heart and rupturing the layer of her ego. For Rachel, she is the most beautiful girl in her class and for 17, her body developed quite ''big'' which adds extra properties to her body. Making her seem cute and got at the same time. This time Fab cuts in pushing Rachel aside, "How did you run that fast and for that long?" He asks in surprise, kneeling down on the ground, touching the calf muscles of Faust! They are normal. Generally, if a person runs faster for too long. Lactic acids are released, along with some enzymes. The fibres might break and the leg muscles will stiffen up. But nothing like that happened in Faust''s case. He kept running for an hour straight in his extreme speed. Lady Tsumugi, James and also the other person with them are as impressed as everyone. "You! Let''s do a sniping duel, right now, right here and we will see who is better." Rachel yells loudly with red cheeks. "Y-yes let''s get ready for the sniping round too," Fab informs them of the next round! "Uh-But I cannot use spiritual power." 95 What I Can Do "Um. I cannot use spiritual power to use a sniper rifle." Faust says looking at the rifle Rachel picked up, glowing green in colour. "You are kidding right?" Fab asks in a panic while Jonathan and Rachel are left in shock. Meanwhile, Charles, the butler walks up to Fab "Apparently, he cannot use spiritual power! So Lady Tsumugi asked you to refrain from military arts training! He is here to fight for the martial art round." He informs Fab of Faust and leaves. "But we need to at least win one round in the first purge. Only then him going to the second purge would benefit us." Fab mumbles under his breath. "Is it true Faust?" Jonathan comes closer saying, he takes out a red stone placing it in the hands of Faust. Faust looks puzzled but Jonathan keeps staring intensely at the stone, trying to sense the energy. "Jonathan! You are fifty years too young to learn to sense energies! Let us continue with our rifles training." Fab says concerningly. "How will you manage the coming wars if you cannot use spiritual power? I thought you were supposed to be the strongest person among us. But without spiritual power, you are weaker than everyone." Rachel comes out saying with all the worries written on her face. Faust goes on to take off his hoodie, exposing his lean but shredded body! Every muscle and tendons are showing their perfect shapes. Rachel instantly becomes all red. She lowers her face, shutting her eyes tightly. There is only a thin round-neck tight tee-shirt on him. He goes closer to Rachel, places his hand on top of her head! "I''m sure you excel at what you do! I completely trust you with that! I cannot do what you can do. So I will do things that I''m good at, and you guys do things in which you are good at." Faust says while rubbing her hair. Again, Faust is only 14 and Rachel is 17 years old. Yet, he made her subdue just like that, melting her heart. If there is no spiritual power then Faust cannot hold any rifles, as there will be no physical bullets used but the energy from elemental stones. That is all Fab is worried about. Faust goes back to his building while the rest heads towards the next training grounds. But the new person who sat in between Tsumugi and James leaves back to where she came from. - "Ahhh it''s been a month already! And I did no practice here than making people jealous! I really miss uncle Han''s noodles." Faust whines while in the room with Jonathan. A month has passed with Faust in the house of Asura''s. He didn''t even go to other places in the house than their own building. Tsumugi told him to avoid the soldiers until the purge and Faust obeyed her. "Han''s noodles? Are they tasty? Yummy yummy?" Eyes of Jonathan suddenly came to life as he heard about food. "Hey, guys! Are you up yet? Get moving already, today is the day we meet Queen Uzume." Rachel comes storming the room. It is a special day where the newly joined three soldiers of Tsumugi''s family receives their official badge while entering their names into the records of the house. "Fausty! You are still in your hoodie? Why can''t you wear something royal?" Rachel asks about the same old cream coloured hoodie with blue jeans worn by Faust. The three of them along with Fab and Lady Tsumugi goes to the main building of the house. The main building is full of pure white marble, black designed drawings and golden linings at the edges. "Wow! Why isn''t our building this royal?" Jonathan says with his eyes fixed on the sparkling marble. As Tsumugi and the family is walking up the stairs, they hear the sound of footsteps thudding on the floor. A sound created by the thumping of high heels on the marble. As they teach the opened door. Fab also awe and drools instantly. But not because of the interior or the marble. Shamian is walking towards Lady Tsumugi to receive them with honours. She is wearing a long golden coloured see-through dress, even though her body is not all visible, her fair skin tone near her huge bust is quite visible with the dress only covering her perky pointy peeks of her twin mountains. The dress is tied with three laces on her right side. One lace at the side of her huge mound, another one on her slim curved waist and the other on her hips. The lace is also not entirely tied all the way, covering her skin. There is a three-inch gap on the knot, making her milky smooth skin visible. Her right mound seemed as if it can slip right through. And from her waist, her dress is cut and split in two as traditional Chinese wearing. The bizarre this is she has no undergarments, exposing her bare right hip. Hiccups started appearing for Jonathan. Where Faust is trying not to look at her. Fab is completely drooling on this seductive goddess. "Welcome Lady Tsumugi! It''s been a long time! I took the opportunity to invite you and your family inside as your family is the first to take me into the house." Shamian greets Tsumugi with a smile on her face. Shamian is first accepted into the house at the age of 18 by Tsumugi''s branch. Later, due to the lack of resources at Tsumugi''s branch. She was forced to join another branch. "Hey, Fab." Shamian greets Fab, gently sliding her foreigners slowly under his chin. "Fab seems to be lost in some other world. Followed Shamian like a lost pup. She walked beside Jonathan. Jonathan is small that he is just up to her mounds, he is walking on her right, seeing a view that is smoother than the marble. Her skin is flawless and perfect in every other way. While going up the stairs that are in the middle of the main hall, eyes of Faust lands at a strange thing that is out on display on the left side of the floor they entered. There is a very long katana resting inside a glass box. The sword seems old and heavy. Grey scabbard with designing of skulls. The sword looks raw and as if a monster used it back in the day. "That sword?" Faust inquiries, regarding the sword. "Oh! That is the Asura Sword! The sword that is used by my dad." Tsumugi replies. "There is also a weird complication with that sword!" Shamian adds. "Complication?" Faust asks again but with curiosity filling his voice this time. "That sword is really heavy for a human to wield. People used to say that my dad got it from a devil or monster. I doubt it tho, my dad used it with sheer raw strength." Tsumugi adds. 96 The 33rd Captain! *"I wonder if I can wield it."* Faust thinks to himself, looking at the insanely long blade. All of them enters a huge hall on the floor. There are all types of people in the room. Only one thing common among them is the royalty and elegance they are carrying with them, as they are seated in their seats. Along with them, seven ordinary-looking people are also present in the same room. *"It''s that same person."* Faust thinks to himself after seeing the same person he saw in the training grounds the first day, sitting between Tsumugi and James. "Queen Uzume! Everyone''s gathered! Please do the needful of these new soldiers." A woman wearing a long white gown with a white cape strapped on both of her shoulders gets up from her royal throne, walks to the edge of the small podium that the nobles and other are seated on. Tsumugi too sits with other nobles and Fab stands behind her. Faust and the other two are sent to stand with the seven others in the middle of the room. Uzume stands beside a table with a man with books, busy in writing. And as everyone is feeling enthusiastic about the queen and majestic appearance. A person came up to Uzume with lots of badges in his hand. Uzume comes forth, offering her left hand. The first candidate, go on to kneel in front of her on one knee and plants a kiss on Uzume''s hand covered in gloves. "Syed!" A person from his respective family branch screams from behind. Uzume takes an official badge which has the name Syed printed on it and hands it over to him with a smile. "Do a good job and never let us down " she says while handing over the badge to him. Similarly, every seven of them gets done and now it''s time for Faust, Jonathan and Rachel. Faust goes closer, kneels down on his one knee and takes Uzume''s hand to kiss. "FAUST!" Fab yells loud and clear with a happy tone. Via announcement of name is louder than the past four. He wanted to say how proud he is to see kids from his family are getting official badges. Uzume suddenly stops Faust from kissing her hand. She does not go on to grab the badge as well, she turns towards her little sister Tsumugi. She asks the person on a table to stop writing Faust''s name. "Tsumugi!" She just orders, but Tsumugi quickly gets up from her seat in response. Faust doesn''t understand what was happening and continues to stay on the ground with his head lowered. Same with Jonathan, Rachel and Fab. They are all scared if their house doesn''t meet the criteria to recruit soldiers. Because once the soldiers are selected, they need to go through many phases of tests to be worthy enough to hold the official badge. "Is he going to be the 33rd captain from your house?" Uzume asks Tsumugi. "Huh?" Everyone including the nobles is left in shock. Mixed expressions can be seen on Fab''s face. He has been a soldier under this house for five years and he couldn''t raise his rank up, but Faust is a captain within a month? "Lady Uzume!" An old member from the seat of the noble stands up hastily to talk to her. "May I remind you that the captain position is given only to the people with excellent talent! Also, who have served this house for at least three years. We don''t give it to a new soldier who showed up out of nowhere." "We all can sense your level of concern for your sister and her family branch, but we cannot, under any circumstances name a newly joined into a captain." He seriously takes offend in what Uzume has spoken and talks back to her. Even though Uzume has the status of a Queen! None of the nobles has respect for her or consider her a Queen. They just respect her husband and her father in law but not her, because she is the daughter of Asura, founder of this house "Thanks for your generous words and your concerns. Please go back and be seated in the costly chair we have provided for you. I''m not done speaking." Uzume says with a humble tone. She does not look intimidated at all by what the old minister said. A small black cape is brought to where Uzume is standing. "When the head of a branch family is willing to climb down from the throne, merging its soldiers to a wealthy family. The head of that branch is given a wish to be granted." Uzume announces to the while room. Fab instantly losing his composure posture, he looks at Tsumugi with an inconceivable look on his face. Faust and the other two were also not able to grasp what was happening in the room. "And the last wish of Tsumugi is for one of her children to be a captain." She declares. "But which another branch is taking her soldiers?" The old minister asks for solid proof. "Why! It''s me sitting right here." A soft male voice resonated within the room. A man in his forties is talks while covering his mouth with a red hand fan. The whole room has become noisy with every noble talking to each other in a low voice. It is the nutter, Carlos, the one who gives captain to peasants. No wonder he took these servants in. Everyone in the room murmurs in a low voice but loud enough to reach the ears of Carlos and Uzume. "He is a lucky bastard!" A familiar voice comes from beside Carlos. "Is he? Can you sense energy from him?" Carlos asks Thorik who is accompanying his branch head. Thorik doesn''t reply anything to Carlos. He keeps watching Faust with a strange smile. Meanwhile, Uzume takes out one of her bangles, holds with her palm and slams her hand hard on to the writing-table beside her causing a loud noise. "I want everyone in this room to be quiet." She utters as she goes on to take the black small cape that is like a cloak. She places her hands on both if Faust''s shoulder, pulling him up, she puts on the cloak around him. Connecting the magnets at his collar. The small black cape up to on his waist on a hoodie suited Faust more than she expected. She started at Faust, the Asura symbol on the left side of his cloak. "Be good and do justice, follow your own judgements, but do not hurt people." She mutters while rubbing his hair gently. Uzume has never done this to the people before, she barely smiled at them. But she took utmost care of Faust arranging his cape and by rubbing his hair. Everyone can see that Uzume favours Faust for being the branch family if her sister Tsumugi. 97 Family And Bonds After the official badge ceremony is done. Faust came out being a captain. But the faces of his squad doesn''t show any kind of happiness Faust walks out being pissed. He felt as though he got profited with someone''s death "Stop there Miss Tsumugi!" Faust grabs her wrist and pulls her back, turning her body around hastily without a concern that she is an elder and a woman. "Miss Tsumugi! I don''t like being a captain. What would I even do with this captain post when you are not in the family anymore?" He yells out his frustration stacked up from the room, his eyes are burning with rage and teeth rumbling against each other. "I cannot provide the equipment you asked for," Tsumugi whispers in a low voice. "Equipment?" Fab asks in a surprise, he instantly turns towards Faust. "You better not humiliated Lady Tsumugi about our finances, Faust! I won''t even show you any mercy if you did." Fab says in a deep voice with his eyes widened, a crest is formed on his forehead, saying that he is serious with his words "Fab! I was going to tell you all about it but this is not about me or finances. Let me speak to Lady Tsumugi only." Faust looks towards her. "I told you we could work something out with the equipment! You didn''t have to choose this path." Faust yells loudly. Tsumugi turns her face away from facing Faust. "Oi! If anyone saw you, yelling at a noble, you will be hanged." Thorik comes into the picture with Carlos. Faist looks at the intruders but he still does not let go of Tsumugi''s wrists. "Thorik! Did you know about this? Why did you not tell me?" Fab asks his old friend Thorik with a regretful face. "Him? Hehahahe even I didn''t know about it until an hour ago. My little nieces informed me about it this morning. "Ni-Nieces?" Jonathan asks surprisingly. "Of course! Uzume and Tsumugi are my Nieces! Not related by blood but still, Isn''t that why I accepted you all into my group?" Suddenly he lowers his voice sensing people walking by their path. "Unlike someone who buys soldiers and talent with money! We do it for family and respect." Carlos says playfully covering half of his face with the red hand fan smiling towards the old minister and his bodyguard as they cross paths. "Anyway, you! captain! Come to our house tomorrow to collect the equipment that you want." Thorik informs Faust. "Now, until we meet again Lady Tsumugi." Both him and Carlos leaves on their way. "That dam Uzume and her sister! They planned this with that lunatic Carlos. She did it so they will have fine first-class equipment to fight in the purge. And also tips from that general Thorik" "We also need to do that thing to win the wars." The minister plots with his evil face glowing devilishly, thinking about the sinister things he is about to do with Tsumugi''s house. Faust and the squad, along with Tsumugi comes home while feeling low all along the way. Firstly, Tsumugi stepped down from the house leader post, Faust yelled at her in a rude way and Fab & Faust''s quarrel on their way home. All these things really broke everyone''s spirit "Everyone to the main hall," Faust announces loudly to the people who are leaving to their rooms on different paths. "Huh? What was that for? Jonathan asks being petrified by the sudden request. "Please, follow me to the main hall, including Lady Tsumugi." All of them starts to follow Faust to the main hall. He makes everyone sit on the couch while he stands in front fi them. Taking deep breaths he says. "I-I used to hate people before coming here." Everyone is confused with what they are hearing. They don''t see any purpose for Faust doing this. "I didn''t have a family, I only had a grandfather who passed away in my 10th year.. Since then I didn''t really have a family. I didn''t have friends. I lived by myself and later with another person." "I used to hate people for their nature! Jealousy, selfishness, greedy, wanting to show supremacy and doing just what gives them pleasure." "I was sick and tired of the way, of people. But then I met you all." Faust pauses to take some breaths, trying to control his emotions. Jonathan and the rest are in a trance in a whole new world with only Faust and themselves. His words took them to a different world where only they exist. "You are all weird, to be honest," Faust says with a smile that brought smiles to their faces. "But weirdly honest! Weirdly caring! Weirdly, you all made me have a different opinion on the world. I got to witness to believe that there are still good people on the earth." "You all accepted me, did not even question my actions or past. We were all so comfortable with each other as if we are with our parents." Faust looks at Tsumugi who is tearing up. "I don''t want to lose you guys ever! I don''t want this branch of the family to crumble down!" Fab realises something! Seeing a kid pour his feelings out like a mature guy. Trying to solve the gloominess in the family. "Rather than being gloomy! Let''s get stronger to win while being in this house! And one day definitely, let us make Lady Tsumugi the head of the family again." "Heh! You don''t need to give us such a big speech Faust." "For real Faust! Are we twins or what?" "Are you all thinking the same thing that I am thinking?" Fab, Rachel and Jonathan tell each other being excited about the situation they are in. "We are already thinking of bringing back Lady Tsumugi in our own ways, huh?" Fab says as his eyes are closed and his arms crossed. "We all think about the good eventually! We just need to take the opportunity to let the other person know of your thoughts and feelings. Many things will be settled with this." Faust says with a bright smile. Tsumugi, on the other hand, is hiding her face with her hands. Everyone goes beside her, trying to calm her, wiping her face and hugging her. "Finally guys! Be ready to give it you''re all in the purge, let''s save our house and our family. Not by ourselves individually. But let''s do this together!" Faust yells out loud and everyone responds with a biggest "Hell Yeah!" 98 Duties of a Captain The other day Faust visits the ''House Of Carlos'' amazing is the only word he can find to describe the house. It is so lively and huge. Almost three times bigger the size of Faust''s present house. There are twenty-five soldiers in the entrance hall, playing poker, drinking and competing in an arm wrestling. It seemed like a crowded metro station where your buttocks are getting squeezed from the person standing behind you and you cannot do anything about it. After a moment of Faust in the crowded house, trying to ask the soldiers about Thorik. One of the soldiers recognizes the cloak that Faust is wearing. "It''s the captain''s cloak and it''s original too!" He says in excitement. "I heard about him! He is the youngest captain in our house." Another person with a bandana says as all of the soldiers recalls hearing about a young captain, starts moving towards Faust. "Ehhhhhh you are so lucky!! It''s been twelve years for me and I couldn''t become a captain. Moreover, it''s another captain from our servant class! This calls for a PARTYY!!!!" The soldiers start celebrating in the name of Faust. "By the way! Can I know where Mr.Thorik is? I was supposed to meet him here today." Faust is trying to ask the group of soldiers who are ignoring him and his questions but keep drinking booze. Meanwhile, Thorik enters the room with a female soldier. The female turns her face away from Faust with a ''Humph'' upon seeing him. Faust is startled with her sudden behaviour, he doesn''t even recall ever seeing her face. But did not bother much, he is only focussed on getting the equipment he came for. As they approached Faust who is standing in the middle of the room. The female soldier starts yelling at Faust in a foreign language. It surprised both Faust and Thorik as well. She was pointing fingers towards Faust while yelling. "Omae wa mou shindeiru!" She ends with the line and goes back to the path she came from. "Ignore her, she''s from a different city where they speak and learn only one language, their regional language. She cannot speak our language." Thorik mentions to Faust. He and Thorik starts talking about what Faust wants. "I can''t give you humanoids! You know right! Our house is also going to be in the purge, so we need resources on our side." Thorik replies to the question of Faust about humanoids. - After a brief discussion, Faust comes back to his building empty-handed. "Faust! Where is the equipment? Fab and Jonathan asks him being puzzled. "They didn''t have what I wanted. They''re going to make them today and deliver it to us tomorrow." Faust informs his squad. "But we are going to do reality simulation training with their house," Faust tells them beforehand. He succeeded in arranging a training stimulation for his house vs House of Carlos. "Let''s work on our weapons and strategies before going to the training." Faust suggests, and everyone gets ready equipping themselves with their weapons and armour. Jonathan has an assault rifle in his hand, similar gun to AK-47. With a red stone on the handgrip of the gun. Along with a slim chain wrapped around his left arm. He is wearing a black uniform. A black long sleeve top with red linings at the edges. On top of his shirt is a black jacket with half sleeves and round neck, the texture looks leather but the jacket is made from an alloy of lightweight metal fibers with animal skin. Jonathan is also a martial artist for Tsumugi''s house. His speciality of weapon is chain whip! A chain with a small handle on one end and a sharp knife on the other end. The chain is coiled around his left arm to use it in close quarters. and to unveil it whenever he wants to. Fab is holding a long semi-auto rifle, enhanced with red elemental stone which increases his marksmanship. He is also wearing a long blacktop and the armour jacket which is only covering his chest, exposing his abdomen muscles. Rachel, on the other hand, is using a sniper rifle enhanced with green stone. She is wearing a sleeveless tank top covered by the same armour, but her armour is only covering the left side of her chest to her left shoulder. Faust wears his usual cream coloured hoodie with the black cloak around him covering up to his waist. "Wah! Faust! Why can''t you wear soldier outfits like us? Why are you still wearing that hoodie?" Rachel yells at Faust for always choosing hoodies over trendy outfits. "Huh? Isn''t it cold? I feel so cold! I don''t know how you can be comfortable in that tank top. It''s barely covering your chest." Faust replies back with sarcasm in a sleepy tone. Tsumugi smiles at all four of them going back to their normal selves, perfectly looking ready to fight. "Why are you sleepy Faust? Did you not get enough sleep last night?" Tsumugi questions him of his night-long sleep. "I was up! Planning strategies¡­ just couldn''t get myself to sleep." Faust replies with a smile and everyone smiles happily for his passion and hard work. "Let me be, I''m just a supporter anyway. Don''t keep your hopes high on me." Faust takes out his purple katana from his portal bag. "Wow! Wait! Did you get a portal bag from Carlos? And that sword?" Fab couldn''t hold back his excitement upon seeing Faust as a perfect supporter because now with his portal bag, he can store as many things as he wants. Faust also takes out an armlet that has an empty space in the middle. Everyone''s been wondering why he would need an armlet. "I got this armlet from the house of Carlos." Faust takes out a black stone saying that. "A bl-bl-black stoneeee?" "Faust! Where did you get that?" "Don''t tell me!" Jonathan, Fab and Rachel are surprised to see a black stone with Faust. "What?" Faust asks casually puts the armlet on his arm beneath his cloak. "This is good now, people won''t be able to see it." He ends it with a smile but his squad is still surprised, same with Tsumugi. 99 Elemental Stones "But you told us that you cannot use any spiritual power! So how is this now?" Tsumugi asks him with a poker face. "Oh! I don''t know. This stone chose me when I took the awakening. "Most of the people don''t know about the black stone. But long back, a black stone user used to live in this house. Did any of you ever heard about it?" The expressions of Tsumugi changes as she talks. An unwanted past is running in her head. "We all know that there used to be a black stone user back in the day. That''s all we know." Rachel hesitantly mutters in a low voice, unsure of what is happening. "His name is Ares.!" The atmosphere around Faust changes as soon as he hears the name. His breathing gets harder and his hair falls over his eyes as he tilted his head down. "I have never heard that name." Rachel wonders, anticipating the next words from Tsumugi''s mouth. "They say that when a person uses black stone, he is taken over by an entity and his soul sinks deep into dark pits." Tsumugi explains to her kids. Everyone in the room other than Faust gets shocked by what they heard. Do these elemental stones even have such properties? Aren''t they just stones that are filled with energy? Thoughts of everyone js going wild. Faust on the other side clenched his fists so tightly that his right thumb pierced into his palm, making his hand bleed that goes unnoticed by everyone. "I never thought the elemental stones to have a mind or personality of their own! Now that I think of the possibility, it is creeping me out." Rachel says while looking at the green stone that is on her sniper rifle. "It is said that ''Elemental Stones'' are not to fall in the hands of humans. They are present in every other dimension than ours. There should be a reason for it as well. It is connected with our spirits." Tsumugi utters with her emotionless face. "Well, that is for another day to think about! We are getting late for training. Let''s go do that first than talking about something that is out of our reach." Faust says with a carefree smile. "Yes yes! Think about ourselves now! Something like that is the concern for the research people." Fab too helps Faust in easing up the atmosphere and all of them heads towards the training grounds. They all go into a building. Where people are working on virtual screens. "You guys are late." As soon as Faust enters, Thorik lashes out in a strict voice. "Being passionate only is not enough. Tons of hard work with passion is what helps you achieve your dreams." Thorik behaves like a proper general. He is dressed in a long black coat with a skull badge on one side of his collar. Behind him is the same female that acted cocky in the morning, when Faust approached Thorik. He noticed that the girl is wearing a strange outfit. She is wearing a black miniskirt with a black suit. Her suit has the name ''Yuki'' printed on it. Same as Faust''s cloak. Faust realised that she is a captain like him. "Ok" Thorik gathers Faust''s squad to explain a few things. He attaches a small coin-sized tool onto their armours. "Channel your spiritual energy into the tool before going into the training grounds." He explains about the tool. "And an important rule! This is a duel between two houses at a time! Depending on your present house rank, either the opponent team or your team gets to go inside the training grounds to take their positions." Thorik tells them about the rules. The two houses which are going to battle against each other, the key thing, that decides which team gets to go inside the battlefield to take positions is the team that is currently leading in the house rankings. "Oh! Which rank are we on? 4 or 5? It''s okay I''m ready! Drop us in." Jonathan claps his hands and stretches his arms being excited to go in and kill. "Your house is currently last in the rankings of each branch." Thorik elaborates. "Oh it''s okay, I will let you guys go in first. I don''t mind." Jonathan holds himself back, without letting the humiliation getting to him. "Let me tell you in brief about what you need to do. You will be teleported into a different space. You will be given a small City, where both sides of yours will be holding three main buildings in which treasures are stored." "You will be given a virtual contacts to one of your eyes, where you can see the whole map virtually. Plunder those treasures of opponent teams or protect yours from them. Or importantly, eliminate all four of the other side, which will also work well." Thorik explains the rules. "Heh! For your info on the team, I will be a sniper, so look out for your heads." A guy wearing glasses from Yuki''s squad advice to Faust. All of Yuki''s squad are grinning at Faust and his squad, not being able to wait to hunt their prey, they go inside. The first round of the purge is a four vs four of two houses. Each side will be put into a city in between a number of buildings. In the far corners of the map, each team is given three buildings with a treasure box, one in each of the three buildings. The treasure boxes here are huge rocks. The opposite team needs to attack and break the rocks. And inside the rocks are elemental stones, the real treasure. A team needs to break all three rocks exposing the elemental stones of the opponent to win the match or kill all four of the opposite team. The players are given two virtual shields. One of the shields is body shield which, when broken, the player is eliminated. The other is defensive shield which is around the players at all times. The coin-sized metal tool is attached to all of the players before entering the field, in which a small amount of Yellowstone is present. When the spiritual power is released into the tool, no matter what attributes one person has, the Yellowstone is automatically activated producing an invisible shield around their bodies. And after Thorik''s team entered the training grounds. Faust and his squad are sent in to fight. "Dead! Faust, eliminated!" A computerized voice resonates. 100 Bitter Truth Faust and his squad positions themselves inside a red marker ready to be teleported into another world. There is also a deeper reasoning for this round in the purge. In reality, these soldiers would have to go to other dimensions by teleporting themselves. And they would need to plunder elemental stones from other dimensions by excavation. Which is similar to this training. Faust and his squad are teleported to another world, the sky is blue and clear, the sun is brighter than ever. There is no wind or no smell to the area. Faust checks to his left and right, he could not find his squad members. They must be teleported to their positions he thought and took a step forward. *Thud* "Dead! Faust is eliminated." A computer voice resonated in the room Thorik and Tsumugi are monitoring the training. "What happened there?" Thorik asked the people monitoring the screens. "He did not activate his defence shield. Did you attach the device on his cloak?" "I''m pretty sure I did." Thorik is confused with what could have gone wrong. "H-he cannot use spiritual energy! He doesn''t have any." Tsumugi helps clear the confusion. Meanwhile, Faust is teleported back in his realm. "Huh? Why am I here? What happened?" He asks without knowing what had happened to him in the training grounds. "You need to channel your spiritual power into the holo tool that I attached on your cloak. Why did you not do it?" Thorik asks even after hearing from Tsumugi that Faust cannot use ''Spiritual Power'' "I cannot use spiritual power." Faust replies hesitantly. "I don''t think you can win any match." Both Jonathan and Rachel, teleport back at the same time Thorik is uttering the words. "Huh? What? Why did you say that?" Jonathan looks at Faust who is frozen in shock and Thorik, glaring at Faust. "Faust is taken out by a sniper, the other two did not adapt to the teleportation. The guy puked and was taken down by Yuki, the girl did not adapt to the teleportation too and was passed out." Reports come in from the guys monitoring the match about Faust, Jonathan and Rachel. Shortly, Fab comes back and with him, two of the opponent soldiers. "Fab is the only one that did good! He took down two members before he was taken down." *Pant pant* Fab falls onto the ground gasping for air. "I-I''m Fabulous!". He gives a thumbs up while breathing heavily. "The sniper bullet broke ur body shield, immediately eliminating you from the match. If you don''t have spiritual power, you won''t be able to stay for a minute in a match." Thorik says. The defence shield attached to the clothes of the soldiers would provide a shield, helping them to avoid a hit. Giving them a chance to get into a cover after they teleport. In Faust''s case, there is no defence, making him the most vulnerable. The spawn point, where Faust and the other teleported are noted to the opposite team. It takes just one shot for a sniper to eliminate Faust from match right after he is teleported into the match. "Let me go one more match." Faust asks for a rematch, gets the permission and all four of them are teleported again. "Faust is eliminated!" Within ten seconds. Faust is again hit by the sniper gain and teleported back to the room with Thorik me Tsumugi. "It is hopeless. A captain should lead his squad from the front and stand his ground protecting them." Thorik says as he moves onto monitor the rest. Faust just stands there in doubt, he doesn''t know what to do or how to counter anymore. This is the first time Tsumugi saw Faust cowering without a plan or without displaying his confidence. But she knew this would happen so she did not say anything. She knew from the start that only three members from her house needs to win the first round someway. Faust did not take the match again, he went back to his room while the other trained the whole day. "This is a huge blow for the family, they have to fight with only three people and try to win." Yuiki''s squad empathises with Tsumugi''s family. Faust doesn''t go out of his bed the whole day, Jonathan tries to bring him out of the cabin but fails to do so. "Fausty! Don''t worry, I can take down two members, Jonathan and Rachel can take care of the other two. We will win a match in the first round for real and then you can win the second round which is 1 Vs 1 and then our family will survive." Fab assures Faust, Jonathan and Rachel too add their voices of support, saying they too will work their best to win. This only made Faust feel more humiliated that the people whom he''s supposed to protect are now making up for his lack of strength. Faust did not go to the training ground for the rest of the month. It''s only Fab, Jonathan and Rachel with their new equipment, have played 53 matches against Yuki''s squad and won 0 matches. Meanwhile, Faust only did his morning workouts, routines and spent the rest of the day in his house. The Purge that has terrified the branches of the families for the past two months have arrived finally. The very first match is arranged between Tsumugi and Carlos. The matching did seem political to both the houses. But they cannot oppose anything rather than follow the house rules. While every other team is preparing for battle on the morning of the purge, no one has sensed the dawn of the birth of a new demon that is about to enter the urge with them. Faust calls his squad for a discussion on the morning of the day of Purge. Fab, Jonathan and Rachel are just gawking at Faust while listening to his strategies. "Let''s win this whole round." Faust uttered with a devilish smile, the black stone on his armlet is gleaming brightly and his left eyeball is completely black, as the eye of a devil. 101 Begin the Purge! The purge strangely began in a huge ground, sheltered under a roof. Amidst the fifteen branches of the families, all gathered under one roof. There are screens that are even displayed to some cities, for people to view the matches. Medellin being a poor city, did not get a screen in the city for Neith to watch Faust. "Everywhere in the countries, people are talking about the current thing on-trend, that is ''purge of Asuras'' on the other hand. Three of the families are safe and they do not partake in any kind of purge. Reason is, they''re the top three branches of Asura''s. Number one being the Main branch family, led by King Hades, where his son, seventeen years old Prince Leviathan is a captain class, leading newbies of his family. Second place in the rankings is the branch of Beckett''s (Brawlers) formed by the three Beckett brothers, Royall guardians of the main branch, knights in sense are forever loyal and are bound to the throne. Third place in the rankings and the weapon makers of the house. People responsible for making gifted weapons of heavy damage to sword guns in the house of Asuras. This branch also possesses one of the strongest members of the entire house. The three-star general Theodore. These three branches of the family are safe from the purge that is happening. The branches participating in the purge are nervous, anxious and scared of the results they would have to face. Yuki''s squad on the other side are filled with confidence, the very first match of the purge is against Carlos and Tsumugi''s house. Yuki, one of the captains from the house of Carlos have an undefeated streak of 53 - 0 against Faust and his squad. The stage is set in between a colosseum inside the house of Asura''s, the nobles and heads of the fifteen branches are seated in a row on their thrones. Slightly above them are Queen Uzume, and Prince Leviathan. The King''s chair is empty as always, as Hades doesn''t attend any of the events or exhibitions. He rather spends his whole time in training his body. He is currently the strongest in the entire house and the fourth-strongest person in the history of the house. Leviathan sits on the throne, his chin resting on his hand with dead fish eyes. He seems bored and is not impressed with anything that is happening in front of him. Faust with his squad and Yuki with her squad walks to the stage in the middle of the colosseum. After two whole months, for the first time, Faust looks at Caitlyn, who is standing beside her captain in the noble''s seatings. She feels proud to see Faust in a captain''s cloak, " it feels bad, for us families to face each other in the very first match. But I will make sure I won''t embarrass you right away!" The man with glasses, the sniper of Yuki''s squad rubs his insulting words onto Faust. As every family is waiting for Hades to announce the Purge while their hearts are fluttering in fear of the result. Leviathan gets up from his seat. Approaching the announcer''s mic, "BEGIN THE PURGE!" Realizing that his father is not coming to purge anymore, Leviathan takes it into his hands to announce it. "You did well." Uzume compliments her son on his way back to his throne beside Uzume''s. To which Leviathan just turns his way away and sits in his throne. Yuki''s squad are the first ones to stand in between a rectangle mark, drawn in red. All four of them are teleported into the other dimension to take their positions. There are three lanes of buildings and cottages given for each team while the elemental stone treasures are kept in the farthest lane where the team members will be spawned. The soldiers need to cross the three lanes on their side and another three of the opponent''s side lanes to get to the treasure. The team which is spawned first have the highest probability to win the match, as they cover half of the distance and stay ready in their positions waiting for their opponents to be spawned. That is why the holo tool is given, which makes a shield around the spawned players as soon as they are spawned. After Yuki''s squad entered Faust and his squad prepares themselves to go in. "I think it''s about time," Fab tells to Faust. "Yes!" Faust stretches both of his arms to his sides, portals open in front of all four who are standing in a line. His left eye looks dark with a green eyeball glittering brightly. "The new equipment from the house of Carlos! We haven''t tried them against their own house yet right?" Fab pulls out a rotatory barrelled machine gun from the portal, similar to XM214. The left eye of Fab is burning like Phoenix fire. "Oh ho! It is heavy, but with me." Fab holds the gun firmly with his fingers on the trigger, "The baby is nice." Fab lets out a grin holding a monster gun in his hand Each member has given contacts for their left eye, which is going to act like a map in the match. Faust chose black contact while Fab chose a red colour. Rachel chose green and Jonathan went with yellow. Although all of their contacts are normal. Faust''s contacts cover all of his eyeball. Rachel reaches out to the portal to takeout out a brand new sniper rifle that is glowing green in colour. There are turbofans present in the handle of the rifle. These fans enhance the air element that Rachel controls and also to cool down the sniper rifle after too many shots. On the other hand, Jonathan has the coolest weapon, he is gifted a chin whip by Faust, but not just an ordinary chain whip with a knife. The chain is slim and thin but durable, on the other hand of the chain, in place of a knife. A claw made of fibre is resting, the chain is iron, but the claw is made of an alloy with leather and rubber. He can now catch opponents and pull them close to him, to deliver a lethal blow. And lastly, Faust pulls out a purple sword and gets ready to get into the match. "Here! Here mom! Sit here." Tsumugi asks her mom to sit on the throne in her place. As she already quit as the head of their branch. "It''s going to start?" Tsumugi''s mom asks her. While Tsumugi is lost in her world thinking about Faust, who did not do anything in the training. Faust holds his cloak as they are about to be teleported. In mere seconds, a sniper shot is heard from the match and, people can see that Faist upon teleporting, got taken down instantly. The soldiers and their families in the colosseum are yelling and cheering up after hearing the sniper shot in the first five seconds of the game. "Heh! Hit!" The sniper sneers upon looking at Faust getting hit right in between his eyebrows. But as he is watching, Faust is disappearing into thin air. shortly, the cloak that Faist is wearing is falling down onto the floor. The sniper doesn''t understand what had happened, the computer is yet to declare that Faust is eliminated. And the next second. "You have underestimated me." The whole crowd has gone silent and the eyes of Leviathan widened in surprise. The nobles who were sitting leisurely with their backs against their chairs have come forward in disbelief. Faust is wearing a plain white shirt and black jeans. His shirt is tucked inside his pants and sleeves rolled up to elbows. The thing that attracted and surprised all the people watching is his armlet, glowing black in colour as it is releasing energy and everyone started to discuss amongst themselves if Faust just teleported behind the sniped. Faust is behind the sniper on a roof. He has his sword drawn and as he is done saying the words, the guy with glasses turns his head around and a powerful slash on his neck. The sniper is eliminated. Faust before being teleported has removed the cloak, and as soon as he spawned inside the new place, he teleported to a nearby wall. He travelled in lightning speed that his afterimage is left with cloak, which is overlooked by the sniper. At the same time, Fab, Jonathan and Rachel have taken their positions in the treasure buildings, Faust, however, is walking freely on the streets, tapping his scabbard to the gates and poles. Indirectly challenging his enemies. "Damn him! Showing off just because he took the sniper down! We want to go, Yuki." The other two males ask for the permission of their captain Yuki for which she denies it. Asking them to hold their positions for now in the treasure houses. Shortly, Faust starts jumping from one building or another, the two guys could see him clearly through the window, but they are holding themselves back because of their captain''s order. But when Faust decides to stop moving and sits right in front of the building that Yuki is protecting the treasure. The two guys have lost it and come out to shoot at Faust. They press the trigger in annoyance, they want to get rid of Faust as soon as possible. Before their bullets came close. Fab suddenly appears in front of the two with the shield, carrying his rotatory machine gun. "Ok! Time to go crazy." Fab says as his finger is inches away from the trigger of the huge gun. 102 Queen of Impenetrable Fortress Everyone is shocked to see Fab suddenly appearing in front of Faust, it''s as though he has been summoned just now. Is this another power of that guy? The two males fighting with Faust tries to speculate as much as possible. The red bullets directed towards Faust have been blocked by the shield of Fab, he is waiting for his turn to fire at them both. And as he gets the thought, the two guys move back while shooting to retreat tactically. Fab undoes his shield and bullets start raining with thunder-like sounds. The two guys instantly take cover, they don''t want to get hit by that monsters gun! The sound itself made their hearts quiver in fear. But before they realise, they are trapped inside a smoke cloud. Everyone expected the huge rotatory machine gun to demolish everything with its speed and deadly power. But all that came from the gun is smoke balls. Faust is back in his building protecting his treasure box monitoring Fab and Jonathan through monitors. Rachel is on top of his building, scoping on Yuki, waiting for her to come out of the building to take a shot. Amidst the smoke that covered the entire lane, one of the guys is pulled to the other side of the smoke to where Fab is standing. It felt as though a hand has grabbed and snatched him. "Eliminated!" The computer voice responded. The guy is taken down by Fab with the help of Jonathan. It''s two vs four now, the remaining guy did not understand what it is it that snatched away his friend. He is scared to give any moment that will male him a target. "Time is running out! I hope he knows about Yuki''s ability." Thorik mutters under his breath. The match has a fifteen-minute time limit. Faust needs to eliminate all four players or plunder all three treasures in order to win. Failure of not able to do any of it will be a win to the house that entered the match first. This game is solely designed in the favour of houses that are in better ranks. The houses with lower rank will eventually perish with the rules. The guy who is hiding behind a rock is also snatched away by something and is again eliminated. "Isn''t that guy in treasure house a minute ago?" "How did he joined the big guy? " His weapon is also strange." People start discussing how Fab and Jonathan travelled so quickly. Now it is only Yuki that is remaining. Fab and Jonathan heads to the buildings with treasures to break open the rock. It took quite a few bullets to shatter the rock, exposing the elemental stones. The crowd went nuts watching a no-name family fighting a well-known branch. It is now four vs one. And this is moving some of the audiences to cheer for Faust and his squad. Yuki still stays inside the building, Fab and Jonathan smashes the treasure rock in the buildings beside her, there is now only one treasure box to be plundered and one player to be taken down. At this rate, they will break the treasure and take down the player at the same time. "Rachel, do you see any moments in the room?" Fab and Jonathan asks Rachel, the sniper with a better scope that has clear views of every window of the room that Yuki is in. Fab and Jonathan continue to go towards Yuki, they now stand outside the door that Yuki is holding. "Nothing! But be careful, I can see smokes in the room, or so, I cannot say. It-" Rachel pauses as she scopes at every window of the room. "The room looks strange, be careful!" Rachel replies. "Got it! Faust?" Fab asks for Faust. "Go on!'' Both of them breaks the front door as soon as they get a ''go'' from their captain. The inside of the room is dark and silent. A chilling wind breeze abruptly comes out of the room. Fab takes a look inside and the whole room, the walls and floor are covered in Ice. "Are you seeing Faust?" Fab asks before going in. "Pre-shoot and go!" Faust advises while watching the darkroom. Somewhere, something feels off to Faust. Fab and Jonathan shoots inside the darkroom, making sure to distance the enemies from ambushing them as they enter the door. "I wouldn''t go inside I were you." Thorik crosses his arms and says with an evil grin. As both of them enters the room, the doorway of the room instantly closes by thick ice. The whole room is covered by thick ice, the treasure rock is also frozen, the thick ice making it hard to break the rock. The ice is almost impenetrable, Yuki and the treasures are inside. Only three minutes are remaining for Faust''s squad to win. It takes ten minutes to break the ice at the door alone. This is what Yuki has been planning from the start. The three of her members are just time killers and she is the main player. Daisy and his squad took so much time dealing with the other three and now there is not much time left to break into Yuki''s room, to defeat her or to break the rock. During the 53 matches that these two squads faced. Yuki never once showed Fab and the others of her Ice element. She saved her surprise element. The match is now completely in her hands. Fab and Jonathan are trapped inside the cage of Ice, without being able to do anything. Footsteps are heard coming from the far end of the room. Yuki''s eyes have turned completely white, while her lips have turned purple. As she starts walking towards Fab and Jonathan, she lights a fire lantern and the sight before her shocked her to her wits. Faust is standing in front of her with his sword and a smile on his face. "What? What? He went alone?" Fab and Jonathan are in the main building that Faust was, a while ago. "What? Where did he go? He pulled us back and went face to face with that girl." Fab, Jonathan and Rachel starts moving back towards Yuki''s building. Thorik is taken by surprise, He jumps out of his seat and comes closer to the railing. "What did he do!" He exclaimed he could not believe his own eyes. The persons who walked inside Yuki''s ice trap are now running towards her building again. Is it Deja Vu? He thought. The crowd too looks at Fab and Jonathan running in the streets. "Oi! How can it be? Didn''t we see them both entering the room?" "This is crazy! What is happening who is this branch?" Yuki immediately puts up a wall of ice, dividing the room into two, she is still an impenetrable fortress. Meanwhile, the cameras inside the room goes back to normal and start working. Everyone sees Faust and Yuki facing each other. "She put a thick wall of ice! Very good! Only two more minutes, he can not break the wall or the rock." "It''s going to be Carlos house that would win." "No! The other branch did really great! I would like to see them win." "I heard that he is a captain at the age of 14!" "He is also a servant class that became a captain." "Really? What''s his name?" "It''s Faust!" The security guard that stopped Faust from entering the oscillatory tower before checking his badge tells the soldier next to him. "Faust! Let''s go, Faust!" "Win it, Faust!'' " Faust! Faust! Faust! Faust!" The audience watches with curiosity, the clock is ticking very quickly. 1 minute and 48 seconds of time remaining. The strategies, the speed and the mystery aspect and the black stone. Attracted the audiences to cheer for their fellow servant class soldier. "I don''t think we can make it in time! Dammit, after doing everything. He may be fast, but Yuki is also a captain." Fab yells in panic as the three are running quickly with all of their strength. Uzume clenches her fists in excitement, wanting Faust to win and every city that is watching the match on their screens is sure that Yuki won. "This is a useful ability huh? Creating an ice fortress." Faust stands behind Yuki, leaning forward, he whispers in her ear. 103 Complex Personality Yuki''s eyes widen as she gets chills, she gets frightened by a sudden whisper in her ear. She turns back and releases her ice element but a slash lands onto her body shield on her waist, completely breaking the shield along with Yuki''s spirit. "Yuki! Eliminated!" A computer voice announces as Yuki is teleported back. Faust goes onto cut the ice rock in a half. Fab and the others stop running, without being able to believe what they heard. All four of them are teleported back to the stage in the middle of the Colosseum. While Fab is wondering and looking on either side to see if they had won or ran out of time. His eyes go to Yuki who is sitting on the ground in despair, her hair covered all of her face. "YESSSSSSSSSSS!" The crowd cheers and yells loudly for Faust and his squad, the whole Colosseum is celebrating Faust''s win. Watching all that and their names on the big screen under winners tag, Fab breaks down and weeps, the past months have been very hard on him as he tried to carry the whole burden by himself, thinking and worrying about his branch by himself. He was not confident about winning the match even in the morning. His mind has gone through a number of strategies and plans that would make them win at least one match in this round. He cried all of his burden out with this win. "Save those tears for later, we still have matches to win today. And.. let''s win all of them." Faust lets out a smile towards Fab. "Ahhh Faustooo! Sorry yoo I thought you were good for nothing all these days. To think that you came up with these weapons and equipment in a month." Fab holds Faust in his arms as he cries his heart out. "What? You did not think was good enough?" Faust questions in anger. "Now now! Who cares Fausto! And you also wore a uniform today! You are different when it comes to real deal huh." Rachel pulls and hugs him in her chest. "Yes yes, me too Rachel! I did well too, give me a hug tooo." Jonathan says as his face becomes ugly, he dashes forward breathing flames from his nostrils. Rachel takes out her sniper rifle aiming at Jonathan she laughs like a maniac while squeezing Faust in her chest with her other hand. "Stop it guys! We still have more matches." Faust gets out of Rachel''s hold and puts back his black cloak on. "You got your cape back?" Jonathan asks surprisingly. "Everything that is teleported to the match will be teleported back." Faust explains it to Jonathan. "Wow! You know everything now?" "What do you think I did for one month? Sit in a room and cry?" "Uhhh I saw you reading some books too. I thought of borrowing them from you, but they''re not adult books so I let you read them." "Ye ye." They all leave the stage in between cheerings and blessings from the people sitting in the audience. Faust and the others walk down the stage with pride-filled faces. They are finally acknowledged by the soldiers and their house. "Are those your kids? They did so well in the very first match! That too against Carlos." Tsumugi''s mom praises Faust and his squad for their win against the strongest branch of Carlos. Among the cheering of the crowd and nobles, one of the soldiers is not able to believe his eyes, he is hating on Faist from the core, he is loathing the very existence of Faust. "How can he do it? He is just a loser in the village. He is no more than a loser who lost to me." Barkha, older brother of the bully ahito, among the soldiers, spews anger from his eyes. "Hey look, it''s the Outlander''s family." The audience stands on their feet pointing to another branch. The Outlander''s, as the name suggests is a branch which possesses soldiers who are recruited from different islands. Faust is surprised to see Caitlyn among these four. She''s a noble and is sent with the Outlander''s, she seemed shy and averted looking towards the huge crowd cheering her family. "Can you walk quickly?" The captain of her team urges her to be quick and walks fast. Their house goes inside first. - Shortly, Outlanders comes out as winners of the round with all four of their members alive and well. Caitlyn did not do anything than baiting the opponents to attack her. She walks with her head lowered, trying not to stand out too much. "Caitlyn!!!!! You did great!" Faust gets up on his feet and shouts loudly cheering Caitlyn. Fact is that the captain of Caitlyn''s squad is the one who took down all of the opponents. Caitlyn did not do anything productive that adds to the victory, yet Faust is only praising her. The words reached the ears of her Captain Jericho. Even though he did not respond or react, went his way as if he did not care, he grew hatred towards Faust in his heart. *"That punk! Just because he won one game, he got cocky."* Jericho thinks as he walks back to their team tents to get ready for the next match. "Faust, you shouldn''t do that! Congratulate all of them, you shouldn''t just congratulate one person that you know of. The others will feel bad." Rachel, being considerate for Faust, tells him to greet everyone together which would keep a good reputation to Faust as a captain. "Huh? But I don''t know the other guys, Caitlyn is the only person I know." Faust replies with a smile as if he is about to teach Rachel something new today. "Still! You need to wish all of them, that is a nice way to be and that is someone with good manners," Rachel explains and as soon as she is done, Faust moves close towards her to pinch her cheeks gently. While Rachel is in confusion, "Haha! I just don''t want to put on a nice face or say sweet things to strangers to make them have a good opinion of me. First of all, I don''t know them, and when I do not talk or know someone, I wouldn''t bother with them. I only bother with people that I talk to and only when I confirm that they''re good people, I will be nice to them." "I want to be true to myself, when I don''t even know someone, I won''t be nice to them. They have to talk to me and be nice, only then I will treat them accordingly. I know I''m a little twisted, but don''t leave me heh!" Faust explains his complex thinking to Rachel. It sounds cool at first but then it sounds like he is talking like a kid too at the same time. "Well! Didn''t you do too well in your match? I was surprised." Thorik comes to have a talk with Faust, which surprised many people in the audience as Thorik, the general visited to talk to someone. "At first, I thought your spirit would be broken and you wouldn''t do very well, but who knows you can come back hard. I guess having you in the family is useful after all." He talks about the game, where he first underestimated Faust because of him having no spiritual power. "Yes! I have been reading and analysing the game, finding loopholes in the rules and watched the gameplay of most of the houses that are participating today." Faust after the loss with Yuki on the first day of training. Went back to study the game and rules. He came up with strategies and methods to win. That is why he wanted the equipment. And for which he got into the house of Carlos. 104 Jericho vs Faus The other half of the day, Faust''s squad faces with Caitlyn''s squad lead by Jericho. Caitlyn''s squad goes inside first to take their positions waiting for Faust and his squad. Jericho and his squad are experts in close range combat. Jericho himself carries two small pistols that are lighter while moving. He can move really fast, doing acrobats and shooting at his enemies with his sharp aim. But since they saw how Faust appears or jumps a distance in a blink of an eye, they position themselves in mid-range to be safe and the area that Faust and his squad would appear is all covered with wind and dust as a doing of Caitlyn, wind element user. Gradually, the wind turned into a sand storm. The strategies of the Jericho squad are simple. Firstly, Caitlyn goes into the line of sight of the soldiers in a lane and runs upon seeing them, confusing and getting their focus shifted onto her, making the enemies think that she stumbled upon them by mistake and became a free kill. Meanwhile, a sand storm hits them hard making them blind and slowing them down. This is when the others from Caitlyn''s squad are in an inclined angle from the prey that fell inside their trap. Then comes the lightning element sniper with a purple coloured sniper rifle. A black colour cloud forms above the enemy squad, with thunders falling onto them immediately burning them to a crisp, breaking their shields and paralyzing them. That is the moment Jericho jumps in the sand storm with his acrobatic skills, he takes down all of the squad with his pistols. Jericho, a master at this deceiving/luring trap have hundreds of traps In his mind that he can choose if the opponent starts predicting his previously laid traps. The real match has begun, Faust and the others teleported inside the match. but Faust is instantly inside the main building. While Fab and Jonathan goes left of Faust, hiding behind a wall for cover from the sand storm and Rachel goes to the right building and starts trying to spot the enemies. *Bzzzztt~~* Above the sandstorm is a black cloud raging and rumbling as the purple lightning traverses the whole cloud as of it''s collecting the electricity from the cloud. Shortly, all the lightning gathered at one spot, at the middle of the cloud fell onto the sand storm where Fab and Jonathan were taking cover. The lightning is like a roaring dragon descended from the heavens. The concrete walls and roads are ruptured with cracks and fissures, split opening the land, the arcs of lightning destroyed everything they touched. The crowd goes silent, the person they are cheering till now is now in a pinch with four vs two. Everyone starts doubting the capabilities and powers of Faust and his squad. Faust places his hands on the huge monitor that is arranged on a small table before him. "Faust!" Rachel utters, trying to stop the fear that is creeping up to her heart. They did not expect to stumble across a lighting user this soon, especially, a lightning user with strong spiritual energy. "Great! Now, two of them are eliminated." Jericho with an evil grin rejoices watching the aftermath of the lightning strike. *slick* Jericho heard a shot from behind and suddenly jumps into a suddenly from the rood, he sees that his sniper is taken down from behind. "No one crossed us from front and flanked from behind right? We were watching carefully aren''t we?" Jericho asks his members in a panic. Lack of information on Faust and Rachel is making him confused. Who could possibly be behind him is what making him panic. "Obviously, there is no way we missed someone sneak from underneath us." Fri, their assaulter replies. "The remaining three went inside the buildings to take cover." Rachel who is behind Jericho and his squad relates information to Faust. "What the fuck are his abilities?" Jericho starts to think about what is going wrong. "Caitlyn! Go become a bait and scout the area." He sends Caitlyn out in the open lanes while him and the Fei, takes cover in the buildings and moves along with Caitlyn, waiting for Faust and Rachel to go behind Caitlyn. "Two treasures are plundered!" Computer voice announces again in five minutes. "Fuck!" The announcement made Jericho lost all of his hopes, he is dead inside with the sudden announcement. "They both are in our buildings, let''s go quickly to the main building to stop them." Jericho immediately realises that Faust and Rachel are behind them in their buildings, he turns back and starts running towards the main building. "Too easy." A voice resonated within the darkroom in front of Jericho and his squad. They stopped in their traces. In the dark, they could see two green eyes glimmering brightly, devouring the light in the room. Faust walks out of the room towards Jericho. Caitlyn took steps back seeing Faust walking towards them with a smile on his face and his already drawn sword in his right hand. "N-no way! How are you here so quick? I don''t think the sniper girl alone can do anything. It is your foolish mistake to come to us." Jericho begins laughing at Faust for his foolish decisions. "Yes! It takes a while to break the rock in the middle building." Faust adds as he agrees with what Jericho said. "Which is why all three of my squad are working on it, while I hold you both here." Faust replies. "All three? That is no-."Jericho pauses to remember something important. "Wait! Is it me or did the computer not announce the elimination of the first two guys?" The assaulter for Jericho asks everyone. The laughing face of Jericho becomes pale, his eyes narrowing as he stares intensely at Faust. Before the lightning fell onto Fab and Jonathan, they were both teleported to the two buildings of Jericho''s squad and Rachel is teleported behind Jericho to take down the lightning element user, so he wouldn''t give them much trouble. After Fab and Jonathan took down both of the small treasure rocks, Faust appeared in front of Jericho to stall them until the treasure rock of the main building is plundered. "You got me good, but you still made a mistake by coming before me." Jericho with a poker face equips two white stones onto his body armour. The white stone which enhances the physical attributes and fastens the moments of one person is already deadly by its immense strength and speed. But using two of them makes Jericho the strongest and fastest in his captain class. "Fei, go to the main building, I will deal with him, Caitlyn! Advance forward!" Jericho orders his subordinates. Fei the assaulter immediately takes off towards the main building and Caitlyn moves forward with her machine gun and Jericho moves while hiding behind Caitlyn, using her as a shield and also to land surprise attacks. Faust however, teleports in front of Fei, Caitlyn starts shooting and Faust as he stands in front of Fei, stopping Fei in his tracks. But to his surprise, Fei shows a smile, Faust looks towards Caitlyn right away realising something is wrong, and all he can see is a cloud of dirt. All those bullets that Caitlyn shot are not directed towards Faust but a wall, making it collapse, using it as a decoy. While Jericho takes off towards the main building with God speed. Faust did not see anything of what happened while Caitlyn is shooting. "Nice move." After he realises what happened and where Jericho went off to, Caitlyn and Fei tackles him head-on shooting with their rifles at Faust. 105 Unmatchable Caitlyn made strong winds again that circled Faust and taking the opportunity, Fei starts shooting at Faust without letting him move, shortly a while after, Caitlyn too joins him wanting to pin down Faust here while their captain would finish the three soldiers who are on the main building of their base. The area that Faust is standing is covered with full of dust from the strong winds and sand. Caitlyn and Fei pauses firing to let the smoke clear to have a look at Faust. They are sure that they had pinned down Faust as they are sure that he cannot use the shield tool. As the smoke starts to clear, they can see a thin blue wall of defence shield in between them and Faust which looks like the shield made by the holo tool. Faust is able to use spiritual power now? He did not just put up a shield but a powerful one to stop the bullets of two rifles? Caitlyn and Fei are as surprised as everyone in the audience and nobles. As all of the smoke is cleared, they can see a wounded right leg which was shot and shredded left shoulder armour which is destroyed by the bullets. "C-Captain? Why the hell are you here?" Fei asks in a subtle voice. Caitlyn watches in a shock. The whole crowd in the audience jumps out in excitement while shouting loudly. No one can believe their freaking minds. Jericho is in front of Faust protecting Faust with his shield. *"I remember I was at the door of the main building! But why am I here?"* Jericho is fretting as he is standing his ground against the rain of bullets from his squad. Jericho clearly remembers that he is almost close to eliminating one of Faust''s squad members by ambushing from behind them but was directly summoned in front of Faust as a shield. A couple of bullets from Fei and Caitlyn hit him before he could put up a shield. *sleeek* Faust landed a slash onto Jericho from behind him, slicing through his body shield. "Jericho! Eliminated." Faust looks at Caitlyn and Fei, He looks normal and like a cool hero on the first look with a smile on his face. But as he slowly starts walking towards them both, his smile appeared to be a creepy one with his eyes wide opened. He looks as though he is not in his right mind, as a villain. Caitlyn and Fei are left in shock by the intimidating appearance of Faust. *"So this is what a Captain class is like."* Fei gives up on shooting at Faust, at this point, Faust pretty much look like an immortal to him. He goes in to quickly shatter the body shield of Fei to eliminate him. Caitlyn, witnessing the elimination of her member. Realizes that she is in danger, her pure animal instincts came into play as she raises and points her gun towards Faust. He disappeared, Faust disappeared from in front of her and appeared close to Caitlyn. He looks into the eyes of Caitlyn who is in shock. Faust, gently with his fingers, move her gun aside. "End me!" Realizing she couldn''t do much, Caitlyn says out of her pride. "All three buildings are plundered and Faust and his squad are the winners." Computer voice announces to the entire Arena. Caitlyn is spared or is it a coincidence? Cheerings have touched the sky and whistles added with claps have resonated as the four of Faust''s squad are returned back. Tsumugi teared up looking at her four soldiers rewriting the history of her house. "Ayeeee, I''m now with the youngest captain in the house with mysterious powers. Faust! can I have a word with you?" The host of the purge approaches Faust with a mic asking how he is able to jump long distances in a blink of an eye. "It''s the teleportation of course!" Faust replies without hesitation that made all of the people in the arena go silent. "H-how?" The host asks, not being able to believe what he heard. "Haha, I''m just kidding guys! The real reason is my black stone." Faust lifts his cloak up to expose the black stone on his armlet. "The black stone." "But the previous black stone user did not do anything of this sort." "What is his case." The people start voicing their own opinions, anything new and mysterious is always seen as something foreign and scary. "But we get it-But! What is the power that the stone gives you? Teleportation? Jumping time or is it time freezing? Or black hole portals? What is really in the black stone? The element!" The host asks on behalf of the nobles which made everyone curious to know the answer. All of them hold their nerves curiously wanting to know the secret. "Well I wonder the same, what could it be? Hehe. it is just that this stone, I don''t know how it makes it possible, but it makes it possible." Faust cleverly dodges the question. They all head to their camp to get ready for the next match. Faust doesn''t talk or respond to anyone during their walk from the stage to their camp. "What happened to Master Faust? He seems to be in a foul mood." Charles, the butler asks Fab as they all start equipping their weapons with new elemental stones and getting their equipment check by an engineer. Faust goes to the back of the Arena, breathing heavily, he holds his chest as if his heart is getting crushed. He goes to a female restroom, locks the whole restroom from inside. Goes in front of a huge mirror, takes off his contact lens from his left eye. As he removes the black contact lens, the original.eye of his eye that is exposed is also black in colour with the white part of his eye being black and his eyeball in green. "Ugh! Control it! Why am I crossing the lines?" Faust struggles to subdue his crazy side that is raging with blood lust. He grits his teeth tightly in rage while looking at himself in the mirror. - After a few mins, he walks out of the restroom with both of his eyes looking normal. Meanwhile, a female contender stumbles as Faust is coming out of the female restroom. She instantly stops in her tracks, her eyes widen as she gets stunned by what she saw. "Did you see it?" Faust asks in a low voice, glaring at the female contender. "Well nevermind." Faust rolls his eyes and starts walking out of the corridor. The female keeps looking at Faust, without knowing what to do. Before Faust turn at the end of the corridor, he turns around to the Female, he arranges strands of his hair by putting them behind his ear in a feminine way and performs a hair flip before going on his way. He did it to make the female think of him as a changed gender. He doesn''t want to deal with any sort of problem so he KO''d the female with his act. The female contender just stands being disgusted. The next two matches of Faust''s squad went by in the same manner as the first two, without losing any of the four members. Faust did not have to move an inch from the main building, he kept giving commands to Fab, Jonathan and Rachel and with his ability, the squad killed all four members of the enemy team''s. The first day ended with Tsumugi''s family, against all odds, came on top of every other team. Every match they had, they completely killed all four of their enemy teams other than Caitlyn. She is the only one that was left alone. 106 Welcome The King Of Hell "I-i can''t believe we actually won!" Jonathan says as he lay down on the couch with swollen arms and wrists. One needs sheer strength to use a chain whip to change its direction and to release it quickly. Jonathan gave his all and ended up with red swollen wrists and shoulder joints. The right shoulder of Rachel has been scared and swollen due to her continuous snipe attempts. The recoil of the sniper rifle is bad that the gun hits back inside her right shoulder as she shoots. Fab is in a position where he cannot use his two hands for a week. Carrying that monstrous rotatory barrel machine gun around and shooting at everything and everyone. The spiritual power of all three is drained and their bodies hurt physically. Their temperature has been increased and their eyes burn every time they blink. "You all! I cannot forget this day ever! Recruiting you guys is the best thing happened to this branch. I''m really proud of you all." Tsumugi who thought if they can win at least one match in the first round, they would have a chance to win matches in the second round, which is a 1v1 and their family would barely survive with points to keep them safe in the house. But now, they are standing on top of the leader boardings against all odds. "You all did great! Let''s go to my favourite place, eat noodles and celebrate!" Faust exaggerates to everyone about his master plan to completely heal everyone. Even when Faust announced in a cheerful way, none of the squad responded. They want to sleep and take rest, that''s all they care about. "We can order food from the shop." Tsumugi advices Faust to order the food than forcing others to join him. "Hm! I did not think about this." Faust leaves to his room saying that. - After a short while, as soon as the doorbell rings, Faust runs to get the door. He doesn''t allow anyone else near the door, he himself personally goes to open the door. "Uncle Mitsuru!" Faust laughs loudly upon seeing the owner of the shop, himself came to deliver the food they ordered. The restaurants in the lower land, deliver food to the powerhouses when asked to. That is the one thing no lower land restaurant could deny when ordered by a powerhouse. "Sorry for calling you all the way up here uncle!" "Ohhh! Faust! I would gladly come anywhere if you call me! And omo look at you! You are a captain already!" Mitsuru hugs Faust while immersed in happiness. They both keep talking to each other a lot about the wellbeing of everyone in the lower land. "How are Shizuku and Ma-Kun!" Faust asks of the twin kids of Mitsuru who are twelve years old now. "They both keep asking about you! They miss you a lot! You completely stopped coming to my shop, back in the day you and Cai-" "Ahhhhh! Uncle Mitsuru, why don''t you get in first, please arrange the food and did you try that recipe I told you about?" Before Mitsuru can say the name of Caitlyn, Faust cuts in with different topic and takes Mitsuru to a kitchen. "Recipe?" Mitsuru asks in confusion, but all Faust cares about now is to distract Mitsuru from the topic. Mitsuru has brought five bowls of steaming ramen noodles with a thick broth, firm and thin soft noodles with a decent amount of chilli paste on top. He brought tempura of different veggies to accompany with noodles. The batter of the tempura being crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. However, the shrimp tempura stood as the main attraction for everyone. Served with soya sauce and hot mustard, ginger mayo and creamy cheese lastly. "Wow! The noodles are full of flavour from the broth." "Mine are chewy, just like I had asked." "The fried eggplant with shoyu is the best." "You must have had the best chef''s in your restaurant, please introduce them to us next time." After eating the food brought to them, Fab and the others gets lost in the taste of the food and Tsumugi goes as far as to asking Mitsuru to introduce her to his chef''s. Faust rubs his nose listening to his squad praising his favourite chef. "Haha but it is uncle Mitsuru, he himself cooks and manages the hotel while taking care of his twin kids as a single father." Faust tells to his family members about Mitsuru. "Being a single father, raising kids and managing the business is a big thing! I''m impressed you are able to do it with ease." Tsumugi with Fab, Jonathan and Rachel praises Mitsuru more for his endurance to deal with everything. "Of course! Uncle Mitsuru used to run an organization and r-" "Ahhh, Faust! I brought that favourite dessert of yours." Mitsuru cuts Faust boasting about him. The long night is spent with food, stories and celebrations. They all forgot about their ranks, worries, about another round of purge waiting for them tomorrow. They spent the time like a real family and fell asleep together in the main hall. - The next day, everyone got ready and is waiting for Faust, the final member to arrive in the main hall. Fab, Jonathan and Rachel got bandages on their wounds. Finally, Faust comes prepared and leads the way with his squad, Tsumugi and Charles. "Are you ready to win!" Fab asks him confidently, his voice is different from yesterday. He is full of confidence that Faust is going to win today. Everyone heads towards the Arena. There is nothing strange or flashy in the Arena today. It is plain and normal without any piece of metal or concrete inside. It is all covered with sand. All the nobles participating in the purge sits in the balcony with their respective squads that participated in the first round. There are a total of twelve nobles sitting in the balcony with four members of their squad standing behind them. Above the balcony are three thrones placed in a triangle. The lower two occupied by Uzume and Leviathan and the upper and bigger throne that belongs to Hades the house captain has been left empty. The audience seats are filled by soldiers and families of the soldiers. "We are here today to celebrate the second day of the purge." The host with a blue blazer on blue pants and white shirt. Welcomes the audience and nobles in his style. "Today is going to be a display of martial arts! Each branch will pick two of their best martial artists and one will be sent to represent their branch." As the host is explaining the rules of the round that is going to take place today. The clear sky turns cloudy in a brief moment. "This aura!" The nobles stand up from their seats and so does Uzume and Leviathan. The black clouds in the sky starts to glow with purple lightning. The clouds start to twirl around in a circle in the middle as the heaven''s opening the gates to earth. "Tsk showing off again!" Leviathan is vacillating between jealousy and admiration. He admires his dad but is jealous of the enormous spiritual power that he possesses. The next second a purple lightning falls onto the throne. The audience kneel on one of their knees with their right hand resting on their chest. The nobles stand tall by saluting the king with their hands on their hearts and the squads that are participating in the purge is kneeling down on one knee. The system of power is clearly shown in this one moment. Every soldier and person other than the nobles, get down on one of their knees and lowers their heads to salute and the nobles and royal families, salutes just by bowing their heads. A man can be seen standing at the place where the lightning was hit. He is wearing a long black coat with large white buttons which is up to his thighs. With black and red pants and white shoes. He is wearing a black and red cape, which is black on the outside and red on the inside. He got fifteen ribbons on the left side of his coat and 10 medals on the right. With a white band worn across from his waist to the top of his shoulder and an aiguillette that goes on to the right side of his shirt. The cape on his right shoulder is folded back a little, attaining the look of cross cape, which exposes the four stars on his shoulder strap which defines him as the only four star general in the house. "You may rise!" Hades announces to the entire arena, in a mic given to him, the crowd in the audience immediately, gets up on their feet and welcome him with cheerings and throwing flower petals into the air in a delicate way. "My King, we are blessed to have your presence between us." The host welcomes Hades on behalf of the management team. "It''s a martial art round! Of course I would be here!" Hades replies to the host and suddenly makes eye contact Faust who is standing in the balcony behind Tsumugi''s mother. 107 A Captain Class Hades eyes towards Faust while observing his body language and trying to evaluate his spiritual power. The advanced captains and maybe some captains who are sensitive to auras are able to calculate the spiritual power of the individuals standing before them. Strangely, Hades did not sense any aura or spiritual power from Faust. And as he is examining Faust from top to bottom who is facing away from him, he catches Faust turning to his left and glaring back at him, with an unknown hunger hidden deep in his eyes. Faust''s face is facing forward but his eyes are glaring at Hades from the corner of his eyelids. Hades widens his eyes at the fact that Faust is not looking away even after their eyes meet each other. "How can he stare at me like that?" Hades whispers under his breath, being surprised by the guts of Faust. No one in their right mind would glare at Hades, a royal and the currently strongest person. "He is not looking at you, it''s just his hair is on his eyes." Leviathan clarifies to Hades. Who, upon looking closer realises that the sharp hair strands of Faust are over his eyes, due to the shadow and Faust''s standing posture, it looked as though Faust is eyeing at Hades. "It''s true now that you say it." Hades agrees with his keen confirmation. *"Did my eyes deceive me or did my son fool me?"* It did not sit right with Hades, he for sure caught the glare of Faust but agreed with his son just in case. *"He is the man I need to take down one day! Him! That monster-like being! I will take you down one day."* Faust is so intimidated by the sudden appearance of Hades that he forgot the position he is in and looked right into the eyes of Hades with the hunger for Hades'' throne. He wanted the House all for himself. *"What were you thinking staring at my father with those fierce eyes Faust!"* Leviathan caught him staring at Hades. But for some reason, Leviathan took pity on him to save him. He wanted to know what Faust''s motives. Unless he is fully aware of those, he does not want Faust to die a pitiful death in the hands of Hades, Leviathan want to see more of what Faust can do. "Let the Purge BEGIN!" Hades announces to the whole Arena causing a huge roar back from the audience being hyped for more action that is yet to come. There are two members chosen by the twelve families to this second round. Two martial artists represent their branches, one comes out to fight and the other is a substitute. From Tsumugi''s family, Faust and Jonathan are the two martial artists chosen and enrolled but Faust is the only one who will be fighting. During the squad matches, Faust did not fight in the last three matches. He supported the three of his squad to do all the fighting. Which is why the three of them are exhausted and wounded with bruises. But the three of them accepted to it knowingly, they knew that Faust is the only one who needs to fight on entire day two, hence they let Faust rest and support them while they did the physical labour. The martial artists from each family are different from the four-member squad that participated in the first round of purge. But for Tsumugi, due to her lack of soldiers, Faust and Jonathan who are exhausted from the day one has to fight on day two as well. Whereas, from other branches, new people come with full of energy and spiritual power. "I''m sorry Faust! For leaving everything on your shoulders." Jonathan apologises for being weak. He is not able to use his chain whip anymore and his spiritual power is still exhausted. Which resulted in him to sit on the sidelines for all the matches of today. "Hehe don''t worry, my shoulders can carry the world." Faust puts on his black cloak as he moves forward with a strong posture, ready to take on the world. The first match is hard on Carlo''s house. They have to face off against the old minister who opposed Queen Uzume while making Faust a captain. The old Minister''s house the branch of gluttony is also one of the reputational houses. In this martial arts round, every house picks a captain class to represent their house, unless the house does not possess a captain class martial artist. So the majority of the participants are original captain class unlike Faust, who became a captain in a short route due to Tsumugi''s sacrifice. "It''s going to be a battle between Geroge from the Carlos house and Ranada from Gluttony." The host yells his lungs out introducing the contestants of the very first match. "How long has it been my old friend!" George greets his old friend Ranada who, previously, worked in the house of Carlos but was baited by money and taken by the old minister. "Try not to die! Give up when you can." Ranada mocks him in a confident tone. "Begin the first match!" The host starts the match and instantly the two of them rushes towards each other in one leap. Both of them swing their hands at each other at the same time, George swings his right hand aiming for Ranada''s face, ranada dodges it by tilting his head to the right. Similarly, George dodge''s Ranada''s right hand the same way. George''s right arm is on the left shoulder of Ranada and same with Ranada''s right arm on George''s shoulder. Both of them at the same time wraps their right arms around each other necks which pulled them both closer. *Thud* Both of their left fists clash together near their abdomen, while they try to choke each other with their right arm. An air bubble is visible covering both of their hands up to their wrists, as a result of their spiritual powers clashing against each other. "AHHHHHHHHH!" Both of them puts all of their strengths to break the other one''s neck. The aura can be seen building around them. From their feet, a green transparent force is raising to their necks around their body. Both of their spiritual powers collide in between both of them and none of their force seems to overtake the other. It looks evenly matched for the moment. Both of them let go of each other''s necks, leans back on their hips, lifting their right leg up in the air. Both of them throws a kick at the same time, they kick each other''s foot, cancelling each other''s kick which sends both sliding back a few feet on their legs. "I see! You have been doing well all these years." Ranada utters narrowing his eyes, he gives penetrating stares to George. The martial arts of both George and Ranada is the same. Geroge used to learn under Randa as Ranada is his senior, which is why both of them attack each other with the same moves. The whole arena became quiet witnessing the power of the two. Seeing two professionals fighting, cancelling each other''s attacks with the same moves really surprises most people watching and inspiring most of the younger generation. "The real captains are on a whole another level." Faust''s eyes open wide as he reads each and every move of both. Faust, Yuki, Jericho are the captains of younger generations, who barely entered the captain class. Whereas, George (29) and Ranada (32) have been captains for nearly a decade. They are more advanced than the younger generation of captains. And this thing is pestering Faust, apart from being advanced, they also possess the gifter weapons that are more advanced than most of the normal equipment. The gifter weapons have the capability to bring forth the full capacity of the elemental stones. Not only that, those weapons can hold multiple elemental stones at the same time and possess a different weapon or ability within them. "Well, I definitely surpassed you. After you left and chased behind money and fame. I have been perfecting the techniques." George opens a small portal on his right side, pulling out a thin short staff. "It was nice knowing you." Ranada in rage over the insult pulls out his short black staff from his portal. *I will show you why money is important." Saying that Ranada turns the one end of the staff in anti-clockwise, and the whole staff is broken at ten places, making it seem like a wooden chain. And at the gaps that the wood is broken, chains of two-inch length appeared and the broken wood starts glimmering in green. "A gifter weapon!" George thinks to himself as he takes a position and with full of confidence, he leaps forward. 108 Old Enemy, New Laughing Stock The match ends with George losing to Ranada, but Ranada too received physical injuries, but it doesn''t matter as they already have a substitute and the nanoresucts. The only drawback is nanoresucts can only restore your physical injuries but not the spiritual energy that is already spent. Faust witnesses a pure fight of skill, techniques and raw strength. This is actually tougher than he anticipated, some of the captains are not to be taken lightly. A captain with martial arts techniques is already dangerous, but a captain who is well versed in martial arts and also possess tons of spiritual power is leagues above a captain like Faust. "This gluttony is not to be taken lightly, they are second place in the first round with a young captain. And now this Ranada is like a veteran who is leagues above the young captain I beat. And that young captain felt stronger to me." Faust declares to his squad. "Well, these are veterans Faust! While you and that young captains are beginners. We will be happy if you win at least one match! That will keep us in the home." Fab suggests, sensing the nervousness creeping up into Faust''s heart. It is true, the gluttony squad in the first round is tougher than any other branch Faust and his squad faced. He barely won over them by the help of Fab, Jonathan and Rachel and by using different strategies and by eliminating them. It is different in this round! You have to make your opponent give up or knock him out to win this round. And there are no buildings or any covers in this Arena. "The next matchup! The crowd favourite! From the¨Care you sure about this?" While announcing, the host faces a problem regarding the name of one of the branches. A member from the management approaches Faust to confirm the name of their branch house and Faust nods his head in agreement. Fab, Jonathan and Rachel including Tsumugi''s mom is curious as to what bizarre name it is that the management itself came to confirm. Faust tells them to wait until the name is announced officially. "From the house of Devils! Welcome, Faust! And the other side, from the house of Richard''s! Let''s welcome Barkha!" The host announces loudly and the crowd goes nuts hearing the name of the kid that created history in the first round of the purge. But on the other side of the crowd in the nobles balcony. "D-devil''s house?" "How did you even come up with the name Faust?" "That''s it, I''m leaving the house tomorrow, I''m gonna go pack my bags." Rachel, Fab and Jonathan are surprised to hear the name. It is not a friendly name or anything special. The three expected a unique or cool name from a cool and powerful guy like Faust. "What? That name is the coolest! The name of our house itself is the House of Asuras, which literally mean the house of demons so why not? You all are just jealous! I''m sure Grandma Aiko would love this name. Only she knows the true meaning of cool names." Faust implies to the name of the house they belong to, adding that Tsumugi''s mother would find this name more befitting since her husband named the house as the House of Asuras. "Good Lord! That is our name? I was wondering what fool came up with such a name. That name scared me, God''s house would have been better ain''t it?" Aiko replies back, shattering Faust''s heart along with his hopes. "Please, Faust from the Devil''s branch!" The host invites Faust again who is lost in the debate about the name of their branch house. "It''s finally his time!" Hades whispers under his breath, as he curiously sits straight on his throne to view Faust''s every move. Faust goes inside the arena, in between Ten thousand people, fighting in a city like structure in between no audience is no pressure but he takes a deep breath to calm his heart down in between ten thousand people. "Yes, you better be scared! You even grew height of a couple of inches since the last time I saw you." Barkha, the older brother of the bully Ahito, who beat Faust in the past back in Mindoro says in an arrogant tone. "Y-you bastard! What the hell are you doing?" Not being able to believe what he is seeing in front of him, Barkha shouts in desperation! He is in despair that Faust did not listen to anything that he said in a deep voice to scare Faust. "Ohhh! Ahhh! Thank you!" "Eyahhhh! Not really! It''s not that big a deal." "Eyahh eyahh, don''t make me shy guys." Meanwhile, Faust is holding his hands in front of him, his head lowered with cheeks turning red. His eyes are lowered too, ahy to look at the crowd around him. And his butt is twitching and poking out, goofing around acting shy due to the compliments raining on him from the audience. "Hey! It is our match you know! Bastard, pay attention to me." "Start the match." The referee announces the match and Faust gets all serious. "I will make you remember who I am." Barkha takes out knuckle dusters from his pocket and puts them on his knuckles. "I''m sorry I didn''t hear you, I just don''t hear shit!" Faust says as he goes on to take out his sword from his portal. He is goofing around till now but as soon as he hears that the match started. He wants to fight seriously by giving his all for the sake of his family. "You sure learned how to talk, but in this adult world, I need to tea-" before Barkha finishes, Faust appeared right in front of him, he is holding his scabbard tightly in the middle with both of his hands and before Barkha could react. A hard blow from the scabbard lands on his throat. And Faust pushed Barkha onto the ground with that and kept smacking his head with his scabbard. He didn''t even draw the sword out. He knocked out Barkha by smacking his head with the scabbard. After Barkha passed out, Faust stood near him with one of his feet on Barkha and waves to the audience and starts blowing flying kisses like a celebrity with a cute expression on his face. It''s a completely one-sided match, some did not even know that the match has started. Barkha lost his two upper jaw teeth and is not waking up no matter what. Some are wondering how it is possible to knock the person out completely with jusf hitting them on the head with scabbards. "Uh¨Cand with that¨CFaust has wo¨Cwon his first match." The host announces while being confused. The match has just begun and already ended? Barkha is a captain class that we are talking about. "It has ended already?" Hades asks in surprise, he is still expecting Barkha to get up on his feet. "It is Richard''s house we are talking about." Leviathan helps Hades with clues. Richard''s house is the house with the lowest points till now in this purge. They have not won a single match in the entire purge. "Are we sending them off this time?" Hades asks for his son''s opinion. "Well, the lowest has to go." "Good, and don''t let this soldier be in any of our branches! Kick him out or send him off to farthest dimensions." Hades expresses his disappointment with Barkha. "Still, do you think he must have sensed the weak spiritual power of his opponent." I don''t know if he sensed it but I cannot seem to sense it from him, I can''t even sense when he jumped from one place to another like teleportation. I could not notice any power level. "Did you hear tales about Ares?" Hades asks in a serious voice. "Yes!" "It is said that Ares did not have spiritual power too when he first joined the house." And with that Faust wins a match early on the second day. Faust''s squad along with Tsumugi takes a deep breath, they are relieved and now sure that they will be staying in the house until another purge arrives. 109 Strike of An Old Serpen "What are you saying, father?" Leviathan asks knitting his eyebrows. "We were never told this!" He exclaims. Queen Uzume who is listening to the conversation of Hades and Leviathan suddenly lowers her head as she hears the name of Ares. She holds her hands tightly as if she is trying not to feel guilty. Meanwhile, the house of Carlos and the Outlanders family collides with each other and it is Carlos that comes out on top. - A couple of more matches get wrapped up with every branch winning one and losing one. Finally, it''s only Faust and gluttony remain with one win for each of them, the house that wins this match will be the winner of this round. And considering that gluttony is second place in the first round if they win against Faust in this round, gluttony and Faust''s squad will be tied. And the tiebreaker is the decision that the house which is in better rank before this purge is to be the winner. And everyone knows that gluttony always has a better ranking compared to Tsumugi''s house, which is always at the last place of the leaderboards. "Let us welcome Faust from the house of Devils! And on the other side, the well known, the one that is well known for his Godspeed, from the house of Gluttony, let''s all welcome GARUDA!" The host announces, creating a lot of hype. But the crowd responds with a buzz, everybody is whispering to each other appears to be confused with what they heard. Tsumugi runs up into the balcony of nobles. "They cannot do this! He is a general class! This is not fair." Tsumugi yells in desperation at the nobles that are sitting and viewing the unfair game without any objections. "I agree with lady Tsumugi! Isn''t this a bit too far?" Fab adds his voice. "Ahem!" The old minister clears his throat as he gets up from his seat, with a heavy sigh as to why he has to respond and reply to this. "In front of my mighty Lord Hades! I don''t dare lie to anyone, as you all know, Garuda is still a captain class. He did not receive the general stars or have been declared officially. Hence he is still a captain class that my house possess." "If the Lord thinks that I have done anything unfair! I will gladly pay for it with my life." The old serpent puts up a fantastic act in front of Hades by bowing down his head and speaking with a helpless humble old man''s voice. His words entered the ears of everyone like nectar, immediately making them pity the old man. But all the nobles knew it is his cheap play by making a general class enter the purge. Garuda is next in line to become a one-star general. He will be officially declared a general in 20 days. But the old minister wants to use the fact that he is not officially declared, hence using this loophole to benefit himself. But no noble wants to speak up, they dislike Queen Uzume and Tsumugi, Carlos couldn''t speak anything, if he does, people will think he is favouring his niece, meanwhile,Tsumugi''s mom looks towards Uzume with concern. "My lord!" Uzume turns her face around hesitatingly towards Hades with her head lowered. "Okay! You did nothing wrong! Have your seat and let the fight begin." Before Uzume say anything, Hades quickly finishes the matter without having to listen to Uzume. "I have been blessed by my lord." The old minister bows down to Hades, but the corner of his mouth curves as an evil smile surfaces on his face. He goes on to settle himself in his chair without even looking at Tsumugi "Faust! Forfeit the match! We won already, I don''t want you to risk your life, I cannot face Neith if something happened to you.* Tsumugi understands that nothing can be done now to change the matchup, so with regretful eyes, she asks Faust to forfeit the match. "It''s okay Aunty! Everything will be okay! If something bad happens, I have an option to quit." Faust assures Tsumugi with a smile as he pats on her shoulder. "No Faust!" Tsumugi holds his hand at his wrist! "I''m making you forfeit the match." She holds Faust tightly without letting him go. "Aunty! Trust me" Faust lets go of her hand and walks forward. "No Fau-" Tsumugi seems convinced but she realises that just trusting Faust won''t work and before she goes to grab again to stop him, she is stopped by Jonathan who appears in front of her. "Lady Tsumugi! Please let him do it, he is doing this for you." Jonathan says with conviction, each and every one of them wants to stop Faust from going head to head with a general class but all of them know that this has to be done for the sake of Tsumugi. Both Faust and Garuda walks to the middle of the Arena. Garuda is six feet one-inch tall, muscular and slim with spiky hair and yellow eyes. He is wearing black shorts which are up to his thighs and a T-shirt which are enhancing the look of his muscular body even more with his thigh muscles, forming a V shape on his thighs. "Looks like we shattered the dreams and hopes of your little house." Garuda says with a smirk. Both of them stood 10 feet away facing each other. Faust assured Tsumugi with a confident smile, but he has no idea as to how to deal with a general class. "Your house will survive the purge, and you will remain a captain! But that woman and your house won''t last." "You all came up with a good plan to make you a captain and getting equipment from other houses. But everything goes into water after this fight! Your house will perish and you all of you will be merged into another house." Faust found a way to bring back Tsumugi as the lead to their house and keep their house alive rather than merging into Carlos''. But that is only possible if his family comes out on top of the leaderboard. But Garuda mentions, that even after they survive the purge, the house without a noble leading it is bound to perish. Because Faust will lose to him in this fight. Faust does not say a word back, he undoes his little ponytail at the back of his head, as his hair goes free, he takes out his purple sword from the portal. People are still whispering about how unfair of a match this is to put a fourteen-year-old kid against a thirty-four-year-old. "Begin the fight!" The referee announces and immediately, Garuda disappears. "Tsk!" Faust knew he made a blunder. He is slow compared to Garuda which now made left him in a vulnerable position. He doesn''t know where Garuda is, he moves his eyes all around but does not get a glimpse of him anywhere. The next second, a knee digs into the abdomen of Faust. The impact is so hard, Faust felt a cramp around his lower ribs, his breathing has been stopped completely, the pain is so sharp as if a knife is stuck in between his lower ribs. Faust fell on his knees dropping his sword, he held his ribs and stomach in pain, he is not able to take breaths as the ribs give him a sharp pain every time he wants to take a deep breath. "It might have broken a rib or two!" Fab mutters in a low voice. All of them are dumbstruck! They have never seen Faust in this position, he always excelled in everything. And they cannot forfeit now, once the contestant enters the Arena, only he can quit or get knocked out. Garuda is not done yet, he comes in front of Faust wanting to kick the face of Faust with his foot. If a person receives an attack in that close the gap, from a man that possess immense strength it will break the neck or leave one brain dead. As he swings his leg, Faust flips to his left, grabbing the left leg of Garuda that is in the air, he keeps his legs under his arm and lands a strong hit with his left elbow onto the left knee of Garuda from inside. Garuda receives a hit on his inner knee immediately dealing a critical damaging. Faust while still being on his knees, turns towards the right knee of Garuda wanting to break the right knee as well. But Garuda quickly retreats. "He is quick to read the situation." Hades says about Faust. He knew that Garuda is fast and that half of his strength is lying in his legs. Which is why he intended to break both knees of Garuda. Faust gets up on his feet while holding the left side of his ribs with his left hand and his eyes glaring at Garuda as wounded wild beast looking for revenge. "I thought you would be dead with that first blow, and to think that your eyes still have life left in them." Garuda utters while struggling with his left knee. Tsumugi, Fab and the audiences are surprised to see Faust landing a hit on a general class. It happened like a trade attack than a one-sided attack by Garuda. *"Dammit! It hurts like hell, It broke a rib definitely. And he is fast!"* Faust suppresses his pain, making sure not make it visible in his face. Faust stretches his right hand out in front of him as his palm is facing downside, his sword comes into his hand, he places the sword on the right side of his waist, holding it with his right hand. Tsumugi is concerned with Faust, she is the first person among her family to witness what Faust can do in his fight with half-dead. Until now, Faust only held his sword on his left side with his left hand. But Garuda''s hit must''ve really hurt his ribs that he cannot hold the sword with his left hand anymore. 110 Veteran Vs Rookie "Oni Iaido!" Faust lowers the sword on his hip forward, draws the sword out by holding the handle and instantly withdraws the sword back before the whole blade is exposed. A powerful slash travelled through the air towards Garuda at a high speed. The attack travelled at the speed of a bullet but produced by a sword. But Garuda evades the attack by swiftly moving to his left. At the same time as Garuda dodged it by moving to his left, Faust is waiting behind him with his sword, he swings his sword and Garuda leaps forward with great speed barely dodging it, "Tsk?" Faust gets frustrated as his attacks keep missing Garuda. "No doubt about it! It is teleportation." Hades utters out. "Did Ares also have this ability?" Leviathan asks in a surprise since many things are matching and common between Ares and Faust. *No! He cannot, he never did, but, even though this kid can teleport, he seems to be slow." Hades replies while observing Faust. "Are you thinking that if you could try a little harder, you can catch up to me in speed? It is not that easy kid!" Garuda smiles as a portal opens on his side. He pulls out two black gloves which have metal spikes on the top. And in between the spikes on top of his hand, appears to be a purple stone and an orange stone Purple stone on his right glove and orange one on his left. *"The purple stone on gloves than on a rifle? Is he going to electrocute me by holding me with those gloves? And that orange stone."* Faust thinks to himself. "Doesn''t matter! I will break your other leg too and wipe the floor with you." Faust takes off without wasting a second. He clearly remembers that the orange stone is a healing stone that heals your body, he cannot afford to give time for Garuda to heal himself. Faust teleports behind Garuda again, Garuda swiftly turns back to stop the blade with the metal spikes on his gloves. Before the sword touches the spikes of the gloves, Faust teleports again and this time he is above Garuda inches away from thrusting the sword into his skull. Garuda still manages to put his right hand above his head blocking the sword before it lands onto him, Faust the flips in the air kicking the hand of Garuda away that is blocking the sword, opening a gap to land another attack on his head. But Garuda puts his other hand on his head as a defence and grabs the sword of Faust with both of his hands. Faust can see the orange stone shining brightly, which means the healing process has already begun and happening as he is fighting. Immediately, Faust can also see that both hands of Garuda are above his head, defending himself from the sword, so leaving his sword in the hands of Garuda, Faust teleports under him, inches away from landing a kick onto the inner knee of his right leg. As both of Garuda''s hands are on top of his head, it would take more time for him to bend down to him and defend. This opening is what Faust has been searching for till now. Before Faust could land a kick, the right leg of Garuda is lifted into the air and poured onto the right hell of Faust. He stepped on Faust''s heel as if he stepped onto some insect. "AHHHHHHH!" Faust lets out a cry due to the pain of his heel getting crushed under the feet of Garuda. This time he did not use his hands or gloves but used his feet. Faust crumbles and shouts under the foot of Garuda, while Garuda doesn''t feel anything and he applies more of his body weight on his right leg, crushing the heel of Faust even more, if it''s a leg it wouldn''t have been so painful but having something pressed directly onto the bone is giving yet another sharp pain to Faust like his ribs. Faust looks at his sword that is in the hands of Garuda, he teleports it into his hand and swings the sword in front of him which makes Garuda step back, Faust too teleports back a few feet away from Garuda. He takes the support of his sword and gets up on his feet while gasping for breath. Things are not looking good for him at all. "Ohhhhh! It''s all healed now, aww feels so good." Garuda, on the other hand, moves his left leg freely and throws kicks into the air. His leg is completely healed. "And now." Saying that, Garuda places both of his hands in front of him before his face and takes the stance of a boxer. He slowly starts to move his feet and shortly, he starts moving with a good feet work like a professional boxer. *"B-boxing?"* Faust is surprised by the way Garuda moves. *"He cannot hit me if I don''t go too close to him, sword arts is better than boxing, no matter how you see it."* saying that Faust holds his sword tightly ready to make a move. Suddenly, a thin bolt of lightning struck Faust on his left shoulder. Faust is surprised as his eyes widen and he falls down on his knees without being able to comprehend what has happened. "There it is, the lightning gloves!" One of the people in the audience yells loudly. "God stop this madness! He is totally outmatched." "Someone stop this match! He is just a kid! Let him live." "You already did enough! give up now Faust!" The audience couldn''t take it anymore, they all keep asking Faust to give up. They couldn''t stand watching the kid getting beat up mercilessly. The place that the lightning bolt hit, pierce the flesh of Faust, his cloak and shirt are torn and the flesh around the wound is burned in black. *"Gifter weapon huh? Just a little more."* Faust gets up on his feet as his legs are wobbling like a toddler. Faust is injured, wounded and exhausted by taking a lot of damage, whereas, Garuda is looking anew, all of his physical injuries are healed and he is in perfect shape to take on Faust. "Like my gloves?" Garuda asks as the purple stone on his gloves shines brightly. His gloves can send lightning bolts to a distance like rifles. Every time he throws a jab or punches the air by activating his elemental stone, lightning bolts are released from his gloves onto the enemies before him. *"I guess I don''t have a choice, I need to really open my eyes to beat him in the battle of speed."* Faust stands still closing his eyes. "Is that it? You gave up? You better be." Seeing that Faust is not moving, Garuda punches the air three times a row and three lightning bolts travel in the way of Faust with insane speed. *swoosh~* All three lightning bolts miss Faust and lands on the wall behind him. Garuda''s eyes immediately narrow and Faust starts walking towards Garuda slowly. Garuda throws more jabs onto Faust and none of the lightning bolts touches Faust. *"What is this? The human smell that he had till now is slowly fading away."* Garuda, the closest one to Faust senses something. Hades is the other one apart from Garuda to sense the change in Faust. Faust takes off in a blink, the land that he was standing on, turned into a mini crater as the effect of Faust taking off by putting all of his force in his legs. He lands a powerful slash on Garuda, who blocks it with his gloves. Faust''s swing has a lot of power packed in it that pushes Garuda a few feet away. On top of it, the top of his hand hurts due to the impact, the spikes stopped the sword from cutting his hand, but the impact is hurting his bones. Faust opens his eyes that are closed until now, his hair is covering his eyes from the outside world but Faust''s eyes are blood red in colour. The white part of the eye is filled with striking red colour and his eyeball is blowing in green. He suddenly teleports far behind Garuda and throws his sword towards him with great speed. Garuda moves to his right evading the sword. As the sword is passing behind him, Faust teleports to the sword he threw, which is now behind Garuda, he catches his sword and lands another powerful strike onto Garuda. *Clack~* Garuda turned back in time and blocked the sword with both of his gloves and is still sent back a few feet away. Every slash that Faust is landing is so powerful that it is sending shock inside Garuda''s wrists, few of these strikes and he would end up fracturing his hands. The teleportation secret behind Faust is based on his eyes. He imagines himself in a different position than the one he is standing in, and he will be teleported to the place where he is imagining. Certain conditions should be met for Faust to pull this off: 1)He must see the place physically with his eyes. 2)He needs to put a lot of focus in his eyes and feel the metal and atmosphere around the place. For Faust, the concrete, the land, the trees, roads and metal, all have life. He imagines the smell, the touch and the feel of the place he wants to go and he will be teleported in seconds. At first, it took Faust hours and 40-50 minutes for him to focus and teleport once a time. Later he was able to achieve the teleportation by focussing in a spot for 1minute. After practising thoroughly day after day, he can now teleport in a blink. And when his eyes turn red, the speed of his teleportation increases. 111 A Huge Mountain To Climb **Please Read The Author''s note!** - Faust is using the same technique that Garuda used. Hitting a strike with all of your strength is one thing and landing a strike in the momentum of full speed increases the impact of the force by ten folds. *"He changed all of a sudden! It hurts my ego to fight him seriously.** Garuda curses his fate for having to fight with Faust on serious terms. He does not accept Faust to be a full-fledged soldier nor does he acknowledge his power of teleportation that impressed hades. Garuda raises his hands up guarding himself while looking at Faust. He punches the air two more times and goes back to his boxing dance, moving left and right. Suddenly, nine lightning bolts struck Faust, piercing his cloak, shirt and his flesh. All the bolts landing in critical areas. Also, having nine lightning bolts passed through his body at the same time, electrocuted him to a crisp. Faust and everyone saw Garuda punching only twice in the air but the lightning bolts appeared after he punched after he went back into his guard stance. How fast are his punches are for everyone to not see them? Even after taking all those lightning bolts, Faust barely stands on his feet. In the back of his head, he is worried about Tsumugi leaving the house forever. This matchup just seems so unfair, everyone lost their hopes. Fab and Jonathan decides that they are going to live in Carlos'' house. Tsumugi closes her eyes, knowing that she has to leave her house and submit an official document to the main building about her departure from the family. Faust holds his ground barley for the hopes of her family. He is in a position where even the slightest little touch can make him collapse. Garuda Instantly realising that Faust is still standing on his feet, runs towards Faust with great speed. He punches Faust on the forehead with his spiked gloves. Everything is silenced for a moment for Faust. It feels like a brutal attack. Faust is already hanging and pushing himself past his limits to stand on his feet. Now he feels as if he made contact with a metal bat that swung at him with all the batter''s might. At first, he literally saw bright flashes of light equivalent to stars, there is no pain or burn. He is stunned and shocked realizing that something awful has happened. He can hear a ring vibrating in his ears continuously. Then - he felt something wet oozing out of his forehead, the left side of his forehead is completely numb as he lay on his back in the dusty arena. He knows where he is, he knows what he is there for and what happened. Both of his eyes are closed, he can hear the shouts of people. He knows he is directly under a tree, his head in the lap of his Grandpa. "Try opening your eyes, Faust, you have a mountain to conquer." Gus asks while running his fingers through the strands of his hair. "I''m afraid I lost my eye. I cannot open." Faust says in a scared tone, he wants to assess himself if he lost his sight or if it is blurry, but it is too painful for him to open his eyes. "It is okay! Grandpa is here! I will fix you up in no time, open your eyes." Gus assures Faust. As he opens his eyes, he sees the branches of a green tree, rustling leaves due to cold breeze. Under the tree, he sees the smiling face of his grandfather. Immediately, after he flutters his eyelashes. He sees people yelling at him from behind the walls. Every Time he blinks, it is becoming painful, "Are you awake?" The referee comes up to check upon Faust. "Gr-grandpa?" Faust asks as it is too bright for him to see anything, he needs to force himself to open his eyes and all he sees is white lights falling onto his eyes directly. "Are you done? Do you wanna quit?" The referee asks as he sees Faust laying on the floor from two minutes. "No! I''m okay!" Faust replies to the referee without thinking. "Okay! Try to get up on your feet." The referee suggests, but as he tries to get up, his head is spinning and it hurts like hell. He slowly touches his forehead as he feels cold fluids oozing out, flowing from in between his eyebrows to the sides of his nose. As he touches, it feels sticky and squishy with lots of liquid, he brings his hand in front of him and its blood on his hands, flowing from his forehead where the skin is cut open. He realised he fucked up big time. He tries to stand on his feet but his vision is getting blurry, he somehow manages to get up on his feet and starts searching for his sword which he thought he left on the ground somewhere. "It is right in front of you!" He hears a voice He keeps searching in front of him but all sees are sand and dirt. "I said in front." The voice resonates from his front. As he raises his head up, he sees Garuda with his sword in his hands, Garuda plays with the sword shuffling it in his hands and throws it far behind him near the audience "FAUST! GIVE UP AND COME HOME ALIVE." Jonathan yells from the noble''s balcony as tears are pouring down his eyes. No matter how tough the competition is, Jonathan and the others thought they would win! With Faust on their side, they hoped it would be a walk in the park. But not against a general, they are all prepared for what is about to come their way. "Jo-johnny!" His eyes widen as he realises his purpose, he is entirely taken by the pain that he forgot why he is struggling in the arena. "Why do you keep getting up on your feet? You are weak! Did you have anyone that you wanted to protect? I''m sure you do and you did not protect them. Because being this weak, You won''t be able to protect anyone! Just like that woman and her house." 112 She Dont Deserve i *Thud* Another hit on Faust''s head! This time he does not understand what had happened, he looks at Garuda who is wearing a cocky smile on his face. But Garuda does a favor for Faust, he takes off his gloves and punches Faust with his bare knuckles. The Mighty general might have developed a soft spot for Faust. "Wake up! or I will hit you again!" Garuda yells at Faust who is breathing heavily, laying on his back on the ground. The words immediately lit a spark in the heart of Faust! "Wake up! I want to fight you." is how the words echoed in the ears of Faust. He immediately got up on his feet. Every muscle and fiber in his body is twitching as he forces himself to stand up on his wobbling foot. *Thud* Another hit onto his forehead, the cut keeps hurting him more with every beating he takes. "A battle to the death! That is the only thing that can help you ascend this human body! " Hades sputters under his breath, relishing the bloody mess in front of him. Faust shoves the tired body up on his feet again, blurry vision and died blood caked all over his face, his almost wasted body is leaning to one side completely, while he is staggering on the verge of fainting, he tries to calculate for an opening to get a chance to teleport near Garuda to land a lethal attack. To his surprise, before Faust could make a move, Garuda disappeared and appeared right in front of him. "Dammit! I''m slow again!" Faust can determine that Garuda is in front of him ready to throw his punches onto his already wounded head. Yet, Faust'' body did not respond as he wants and another hit directed on his head, but this time Faust blocked the punch with both of his hands on his forehead, palms facing out. He escaped a smirk for being able to obstruct the punch. Faust'' stupidity is annoying Garuda more rather than amusing him. He grits his teeth in anger. "Why don''t you just stay down?" Garuda lands another hit on the palms of Faust. Where now, the punch is swift and heavy, Faust, rather than being able to block the punch, he hit himself back due to the force of the impact. His knuckles struck back on his cut, splattering out blood and the numbness suddenly turned into a sharp pain. The cut is opened more and Garuda is only targeting his wound over and over. He is showing no kind of mercy to Faust, landing thunder-like punches, his arms are r?esembling pistons that are pounding on Faust and all Faust is doing is blocking them with his hands while being overwhelmed by pain. His eyes are starting to pour down involuntarily, "Garuda! He is just a soldier class! What is taking you so long? kill him if you need to use all of your strength!" Suddenly a scream is heard from the balcony. The old minister jumps out of his chair, coming to the edge of the balcony, he places his hands on the railing, leans over and yells at Garuda to end the fight quickly. Also saying how according to nobles, Faust is still being seen as a mere soldier. He became a captain only because of Tsumugi and normally it takes a person at least four years to become a captain class. "I cannot wait! he he he - I cannot fucking wait!" The face of the mister turns dark, his white hair which is divided in the middle falls onto his face as he smiles creepily. "I cannot wait to kick that woman out! Imagine the things I''m going to do to her once she is kicked out of the house!" He exclaims in front of eleven nobles and three royals. "I will make her my slave and she will become my own personal toy, I will make her do everything that she has never even imagined doing in her life." saliva drools from his stinking mouth as he declares his desires. "Like we will let that happen you thick head!" Carlos says in an arrogant tone as he lays back on his chair and munching on some snacks. Faust realizes that he is talking about Tsumugi, he is getting pushed back slowly with each punch from Garuda. Under the raining punches, Faust turns towards Tsumugi. "Clara?" Faust is surprised, his arms are loosened, even Garuda is surprised seeing Faust softening his defense. Clara is the teacher of Faust who took care of him when he is eleven-years-old, she is considerate and kind to him when the whole village despised his existence. "Faust! Clara is kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend and his hired goons." "I will bring her back!" - "We found her body in the area, she has been dead for three days." "No" "They punched her brutally, even for us guards who are trained to be strong mentally, it''s hard to imagine what she has gone through." "They punched her face alone for thirty-three times, raped her, her insides are cut and torn. killed her and raped her body again before finally burning her dead body." "Please say it slowly, a kid is living in next door!" "Come down to the villa later to identify and collect her body." "So it happened because she has to live alone outside without any of her family members supporting her." "She would have been alive if she is living with her dad!" "I''m sorry Clara!" Faust weeps while looking towards Tsumugi. As his eyes clear, he looks at Tsumugi who is concerningly watching him. "She doesn''t deserve any of it." "HUH? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SAYING! YOU ARE DYING TODAY!" Garuda while shouting his lungs out in rage keeps punching Faust repeatedly. "Over and over and over and over and over! How many times you wanna hit my wound?" Faust looking down grinds his teeth slowly, he clenches his jaw as his body is vibrating vigorously as his anger is building up, he loses all of his strength and collapses onto the ground lifelessly. 113 Awakening Of An Ordinary Demon! The whole Arena is resonating with the beauty of silence. Everyone can hear the sound of their heart pounding fast and racing within their chest. They all are concerned about Faust, while the old minister and Garuda are celebrating. "If only he possesses an ounce of Spiritual power! The outcome of this matchup could be different." Thorik utters his pities for Faust in his words, he can in a way relate to Faust since he himself was ridiculed in the past for having less Spiritual power. "Even if he possess spiritual power! You cannot foresee the fact that he is up against a general class!" Carlos adds his sympathies. Faust is on the ground, laying on his face. The referee paces inside the arena towards Faust, to confirm if he is still conscious. The void that is surrounding in the Arena is suddenly shattered by a loud noise caused by lightning in the clouds. Everyone is equally surprised and are looking at the sky in confusion, but Hades alone is shocked by the incident. "Where is he getting all this power from?" Hades mutters under his breath while looking at Faust who is lying lifeless in the dirt. Leviathan catches what Hades has spoken, he turns back in surprise "I-Is this his doing father?" He asks Hades in a rather hasty tone. Hades does not reply but he keeps glaring at Faust. "What is happening?" Garuda asks himself while looking at the sky. By this time, the whole sky is taken over by thick dark clouds, turning the day into night. *swoosh~~* In no time, air circles around Faust and suddenly black aura is seen oozing from his skin. *Thud!!* The air is gushing out from his premises and the ground beneath him is slowly shattering around his body. "Father! I-is that your doing?" Leviathan asks with a blank face as he is staring into the sky. Hades follows him to take a look at the thing that made his son stutter. Hades is in disbelief, the cloud right above the arena has a clean huge hole in between with the centre sucking the air surrounding it. As everyone is watching the sky in amusement, Faust''s body shows movement and the whole cloud is divided into two, making it look like as if the sky itself is split into two. "Is it done finally? hahaha! The key to the god''s realm! Dream of Mankind from centuries. Will they make the most of it? Or will they fall victim?" Far away in the fifth dimension of spirits, Uriel, the ruler of the dimension is alarmed by the aura that is released from Faust. In the same moment, the Kings and Rulers of every other existing dimension feel the presence of Faust just like Uriel. Meanwhile, Faust''s body starts moving by floating in the air and stands on its own, his eyes look lifeless, he does not blink even once and keeps staring like a lifeless doll. The black stone that is on his armlet releases black mist-like aura, the cloud of mist immediately wraps around his whole left arm, tearing the long sleeves of his white shirt. Soon the black cloud devours his whole body like a different entity taking over him with his eyes last to be devoured before his whole body is mummified with black mist. Shortly, as the mist is starting to clear from the top, Faust is seen with long spiky black hair that is up to his waist, his hair has grown long in the small-time, his eyes are closed and the wound on his forehead is completely healed. The black mist disappears into thin air unveiling his upper body, his already worn-out shirt fell off as it could not handle the immense pressure of the aura emitting from his body, showing his broad shoulders and sturdy chest that look like strong armoured plates, followed by his well defined abdominal muscles and strong lats muscles that form the perfect V below his navel. There are some uncertain marks present on his face as well. A black line is drawn just under his eyes on the lower eyelid in the form of the crescent moon that begins and end with a small stroke on the tear duct and outer ''V''. Another mark of a closed eyelid forms on his forehead, inches above where both of his eyebrows meet. His body slowly hits the ground, landing on his feet. slowly opening his eyes. At this very same moment the sword of Ashura in the main building which was said to be gifted by demons, shows a very slight moment as one side of the sword falls from the stand that is balancing it. *hrrrrrrrr hrrrrrrr!* After opening his eyes, his eyes fiercely scan everyone in front of him in a swift movement. His breath almost sounds like the growl of a hungry beast who was searching for his prey. His eyes catch the purple katana that is given to him by Neith while he lived under her care. He stretches his right hand to the back of his waist as he draws the sword, a portal opens behind him and a pitch-black coloured sword with golden carvings, surfaces in his hands. As soon as the handle of the katana is in his grip, the sword starts to vibrate vigorously. The blade is striking against the scabbard from inside that produces a strange stuttering sound across the Arena. Only one person in the whole Arena recognizes the sword that he is holding ''Fukitsuna Masamune'', the unholy sword that is used by Ares! But she is in disbelief to see the sword appear before her after thirty years and the colour of the sword is changed from white to black. Queen Uzume comes forward from her seat while glaring at the sword, the expressions on her face a combination of fear and shock. "He has two swords?" Being surprised, Tsumugi asks her squad in a low voice without being able to divert her eyes from the divine form of Faust. "The hell are you brat? You think you can scare me with this puny exhibition?" Garuda yells from the other side of the Arena. The purple stone on his glove starts to glimmer and he rushes towards Faust. It all happened very quickly for the people in the Arena. Faust just stood there with his sword in his hands, he did not attack or defend. Gaurda is behind him with his back against Faust and a decapitated leg is seen twirling in the air. 114 The green-eyed prodigy Garuda''s face turns pale in shock as he sees a decapitated leg twirling in the air before him. He senses a minor tingling in his right hip and before he could realise, he screams from the top of his lungs. His right leg is amputated from his thigh. He quickly steps back, increasing the distance between him and Faust to avoid more fatal blows. Every person in the crowd stands on their feet to witness what really happened. They see Garuda hopping on one leg, trying to get away from Faust in fear with blood dripping from his hips. They look at Faust and he did not even draw the sword out of his scabbard. "I don''t know how he is doing this and I don''t care but, if this helps him win, I will support him from the core of my heart." Witnessing the power of the new Faust, Jonathan yells out with happy tears flowing from his eyes. - Faust is sitting in a squat position in a dark room without a single person or building in sight. He is hugging his knees and staring at the darkness without life in his eyes. He does not seem to be concerned with his surroundings or his well being. "Faust! Knock him out and we will be safe and together as a family again!" In the darkness, Faust''s ears perk up as he listens to the words. "I-Is it Jonathan? I cannot tell but, if only I can knock him out and win for real. He is stronger than me." Faust mutters in the gloom, looking for the medium he heard the voice from. Later, he scratches it off thinking that the voice he heard is only his inner voice. - "Beat Garuda to a pulp and win right? Will that make you feel good?" A sudden creepy smile surfaces on the face of Faust that is standing in the arena, he turns towards Garuda who is busy using his Healing element to stop the blood loss from his thighs. "Leave it to me!" The medium inside Faust'' body says in a groan filled Holding his sword with his right in front of him. With a gentle push on the handguard with his thumb, Faust unshackles the lock of the handguard that is holding the sword inside. And as the silver gleam of the lustrous blade is exposed he moves his hand down the scabbard from the handguard. With a deep breath, Faust leaps forward slamming the sword upside down on the ground. As the scabbard hit the ground, the already drawn-out sword flung back into his hand in a flashy way and he starts charging towards Garuda in lightning speed. *Clank* In a blink, Faust is in front of Garuda landing a powerful strike onto his neck. Faust tries to decapitate Garuda'' head with a horizontal slash which is blocked by Garuda in a boxing style, Garuda tilts to the left and puts both of his hands up in front of his face, blocking the strike with the metal on his gloves. To his surprise, the thick metal on his gloves did not break but revealed dents as the metal is almost squashed with brittles starting to form on the edges. "You should not attack me, head-on kid! Did you forget who I am?" Garuda''s eyes turn purple and the purple stone on his hand is opened at four places as its combination lock is opened. "So this is what you need to become a General?" Leviathan asks Hades looking at him from the corner of his eye. "Yes! You need to know how to bring out the true potential of the elemental stones and you also need to be able to handle that immense amount of power." Hades explains to his son who aspires to become a general in two years. *"I will be there before you!"* Leviathan glares at Faust. Leviathan is the youngest captain in the house until Faust show up. He was hailed as a genius and true prodigy. He has the talent and resources to climb up the ladder easily. But Faust came out of nowhere and took his spotlight as the youngest captain. At first, everyone scratched it off as a boy who got lucky because of the sacrifice made by his house leader. He was seen lower than a soldier class. "That new captain did not have any spiritual power it seems! And he is from the lower city! A mere commoner he is" "That youngest captain lost to Thorik''s house! The match ended in the first two minutes haha. And they made him a captain! Hah." But with time, everything changed about Faust. "His physical abilities are on a whole different level!" "I heard that he ran all twenty laps around that huge training ground!" "No way! That is only possible for the elites. Are you telling me he is not a soldier class anymore?" "Did you all see that weird power? I don''t know what he is using but his powers are so unique." "So it seems that he can teleport and it is due to his black stone. How is that even possible?" "He is chosen by the black stone! Do you know what they say about them? They say that the black stone users are the emperors of hell." Leviathan felt as though all the attention he receives is snatched away by Faust. And he wants to snatch it back towards him by reaching the general class faster than Faust. "HAVE A TASTE OF GENERAL''S POWER!" Garuda gestures his hand like he is pulling down a bolt of lightning from within the clouds onto Faust and jumps back with a rage-filled heart. He lifts his head to watch Faust burn to a crisp. A gigantic thunderbolt coils around the black clouds like a dragon taking its momentum before raining down on its prey. After gathering thunder from all the clouds the thunderbolt came down onto Faust in a blink like a burning phoenix that wants to electrocute everything in its path. "This is going to be my complete victory" Garuda mumbles in a low voice. 115 Dont You Ever! *snap* The care-free smiling face of Garuda turns ghastly with him just staring at Faust with his mouth open. He does not hear any sound coming from his surroundings. Being scared, he looks for his family leader, the old minister. But he too seems scared and cowers back in his seat. Not being able to figure out something, Garuda scans throughout the arena and comes across the royal family, he notices that Leviathan is on his feet with a shocked expression on his face along with queen Uzume. Hades did not stand up but he is one the edge of his seat with a serious face. Garuda does not get anything. He keeps watching the expressions of the people around him. He looks at Faust who is staring back towards him without an expression on his face, All the people start whispering to each other without knowing what happened. Everyone is as puzzled as Garuda. *"Is this what the prophets describe as astonished beyond astonishment? Form of a mortal fearing a divine being? And it did not happen with one person! It happened with every person in the Arena. Everyone felt as if they have skipped a frame in their lives."* Hades who watched everything that happened, describes the situation as a scrummage. Everyone remembers seeing the gigantic thunderbolt just above Faust, feet away from hitting him and all of a sudden it disappears into nothing with a snap from Faust. "Father! Tell me you saw it!" Leviathan asks Hades in disbelief. "I did!" "I saw him erasing the Thunderbolt!" Hades responds with a small unseen smile. *"The humanoid that is made by combining the energy stones! There is no doubt about it!"* Hades laughs in a low voice while talking to himself. *"Did he reach that level already?"* On the other hand, Leviathan clenches his fists tight as his eyebrows meet each other. Meanwhile, Faust disappears from his standing point. Garuda is stunned and did not know how to defend himself if Faust approaches him an attack again. And as anticipated, Faust appears before Garuda and this time Faust held the sword with both of his hands, he stretched his arms behind his head from the top. As though he is treating his sword like a sledgehammer launching an attack with all of his strength. The fierce slash came down again onto Garuda, except this time, there are tons of weights behind the slash and surprisingly, they fall onto Garuda'' gloves again. *"What is this? I did not see the attack but my hands blocked it? My body responded on pure instincts?"* Garuda thinks, as he himself is surprised to be able to block the attack. *Clank~* Other thunderous sounds resonate in the whole arena, the steels are colliding over and over without surrendering to each other. Friction becomes visible to eyes in the form of fireworks coming out of the collision. But with each strike from Faust''s sword onto the metal gloves of Garuda. Brittle cracks start to appear as the metal is crumbling into particles, not being to able to withstand the barrage of sword attacks. Faust is completely overwhelming Garuda by pushing him back to his end of the Arena. Shortly, the brittle cracks open and drops of blood are seen sprinkling onto the face of Faust. "DAMMIT!!! STOP IT BASTARD! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?" Garuda cries in pain. His fingers are seen flying in the air between the two. His metal gloves gave up and broke long ago and if Garuda does not block Faust'' sword coming his way, Faust will surely land a fatal blow which will result in the instant death of Garuda. So he has no choice but to keep his hands in between the sword and his body and Faust neatly chopped his fingers, his nails are plucked from his fingers and are neatly trimmed along with both of his thumbs. The way Faust moved and attacked left everyone open-mouthed. It is an unexpected and surprising situation to witness a soldier inflicting deadly damage to a General. "SHIT SHIT SHIT! How did you become powerful suddenly? Don''t you think that you can leave this arena alive! I-if you kill me here, your house will get disqualified and you will be kicked out for killing me. And if you win over me, the minister will forever haunt you to the ends of this world to kill you for sure." "You cannot defy a noble and live in this house! Just give up and I will make it look like you are a hair away from the win. People will think that you almost got me. What else do you want? You will be recognised as a captain who came close with a Genera." "Huh? Just give up this fight and you will live!" Garuda stretches his bleeding hand towards Faust with a grin filled with new plans. Faust sheaths his sword back into the black scabbard, letting out a sigh in relief. The corners of Garuda'' lips stretch back to his jaws to a creepy smile, upon realizing that Faust is giving up on the fight. "Huh?" Shortly, his smile is replaced with fear and confusion in his eyes as Faust opens the palm of his hand. *THUB~* In between the whole arena, as everyone is watching, Faust punches Garuda on the side of his face. And with cracking sounds, burying his face into the ground and dislocating his jaw. Faust is gritting his teeth hardly while clenching his jaws tight. His face is shaking in rage, he sits on top of Garuda and keeps punching his face over n over. His punches keeping messing up his already dislocated jaw, his nose was broken and his face is cut at multiple places. Faust'' knuckles are greasy with the blood, he kept punching the bloody face of Garuda like a maniac who wants to kill him. He enjoys every punch that buried in the flesh and covers him in blood. Faust enjoys it immensely and does not stop anytime soon. "Fucker! Trying to scare me? I don''t like it when people try to scare me, it makes me want to break their skull, gauge their eyes, take their brains out with my hand and fuck them up so badly that they will know the difference between a real demon and a wannabe." Faust keeps raging without settling down after going so far, he cleans the bloody face of garuda with his shirt. After looking at Garuda'' unconscious face for a while, a small pocket knife is teleported into Faust'' hands. "IT MAKES ME FUCKING MAD IF SOMEONE JUST" Faust groans with his clenched teeth as he carefully places the pocket knife on the lips of Garuda. "Don''t you ever try to scare me!" "Don''t you!" Being enraged, Faust hastily pushes the knife into the mouth of Garuda and with the sharp end on Garuda''s inner cheeks. "EVER!" He cuts both the corners of his lips back to his jaws. "EVER!" Faust does not stop there, he brings the knife back to the middle of Garuda'' mouth and with the sharp end of the knife on his tongue. "EVER!" He shreds Garuda'' tongue over n over into fine chops of flesh as the blood spilt all over Faust'' face. Faust smiles brightly as he is performing this act that left everyone in the arena speechless. Tsumugi widens her eyes and cries as she covers her mouth with one of her hands. Instantly, A huge shadow appears before Faust. Faust immediately raises his head sensing a person in front of him but before that. Hand of that person is already inches away from Faust''s chest. The hand is not balled into a fist but the hand is folded and the thumb and middle fingers are joined. *TIC~* The person flicks Faust in his chest and in a blink, Faust is Blown away to a whooping Twenty feet and gets buried inside the walls of the arena. *"So that is what he is capable of"* Faust closes his eyes. 116 Conspiracy Instantly, A huge shadow appears before Faust. Faust immediately raises his head sensing a person in front of him but before that, a hand of the huge person is already inches away from Faust''s chest. The hand is not balled into a fist but the hand is folded and the thumb and middle fingers are joined. *TIC~* The person gives a gentle flick with his fingertips on Faust'' chest right in the middle and in a blink, Faust is Blown away to a whopping Twenty feet and gets buried inside the walls of the arena. *"So that is what he is capable of"* Faust slowly closes his eyes eyeing on the person before him. "You don''t need to hurt him so badly! He is still a member of our house!" Hades tells the person that sent Faust flying into the wall. "I held back myself quite a lot! If he had control over him, he wouldn''t have gotten hurt." Theodore, The three-star general of the house replies to Hades. Faust, the mysterious kid who overpowered a general and left everyone in a shock is taken down with just a flick from Theodore. "Dammit! what did we witness today? Lord Theodore took that kid down very easily!" "And that kid took down a general very easily." "I don''t think I will be able to have a good sleep tonight!" The crowd has witnessed something incredible with how Faust kept fighting against all odds by winning over a general and then seeing how powerful the three-star general is to be able to take down Faust with just one flick. "Of course what would you expect? There are only three to five generals in every house that achieved the same level of Theodore. And there is only one Theodore in our house so. Of course, he is strong!" Jonathan keeps glancing at the sun rays that are trying to shine brightly from behind the clouds. It looks like a hot burning ball of fire striving its way to dry the massive oceans to make its mark. - "Fausto! Wake up, buddy! wakey wakey, daddy''s here." In the building of Tsumugi, Fab whispers into the ears of Faust who was asleep for the past three weeks. "Faust, I bought your favourite sweets that you die for, the spongy, milky, creamy sweets are waiting for you, wake up...." Rachel wearing a black tank top stands on the other side of the bed. Leaning down towards Faust while gently arranging the strands of her hair to the back of her ear with her fingertips. "Faust, we are the new talk of the town now! wake up fast! There are lots of girls that I want to introduce to you hehehe." Jonathan whispers into his ears slowly, rejoicing the fact that he has become popular among the house and the female soldiers. "I-I would prefer you all to keep quiet or talk in a low voice." The doctor treating Faust says in a shy, low voice. He is tall and slender with a pair of Buddy Holly glasses. "Hey keep it low guys, remember what the doc said? WE SHOULD NOT DISTURB HIM!" Tsumugi yells at the three that are potentially ''disturbing'' Faust. "You are the one who is louder than anyone in the entire room ladyTsumugi!" Jonathan declares without thinking twice. He just said what came to his mind. "How dare you speak to Lady Tsumugi in that rude way? Give me an order milady, I will dissect his mini Eiffel Tower and will make it into a tunnel!" Charles the head butler slides his way into the scene. His right hand on his heart and his head lowered gracefully as he asks Tsumugi''s permission to handle Jonathan''s gender. "I-I just¡­ Plea¡­. Quie?" The doc does not get anything that is happening which is turning into potential chaos and he tries to command everyone to talk in a low voice but his low voice is dominated by the mess made by Tsumugi''s family. "Huhhhhh? What does that even mean you, butler! Stop talking about weird stuff." Jonathan lashes back at Charles as he clenches his fists and leaps forward but is stopped by Fab who held Jonathan by his waist, without letting him go towards Charles. "Butler? But he is a butler! That is no insulting word for a butler John!" Rachel corrects Jonathan. "Ca- yo- guy- qu-qui-quiet?" The doc is still trying to calm everyone. He goes inside the mob, he places his hands on the shoulders of Charles to calm him down. "Give me orders milady! Give me orders milady!" Charles still stays with composure, his head is still looking down and his hand on his heart. He keeps asking Tsumugi gracefully to leave the situation in his hands. "Do not touch my tuxedo with your dirty hands, sir." Charles pushes the doc who approached him with a good cause. like a flea who does not have any importance. "N-no g-guys! L-listen.* The doc comes back into the fighting crowd and this time he tries to calm Jonathan and holds both of Jonathan''s hands to confiscate him from moving too much. Jonathan pulls the doc by his hands, lifts him like a doll by holding his hands and throws him aside. "STAY EFFIN QUIET." Having had enough, the doc explodes onto everyone. "I just told you he is gaining his conscious and I would appreciate it if you guys don''t send him back to his sleep with these melodramatic dialogues." The doctor decides to stop the crazy people from disturbing his patient. - "So my lord, your take is that this kid named Faust is the humanoid that left the mainland fifteen years ago?" Theodore humbly raises a question to Hades in the meeting room. Every noble of the house with Theodore, excluding a noble from Tsumugi''s family, sits on a round table talking about the incidents happened in the purge. "Yes! And I guess he does not know how to use his powers to full potential yet, which is a piece of good news for us. And to have a powerful humanoid in our house would benefit us. " Hades lays down his thoughts on the table for everyone. "He is a golden goose that we need to raise with care!" He exclaims with an evil grin as several plots go through his head. "I look forward to the future of our house. Luck is on our side and it''s our turn to create a new era!" "Keep this a confidential matter, restrain yourselves from talking to others about this. This needs to stay between us fifteen members, no one other than us should know about this." Hades warns every noble of the house to keep Faust a secret. He has other plans to make it work with Faust without letting anyone know about him. - In the ''Palace of God'' that is in between the two nations governing the mortals. Inside a golden hall, where everything except the white floor is pure gold. Walls and pillars made of gold, decorated with jewels, chains and gems of red and blue colours. The ceiling all coated in gold and dressed in small diamonds that sparkle like stars. A blind man is guided by a royal guard in the middle of the hall on a black carpet with gold embroidered flowers. He walks up to a throne adorned with gems and diamonds on an eight-foot stage. Both, the blind man and the royal guard bent on one of his knees, lowering their heads out of respect for the supreme being seated on the Throne in royal clothes. "Your majesty!" The old blind man carefully addresses the person on the throne while telling himself not to make any blunders in addressing the person and at the same time fearing not to anger him by any kind of news that makes the person on throne unpleasant. Immediately, that person gestures his hand to stop and the royal guard who guided the blind man holds his arm from beside while tightly squeezing to make the blind man understands that the ''God'' the strongest man on earth does not want him to speak. The God then moves his hand facing the royal guard who guided the blind man and jerks his hand up gesturing him to speak first. "Y-your majesty! News from the House Of Asuras, The purge that has happened last week gave them a rather strong soldier who impressed many nobles. And Hades speculated that the soldier might be the defective humanoid that our palace tried to get rid of years ago." The guard informs the news that is thought to be confidential in the house of Asura''s. The God then again placing his hand in front of the guard flicks his hand out as he is trying to shake off, gesturing the guard to leave the hall. The person stands up with his head lowered down, takes two steps back while still bowing down to the God, turns back and walks away. "Ahem" After the guard has left the hall, God signals the blind man that he can speak now. "Forgive me, your majesty! It is about the defective humanoid that we brought back after all these years. He is making good progress.!" The blind man informs about the same humanoid that is known to go out of the main country with the help of a doctor years ago. 117 Entrancing house of Asura "Forgive me, your majesty! It is about the imperfect humanoid that we brought back after all these years. He is making good progress.!" The blind man notifies about the same humanoid that is known to escape out of the main country with the help of a doctor years ago. The mortal that is continuing to receive praisings as a God in the realm of mortals. Elohim sits on the throne with his right hand supporting his chin while the other hand on the hand rest. He is wearing a long gown of gold, a spirally spun gold strip, adorned with coronation robes which is also woven the same way with gold. On both his shoulders are chains from one end to another that hold his robe together. "Well, well if it isn''t for the best of my lord. Let the houses think that the soldier is that humanoid with an infinite amount of energy while we train the real one inside the palace in secret and make him our dog." "He will be decisive to plunder the thirteenth dimension! And once we succeed, all the stones we will enough stones in our hands to keep our earth running for the next ten centuries wagagagaga." Ivor the royal advisor for Elohim comes forth from behind the throne with happy smiles he expresses his feelings freely. Ivor turns back to Elohim to accept the words of praise from the god for his exceptional plans. But surprisingly he receives stares from Elohim who looks pissed. *"Huh? What is wrong? Did I say anything wrong? Why does my lord looks like he is ready to execute a royal advisor."* Ivor turns pale upon catching Elohim''s piercing glares. With a heavy sigh, Elohim settles himself in the throne adjusting his robe without getting it in between his legs. He looks a little old for a God as he hits mid-thirties a day ago. Thirty-six and the strongest mortal alive. "Be it earth or any other dimension you are in, be it gold, wood or paper. The walls always have ears, Ivor. " Elohim explains to Ivor. *"Dammit! I should have known better, I''m a useless adviser if I''m not even aware of my surroundings."* Ivor dramatically hides his face to show everyone how guilty he is. to may have leaked some important plans of his lord. "Anyway, His name is Markos, Abraham. Stop calling him it or this. Even though he is a humanoid, he is like us." Elohim only shows his kind side to the people very close to him. One is his blind teacher who taught him life and the other is his close friend. "And we are dealing with generals Ivor! They are considered as the most powerful in the world. We need better plans to keep Markos a secret. You are my friend so I have you as my adviser, Ivor. But please don''t come up with any plans. Let me plan out everything accordingly." Elohim states out everything to Abraham, the old blind man from the retirement house and his friend/advisor Ivor. "And I have heard about the fourteen-year-old soldier who defeated a general class. It is not an easy feat to pull off, nor is the general a pushover. And also he uses a sword, a real one. So I want you to keep an eye on him as well." Elohim is the kind of person who keeps friends close and enemies closer. The network that the people of God''s Palace is so vast that they can keep an eye on each and every person of the world. - "Fausto! You are finally awake my boy, let''s go party on this occasion." Fab yells with enthusiasm upon seeing Faust. "Fab, we literally spoke to each other after I woke up. I just went to take a bath and here I am, it hasn''t been days." Faust responds to the little over-enthusiastic Fab. "Yes, but let''s go to the party!" "Wha-what party Fab?" "Oh, Faust! you are out! here, take this attire and suit yourself. We have a medal ceremony to attend." Tsumugi ran into both Faust and Fab, hands Faust his military ceremony clothes to get ready for the awards. "Oh, it is not done yet? So we did not give Auntie her previous leader position yet?" Faust asks in curiosity/ "Of Course not, we denied receiving medals without our captain. And without the winning team, they cannot really hold a ceremony so they had to wait till you are back from your nap." Fab explains to him what has happened. Faust realizes that it is rather important and heads to change his clothes. Once everyone is ready, Tsumugi and her family head towards the main building for the ceremony. Faust wears a white long sleeve shirt tucked into black pants with red stripes on the side, a black coat on the shirt which is up to his waist. And a black cape up to his feet. The right side of the cape is buttoned on the right shoulder, exposing his right arm. While the cape on the left arm is buttoned below his collar. The Japanese kanji word for ''Ashura'' is printed on the left side of his cape and He is wearing knee-length black shoes that tightly gripped his calves. The other members of his squad are wearing the same clothes without a cape. Tsumugi is wearing a figure-hugging, sparkling mini dress with long sleeves while her husband is wearing a tuxedo. "Wow, we came to the main building in the morning and noon but what is this? Is it this pretty at night?" Faust is in amazement upon seeing the main building. The main building is lighted with many colours and the full moon glittering in cantaloupe behind the palace-like building. From twenty-feet to the building, a red carpet welcomes you that goes all the way inside the building. Thin wooden pillars are planted on both sides of the carpet and small lights connect the tinder on both sides which becomes a roof made with lights that glow in yellow and green. The texture of the red carpet also seems different. Every step you take, the carpet glows in bright red under your feet. The main building is tall with four floors. The founder of the house Ashura comes from Japanese inheritance, whereas his wife, mother of Lady Tsumugi comes from a Spanish background. The house is a mix of both cultures, The main building is a combination of three buildings in reverse ''U'' shape. A sakura blossom tree present in the middle of all three buildings, which is again wrapped in small led lights that glow in yellow, blue and green. In front of the main building, three wooden fire torches are glowing in red as the ember is burning brightly. Two more torches on each side of the entrance in front of the main door. One torch is placed on top of the whole building as the torch of Olympus. 118 Heavenly "Ah... Ah... What is this? Is this magic? It looks like a magic palace." Rachel''s eyes are filled with sparkles. Everyone of Tsumugi''s family is amused by the lights and the beauty of the palace. They all start walking on the carpet while looking at the lights above them. Jonathan is amused by the carpet glowing along with his footsteps. Fab is overwhelmed by his emotions. "Hi, Faust!" As they get closer to the building, Faust is approached by Caitlyn, whom he did not see from two months. "Ca-Kaat?" Faust did not stutter with the sudden appearance of Caitlyn but by her charm and prettiness. She''s wearing a long white dress with a thigh-high slit. an opening where one of her legs is sticking out up to her thighs. Caitlyn nods in response, Faust takes small steps towards her while still in disbelief. Tsumugi and the family is surprised. As long as they are aware of, Faust did not go out or goof out with girls in the house before the purge. After the purge, he is asleep until today. then from where did he know such a beautiful girl in the house of Ashura''s. "Isn''t she the daughter of Raphel?" Tsumugi''s husband whispers into the ears of Tsumugi. "makes sense, I was just thinking that I saw her somewhere." Tsumugi replies in a low voice. Faust catches the mutterings behind him and snaps back from the mesmerization. "Ah, Guys! This is Caitlyn, my..." Faust takes a pause and everyone sharpens their hearing senses to catch the next words from Faust''s mouth. "She''s my friend!" Faust utters and the anticipating family members sighs in relief. "um, Faust! Will you dance with me tonight?" Rachel''s cheeks turn red upon hearing Caitlyn asking Faust for a dance. "Y-yes sure." Faust accepts without a moment of hesitation. Caitlyn moves closer to him, she grabs the coat of Faust on his elbow and lowers her face in shy. Caitlyn wants to hold his arm while walking but for now, she could only hold his coat in shyness. Faust'' heart skipped a beat, a girl he likes is holding is coat and standing close to him. He walks carefully not to trip and make a fool of himself. Seeing young couples in love, Tsumugi grabs and holds the arm of her husband and continues walking. Fab, Jonathan and Rachel tries not to laugh and walks along behind Tsumugi and her husband. As they all go inside the hall, they are welcomed with a baguette shape crystals, suspended row after row from a gold body. The lights are illuminating golden makeover to the entire hall. A melodious instrumental with piano and Violin are playing in the background. Every noble family is present in the hall and everyone rushes towards Tsumugi and Faust the moment they see them. They congratulate the family not just for surviving the purge but also for coming on top. Faust became the new talk of the house for his mysterious powers and his bipolar behaviour at the end of the match. Faust does not remember what he did to Garuda or how he even won. He just knows that he someone win over Garuda. Which is why he does not get the stares of some members in the hall. "I-I came here for you, to see you frequently but you always denied saying that you''re busy. So unfair Caitlyn." Faust pouts while he and Caitlyn are standing at a side leaning their backs onto the table with some displays. "You know that my brother is a captain right! I can''t make up lies and take a day off with him." "Heh well, your guy here is also a captain now baby!" Faust turns towards Caitlyn with a smug face and tries to tickle her to make her smile. Before that, a huge crowd is seen gathering with a lot of commotion in front of the stairs that lead to the upstairs. Faust and Caitlyn are alerted with the noise and realizes that the top three families are walking down the stairs. Caitlyn takes her leave and goes to where her brother is standing. Faust keeps looking at the top families and he catches the prince of the house looking at him, Leviathan too stares at Faust from top to bottom. But this time he has no ill feelings towards Faust. He looks at Faust as his rival. "Let us first start with the awards and then you guys can eat and drink all you want." Hades announces to everyone but his main focus is on the people that are goofing off near the food and drinks tables. "The winning team can now step forward." The announcer announces while standing beside Hades, Hades is ready with small medals in his hands. "Rachel! Position - Sniper." Rachel goes before Hades, she bends down on one of her knees, lowering her head she stretches her right arm forward. Hades places his left hand on Rachel''s palm, to which Rachel responds by grazing her lips onto the knuckles of Hades. A gesture of respect that needs to be shown by soldiers while standing in front of a royal. Hades firmly grasps the shoulders of Rachel and lifts her on both of her feet. He then proceeds on to pin the medal on the right side of her coat. "You did a good job, I wish the best for your future." Hades utters the words of motivation and goes on to the next one that is standing beside Rachel. All four members of Tsumugi''s family stands in a line with their heads held high in pride as Hades moves from one to another. "Jonathan! Position - Assaulter." Jonathan also goes down on one of his knees and performs the same acts as Rachel. He is also awarded a medal on the right side of his coat. And Hades moves onto the next after some words of motivation. "Fabulous! Position - Supporter" Fab goes down on one of his knees and as he stands up Hades places a cloak in his hands. Faust, Tsumugi, Jonathan and Rachel made happy faces upon seeing what Fab is given. Fab is surprised and takes a few moments to understand what is happening. "You gave eight precious years of your services to this house, and we all think that it''s about time you get this Fab, Carry on with your services like a proper captain." As soon as Hades ends his speech, Fab is seen crying and laughing at the same time, the corners of his eyes are crinkled and his eyes swam with tears. He heart-fully accepts the cloak by holding it dear to his chest. Hades moves on to Faust. And before Faust is about to kneel Hades stops him for an unknown reason that surprised even him. He himself, did not know why he stopped Faust from kneeling. "Uh... You looked like a warrior in the last match that you fought." Recovering from the blunder he thought is made by him, he pats on Faust''s arms praising Faust for his skills and power. Hades looks to the back of his shoulder and a person holding a virtual keyboard enters behind Hades. He looks like a nerd that handles all the technical work in the background. Hades turns towards Faust facing him he asks. "What kind of cloak do you prefer? Are you okay with the one you are having now?" Hades asks about the captain cloak of Faust that shredded and became a pile of fibres in the fight with Garuda. Faust turns pale, he doesn''t know what to reply to the person before him. More than anything he is intimidated by Hades standing in front of him. It''s almost as if Faust can sense the aura of Hades. "Don''t worry, just tell him what you want." Hades tries to ease up Faust and points towards the technical guy behind him. "U-um I like hoodies and cloaks both." Faust whispers to the guy in a low voice. Hades nods casually and asks the technical person to go on with it. "Hoodies and cloaks huh? I think I can fuse them both and create a perfect one." Saying that the technical guy plants a small chip in Faust''s clothes and goes on to type something on the keyboard. Faust feels embarrassment as everyone keeps staring at him and nobody would be waiting if it''s not for him to lose his captain''s cloak. He keeps praying for the tech-guy to be done quickly. "Ok, we''re done, let''s see how it fits you." Saying that he presses a button written ''Make'' on it and as everyone is watching, blue lines of squares appear on the already worn clothes of Faust like a blueprint before going real. And slowly the worn cloak is deforming as his new cloak appears. It first looks like a sweatshirt hoodie with long sleeves but at the end near the waist the shape is not round as it comes for hoodies, rather it comes as a hollow shape with a small tail. The whole hoodie is changed from its midway and it looks both comfortable and royal-like. And on the left side of the hoodie, under the Japanese kanji letters of Ashura, two new words are written ''Ashura Senpou'' translates to ''Divine Ashura'' 119 New Squad "Ashura senpou?" Faust asks in a puzzled voice, but he did not notice the buzz in the background. Every member standing in the hall is whispering to each other about the new cloak. And a single person claps in back while the entire hall is silent. Caitlyn cannot hold her excitement and claps quickly as she sees Faust wearing a senpou class Cloak. Later, she realizes that she is the only one clapping like an idiot and refrains herself in embarrassment. ''Ashura Senpou'' is a class, among few given to a certain captain or generals. If a captain or general is in any of these classes, then they are treated as a high priority. There are four classes among this rarity. The first class is ''shisu'' - A mortal''s level, the captains and generals in this class have permission to wander into 1-5 dimensions with their squads. They get two elemental stones of their desired attributes once every three months. The second class and a class higher than Shisu is ''Fumetsu'' - Immortal''s level, the captains and generals in this class have the same permissions as Shisu''s. Additionally, they have access till the eighth dimension as well. Meaning, they can access 1-8 dimensions with their squads. They receive four elemental stones for every three months The third class and the class higher than Shisu and Fumetsu is ''Senpou'' - Divine level, the captains and generals in this class have the same permissions as Shisu and Fumetsu. Additionally, they also have access up to the eleventh dimension. Meaning, they can access 1-11 dimensions with their squads. They receive six elemental stones for every three months. The last and final class is ''Ten'' - Heavenly level, only generals above three stars will be given this level of honour. This is also the highest class of all. They get can wander into any dimension, with or without a squad and they have additional permission to the twelfth dimension. They get six elemental stones for every three months. "Starting today, you are a captain of Senpou class. Looking forward to seeing great achievements from your squad." "And also, for coming out on top of all houses, your squad will be given a free wish. You can ask me for anything and you will get it." Hades explains to Faust and his squad. This is the moment Faust and his squad is waiting for the entire time. This has not happened, according to Tsumugi''s plan. She is ready to leave the house for the sake of keeping their family alive, but after the first day of purge, seeing how Faust and his squad came out on top of everyone. Tsumugi and everyone thought of something. The winner of the purge gets ten elemental stones along with a wish that they could ask for other than for weapons or resources. They could ask for a member, house, rare items or anything they want. The first thought that hits the members is if they win the second round of purge as well and come out on top, they will be given a wish. And they can ask for Tsumugi back as the leader of their house and everything will be back to normal. "Ask me anything that you wish for." Hades exclaims and a faint smirk surface on the lips of Faust. "Can we please have Lady Tsumugi back as the leader of our house please?" Faust closes his eyes and bows his head in front of Hades with sincerity Hades is surprised by the sudden change of Faust. He recovers and with a casual smile, he replies. "Of course, I said anything, didn''t I? Ha-ha." Faust smiles and the whole squad starts celebrating and thank each other. "Guys, we need to behave in front of our general." Tsumugi comes from behind and mutters in a low voice due to the indecent behaviour of her kids. "Ha-ha, it''s okay! Please also collect your share of ten elemental stones from Robert and enjoy the party." Hades directs Tsumugi and her family towards the person who is in charge of the elemental stones of the house. "Congrats Tsumugi." Queen Uzume congratulates her sister for becoming the leader of her branch again. Tsumugi gracefully bows her head facing both Hades and Uzume, before going to Robert with her two captains. "I''m so happy for you Fab, you made it as a captain finally." Faust and Fab holds each other arm in arm while walking. Both of their eyes are flooded with tears due to happiness. "By the way, where are we heading to Auntie?" Faust asks as he and Fab are walking behind her. "We are going to collect our winning prize, ten elemental stones." "Only ten? Didn''t they say my captain class gets like 4-6 elemental stones for every two months?" Faust tries to assess the situation. "You are given that class, not only because you performed well, but it''s also because our family came out as a winner. If we haven''t won, Fab wouldn''t have become a captain or you would be in that class." Tsumugi explains. The first rule to give a captain or a general, a class of their own is that they have to be in the top three branches of the family or they must be the winner of the purge. *"I don''t know where this family would be if I had lost that match. It was an important one."* Faust says to himself. - "Oh! If it isn''t Lady Tsumugi, I heard the news that you are coming to visit me. I did not expect it would be so fast. Let me search for your prize and bring it to you." Robert, the supplier and trader of elemental stones. Shortly, Robert hands over a pouch of ten elemental stones to Tsumugi. Seven out of the 10 are of different attributes and the remaining three are green elemental stones. Faust notices that there is no black elemental stone that he uses, but he did not say anything. "We like to sell seven of these and take one green and two reds." Tsumugi wants to sell all of the stones other than one green, which is a spare for Rachel, who uses a sniper with green elemental stone and two red ones, each one for Fab and Jonathan. Faust is surprised, but Fab looks casually as if this is something they do all the time. "Oh yes, I forgot I''m the trader as well who takes in elemental stones for money." Robert is a trader for the branches of the family. Every squad can bring the elemental stones that they collected from other dimensions and trade them with Robert for money. Later, the elemental stones go to the main building, who sells them to military and saves some to create weapons and conduct experiments. "Uh, no Auntie, sell only five. We need five stones of different attributes." Faust intervenes between Tsumugi and Robert. "Huh? Why do we need five stones, each with different attributes?" Tsumugi turns towards Faust to ask him. At the same time, Robert glares at Faust with an evil face. His kind old man vibes are completely taken over by his poisons cunning vibes. "It''s because I''m trying to recruit new soldiers into our house." A small curve forms on the corner of Faust''s lips. 120 Petty Old Nobles "I''m actually planning to make a new squad by recruiting new people. So we need five new elemental stones without the air (green) or explosive (red) element." Faust''s lips form a small curve that turns into a smirk. Fab is surprised at how far his thinking is. While Tsumugi is regretting for not thinking the way that Faust is thinking. "You heard him, Mr Robert! Other than air and explosive elements, please give me five different attributes." As soon as Tsumugi turns back to face Robert, his face goes back to the kind old person who looks like he is ready to do a favor for anyone at any time. "Ahhh, let me¡­ take a quick look here." Robert takes out each elemental stone out of the pouch. His quivering hands show the signs of his ageing. He chooses a white stone, which enhances the physical properties. A yellow stone (Light element), a blue stone (Ice element), purple stone (Lightning element) and last but considered most rare an orange stone (Healing element). "So you only need five stones, if I eliminate four air element ones and one explosive. You get a white one, light element, ice element, lightning and a healing one." Robert divide the 10 stones into only five and five with each different attribute other than Red and Green stones since Rachel, Fab and Jonathan already have their elemental stones. "I guess it will be... Hmm, let me count, 120,000kani for a red stone and 200,000kani for one green stone. In total for four green and one red you get 920,000kani." Robert does his calculations in front of Tsumugi and her squad. "9-9-920,000kanissss." Fab loses his sanity hearing the number, his eyes widen and the mouth opens in awe. *"With this money, we can renovate and repair our house. We will still have some money left with us."* Tsumugi goes through her plans she has in her mind. "Pretty good, we would like to tra-" "Auntie-" Before Tsumugi says that she likes the offer and going to take the money. Faust intervenes again with his innocent call. "Youngins these days stick their noses where they do not belong." As soon as Tsumugi turns her head around to face Faust, Robert utters words of insolence. He looks at Faust as nothing but a mere commoner, and when Faust is interrupting the talk between two nobles, it is hurting his pride. Tsumugi''s ears catch the words expressed by Robert, she stifles the words which almost escaped her mouth and turned towards Faust again to ask him. "What happened again, Faust?" "Well¡­" With a pause, Faust turns his eyes to look at Robert for a brief moment. He then turns his eyes back to Tsumugi to add. "Let''s not sell the stones. I want to recruit more soldiers so let''s save them." "Huh? Tsumugi takes a step forward bending her upper body to hear him again. "Yes, I want to recruit more." "But Faust, we need the money to repair our house and to expand it, let''s recruit only four for now and we can recruit the remaining later." Tsumugi says with a concerning tone and pleading face, she is praying inside that Faust is not plotting something inside. He never went against her till now, and she is hoping he wouldn''t in this matter as well. "Trust me, auntie, I want to recruit more. Trust me on this and come with me." Faust too speaks in the same desperation. He looks at both Fab who is shocked by his behaviour and Tsumugi who is confused. With a heavy sigh, Tsumugi turns towards Robert. She took a large gulp of air. "Mr Robert, I guess I will come tomorrow to trade the stones. Please forgive our rudeness." Tsumugi bows her head while Fab and Faust bow their upper bodies in respect. Robert is a noble of the main building and an elder. Of course, you need to show respect for petty old nobles. Robert did not need to reply to Tsumugi. His eyes said it all. He is furious and pissed off because of Faust. "Faust! Why did you behave like that in there? What are we going to do without money!" After coming out of the Trade block, Tsumugi started asking questions and the reason why Faust did not let her sell the stones. "I felt like he is paying us less for the stones." Faust says while holding his chin. "HUH? WHAT? You felt that he is giving you less money? Is that why you brought us outside?" Tsumugi and Fab yells in the face of Faust. He has no plans to recruit people, but he just brought them back because he thought Robert is giving less price for the stones. "Eh, Don''t worry, I will explain to you both once we reach home." "You better!" "You better Fausto! That is 920k we refused." All three of them returns to the main building to meet with the rest of their squad and later leaves to their home. - "So, do you care to explain why you refused the trade?" After returning home, Tsumugi obstructs Faust from entering his room to ask him as she crosses her arms while questioning him. "I told you, auntie, he is cheating you people. We get more than 920k for five stones." Faust explains to them how he felt that the deal is wrong. "I''m going back to the lower city for a few days. I need to visit the school and while I''m there, I will sell these five stones for you guys at a higher price and will send the money your way." Faust opens his altered space to his left to take out his luggage bag and starts packing his clothes. "W-wait, you are leaving? But you are the captain here. Also, you can go to school in the upper city. All the kids of nobles and houses study in that school. There might also be kids from other families in there." Tsumugi advises to him. "Ahhh, you see, I promised my principal that I will participate in the coming school festival. So I need to go and finish one year of my high school there and then I can transfer to the upper city one." "Huh? Which stupid school principal asked you to participate in the school festival?" Tsumugi asks in an annoying voice. "Ehh, don''t call him stupid auntie, he is the one who gave me the black stone for free. He''s a good guy, principal of the Medellin High school." Tsumugi dumbstruck hears the words, she does not talk or move for a while. "Auntie? Are you okay?" Faust with gives a jerk on Tsumugi''s shoulder to snap her back to reality. "H-he gave you the black stone?" Tsumugi asks one more time as if she''s trying to confirm something. "Yes." *"Then it is the same black stone? He wouldn''t give it to anyone that easily."* Tsumugi looks at Faust while reminiscing her memories with the old principal of Faust''s school. "*Do you believe that he is the one? Uncle Shizu."* Tsumugi utters the name of the old principal. Shizu. 121 The Real Monster After taking a leave from Tsumugi and his branch, Faust appoints Fab, the new captain to serve the house. He takes the five elemental stones and heads towards the lower city. In every security point, the soldiers from the Ashura house recognized him and praised him for his fights in the purge. *Knock knock* "Coming! Please hold on." Faust reaches his apartment and knocks on the door. "F-FAUST!" Neith comes to open the door and gets surprised after seeing Faust. Even though her initial emotions are happy, she stares at his captain''s cloak with pride. "Finally, I get to see you in captain clothes." Neith walks closer, sliding her hand on Faust'' shoulder. "Oh, did you use the two sword style that I taught you? Did it help you win? Oh, silly me. Come in first, did you eat anything? Let me prepare your breakfast." One of the two swords that Faust is using belongs to Neith. For the two years that Faust spent with her, she taught him her two-sword style and gave him one of her swords to use it in place of Fukitsuna Masamune. "No, Auntie, I did not get to use your sword Arts." "Oh, you used unholy sword arts? I thought we both decided not to expose that sword arts in public." Neith asks in a surprise. "No, I did not use that too. I used basic slash''s and cuts and won somehow." Faust replies, and as he said, he did not use any of the sword arts in the purge than his unmatchable speed and strength. "Wow Faust, I did expect it. You did not even use the sword arts and won every match. Talk about handicapped without spiritual power. It does not stop you, Faust." Neith praises Faust for his win. "But that is not all Auntie." Faust sits on the dining table in front of the kitchen that Neith is cooking. He pauses in between the lines and holds his knuckles. "He appeared again, took over my body while I''m unconscious. My team members told me I did not hurt him badly, but I know he would have done something horrible." Faust addresses that he lost his body to red-eyed Faust. Neith is taking the ingredients from the cupboard and she freezes as she hears about the red-eyed. "Him, huh? Again?" She looks down in distress. *"I thought I got rid of him, What triggered this again?"* She thinks to herself. Her face displays concern and guilt. "*How do I tell him? That it''s not someone else. It is you, Faust. It''s no dark magic or ghosts. But how do I tell you that it''s your own personality? That you are suffering from a personality disorder."* The reason that Neith''s face is also displaying guilty is because she is hiding from Faust about his illness. The red-eyed Faust that keeps appearing is none other than his other personality. It is due to his anger, his feeling of uselessness and powerless gave birth to the other Faust that is ruthless and fearless. He fulfills the tasks that are left incomplete by Faust. *"Two years ago when you approached with guilt and sadness. I had no other way but to tell you that what happened to your village is not your fault, but the one who is living in your body, a monster."* "*But how do I tell you, you are that animal."* Neith is filled with remorse and fear. Faust is ok after coming to Neith, His personality is stabilized and Neith thought she cured him, but listening to this is filling her with nothing but regret. She is stuck in between telling Faust about his disorder and leave him be, hoping he wouldn''t go crazy with his other personality. If she tells him about the disorder, it would mess up his head where he could completely isolate himself from everyone. "By the Auntie!" The words of Faust woke up Neith with a jerk, it''s almost like a jump scare for her as she is deeply lost in her thinking. "A-are you okay aunt?" Faust asks with while worrying about Neith. "Ah, it''s okay, I''m just" Neith turns back and the back of her elbow pushes a jar of flour behind her. Before the jar hit the floor and break, it disappears. Neith who almost had a mini heart attack due to the jar is now settled and looks at Faust. The jar is safe on the table. "*His teleportation speed increased. He must''ve gone beyond limits again. This makes sense now. His personality changes when he exerts his eyes."* Neith observes Faust''s skills and tries to depict what has happened at the purge. *"I shouldn''t have sent him to the purge."* "What happened auntie? Why do you look worried and bothered?" Faust couldn''t help but wonder and asks Neith. "Nothing at all, don''t I look normal?" Neith tries to act normal, but her hands are shaking out of anxiety and her breathing increases. "Anyway, auntie, I need a favor from you. I have some elemental stones and I want you to come with me to sell them at a high price." Faust asks Neith. "I can spare a few of my working hours for you, but remember we can only go there in daylight. There will be lots of powerful guys trying to rob people at nights." Neith replies while adding a pinch of salt to the flour before her. "We shall go in the coming Saturday then. I will go to school tomorrow and inform my principal that I have come back." Faust tells her. - "Yo! Aion." Faust waves at Aion, while waiting near the gates of the school which his back leaning against the wall. "Faust, you are back already?" Aion casually asks as he approaches Faust and with his arm raised with his fist balled, travelling at Faust. Both of them are gone for a fist bump. "Tsk, at least smile for my return you heartless bastard." Faust says in an annoying tone. "Oh, look at this, captain''s cloak but senpou class? They only gave you Senpou class? " Aion asks in a surprise. "Huh? Then what? Am I a general or what?" Faust asks back. "If they knew that you are my friend then would have given you Ten (Heaven Class)." Aion displays a smirk on his face and starts running while Faust runs after him. As Faust takes a few steps inside the school, he is stopped by the appearance of a tall figure before him. "So you have come back?" Awarnach, the senior and one of the strongest few in the school appears before him. "Uh, wait! I know you from before don''t I?" Faust asks. 122 The Festival Begins "Wait, I know you don''t I?" Faust asks in a surprise. "Yes, of course. You were detained because of me." "I thought you were lucky that you escaped in the name of detention. But I saw the purge wars." Awarnach, who is mighty and looked like a hungry beast, now looks calm and relaxed. "I want to tell you that I''m sorry for not believing you." People around both Awarnach and Faust are shocked seeing Awarnach apologizing to Faust. Faust just keeps watching Awarnach without speaking a word, he just keeps smiling. "Can I ask you to learn my martial arts? It''s not a popular one, but, I really want you to keep it in your arsenal. It is based on misdirections and deflection of weapons in midair. Please accept my request." Awarnach stretches his hand for a handshake while offering Faust his skills. In this era, with no handful of martial artists. Martial arts, scripts and scrolls are treasured in a hope to pass the skills down to younger generations. Most of these are scrolls are owned by the powerhouses. And getting a chance to learn a martial arts, no matter how low tier it is, benefits a person in getting into one of the houses as a soldier. "I will think about it." Faust with a smile, shakes hands with Awarnach. "But, can I know the reason why you are willing to help me learn your skills?" Faust asks him as he, Awarnach and Aion are walking inside the school. "I just want my martial arts to shine in your Arsenal set of skills. It is also good to be on good terms with a powerful captain like you." Awarnach walks beside Faust, almost like his lackey while praising him. "Ahhhh, nice, I will cherish your skill and try to uplift it by merging with my other skills." Faust replies to him. "Merge it?" Before awarnach could ask for details, he finds himself in the principal room with only Faust. He looks for left and right for Aion before finding him outside the door. He realizes that he forgot his surroundings while talking about the martial arts. "Wh-why are here?" Awarnach whispers in the ears of Faust. "I''m back in school sir, I hope I can go back to my classes as usual?" Faust asks the principal who is staring at him with a proud smirk on his face. "Ahh, yes! Welcome back, how did your purge go?" Shizu starts a normal conversation with Faust. "Ah, by some luck, it went good sir. Look at this, I also got into some class ha-ha." Faust pridefully shows his captain''s cloak to the principal. "That is very good, a senpou class huh? You should have worked harder to get a better one. And I happen to hear your conversation earlier as soon as you guys entered the room." "You guys don''t need to set up a date to learn something. Your school festival, training begins from tomorrow. You guys can train yourself with the remaining members that are going to the festival with you." Shizu explains. "Faust is also going to the school festival?" Awarnach asks in a surprise. "Of course he is, what did you think? Just because it is going to be all seniors in the festival, Faust cannot do well?" Shizu asks jokingly. "No, not at all. I''m happy he is joining us. He will be a big asset in this. I have always lacked raw strength. But this time will be something different." Awarnach replies happily and both of them leaves the principal room and heads back to their classes. - On the next day, Awarnach and Faust go towards the school gym. A huge stadium with lots of practice ground. There is an indoor running track and swimming pool in the stadium itself. And that two just take-up of about up 5% of the entire stadium. In the middle of the stadium is a huge ground of five hundred yards with plain sand that is used for long, mid-range shooting practice, archery practice and physical training. "Yo!" Faust and Awarnach approaches a group of people who are discussing strategies standing in a circle. A tall woman with blonde hair and glossy yellow eyes turn back towards the voice. She gets surprised to see Faust in front of her and more surprised when eunuch is beside him. "My grandpa said a freshman would be joining us, I didn''t expect it would be you." Cameron looks at Faust with her piercing eyes as she arrogantly flips her hair back. Her blonde hair is tied on top of her head like a ponytail. But her hair is long up to her waist. If she hadn''t tied her hair with a band on top, her hair would easily be to her thighs. "Ah, I remember you, you saved me from a senior back in the day didn''t you? I don''t know how to thank you for saving me on that day." Faust says with a bright smile and Awarnach is completely caught off guard. When he first met Faust, he clearly said about not remembering Awarnach. But now he recognizes Cameron in a glimpse? "Oh, you can thank me just sitting on the sidelines and not disturbing us. You are here to watch and learn so just watch and learn." Cameron says without a second thought. Her voice is filled with pride and no remorse. "What? Do you guys know-" Before awarnach could speak up, Faust stops him by placing his hand on the right shoulder of Awarnach. Awarnach does not speak up. Finding it weird, Cameron turns back to face the circle and starts discussing strategies again. While Faust and Awarnach go to a side and watches them by sitting on the stairs nearby. "Why did you stop me1?" Awarnach wants to know the motive behind Faust''s actions. "Ahh, Working in a group and strategies is really tiresome. I just finished one and this is time for me to take a rest here. Also, when will we practice your style if we just keep working with them?" 123 Diverse Alley For the next week, Faust and Awarnach practices the martial arts of Awarnach and his family. Every day, Faust only focuses on new skills and learns new things. "He became a captain of one of the powerhouses in his first year of high school. What the hell? I thought he was a delinquent and doesn''t have any talent?" "True, look at his cloak. It looks real." "Also, Awarnach, who is the top assaulter of our school hangs out with him, or so I heard." All the class of Faust and Aion starts a new gossip over Faust and his new cloak and friends. "I also heard that he is selected in the team that is participating in the winter school festival. Have you heard about it Ming Jie?" One of the students drags Li Ming Jie into the conversation. The conversation is happening at the back of the classroom in a corner while Ming Jie is sitting in the middle rows. He is eavesdropping on the conversation while pretending to be looking at his book and studying. "Huh? He is not looking at us? Strange, I thought he was listening to us." The student catches Ming Jie, watching them from the corner of his eye while listening to their conversation. But when he turned towards Ming Jie for his opinion, Ming Jie seems to be focusing on the book in front of his desk. "Oi, Class Rep Ming Jie!" A girl from the group calls for him in a loud voice and this time Ming Jie had no choice but to turn back. "What is your opinion on Faust?" The girl questions him. "What about him?" Ming Jie asks with a blank face as though he did not know about Faust, who is the hot topic in the whole school. "C''mon, you should have heard about him right? He''s a captain in the house of Ashura''s now. How do you think it happened?" One of the guys comes out of the group asking Ming Jie. "Ming Jie looks hesitated at first, but then, his face becomes still as if something struck him. He is, in fact, annoyed by the fact that Faust is receiving more attention than him. He is getting tired of hearing everyone talk about Faust. "You guys know he is the black stone user right? A rare elemental stone user. Of course, any house would want to get their hands on such a guy. And they would pamper him with what he wants. Nothing more than this." Li Ming Jie announces with a poker face. He looks as though he is not interested in the whole topic and turns back and starts pretending to study. "Wow, I did not think about it." "For real, how did I not get this thought?" "No wonder, Ming Jie must be telling the truth. How can a fourteen year old can become a captain of a house?." "We need to share this with everyone and clear their doubts regarding that guy. He is nothing but a weakling with no spiritual power. He became a captain just because of the stone he awakened." While the faces of the group, gossiping about Faust have turned pale by the theory. Ming Jie is smiling under his poker face. His evil self keeps rejoicing with what he hears. *"This is it, spread the whole news around the school and stop acknowledging him. He is nothing more than a talentless average guy whose luck is good. Whereas I am a real genius. I ruined your fame in mere seconds with two lines."* Ming Jie is clenching his jaws and balled his fists in joy, knowing that this will completely result in the defamation of Faust. Aion is sleeping in the last row as he lays his head on the desk with his hands covering his face to block the sunlight and his eyes closed. But under his arms, his lips form a curve slowly. "Shall we continue training at my home tomorrow? Since it''s the weekend, we can practice at our home." While leaving for home, Awarnach asks Faust concerningly. Concern, because he wants Faust to learn as much as he can and quickly. "Let''s take a break tomorrow, I have other work to do. We''ll meet again Monday." Saying that Faust and Awarnach both go their separate ways to their homes. "You want me to come with you tomorrow?" Aion asks regarding the thing Faust is going to do tomorrow. "For what? I''m going there with Aunt. It''s ok, I have company." "Hmm, if you say so. Be careful." Aion suggests him "Careful? We''re only going to sell stones and get money. Anyway, I will see you later too!" - On the next day, Faust goes into a dark alley with Neith. Following Neith''s suggestion, they both visit the alley on a bright sunny day. The alley is really small, only three people can walk next to each other. Most of them have to walk in queues to avoid running into each other. Fortunately, the alley is free with less people. So, Faust and Neith can walk next to each other without any discomfort. There are different kinds of shops on either side of the alley. However, most of them are closed and only opens at night. Some of the shops displayed paper lanterns with the shop''s name on it. Like typical Japanese shops. There are also walk-in food stalls with the capacity to harbor five to seven people at once. With tables, but no chairs, a person has to eat while standing. After reaching the middle of the alley, they encountered a thin stairway, that goes further down into a darker street. The end of the stairway, however, is blocked by a worn-out gray cloth to go to the other side. And an old man is sitting on a stool to a side. "Wow, auntie, you came all the way here when I asked you to sell my black stone?" Faust refers to Neith, implying that she has already come here once to sell the black stone that is given to Faust by his school. This alley is the reason why Faust bravely stopped Tsumugi from trading the stones for money in her house. He has sent Neith to this alley before to sell the black stone and he has information on the prices of each stone. "Oh, one can''t possibly step foot inside this alley. You know the formalities." The old man sitting on a stool with a hat that covers his eyes speaks to Neith and Faust as they are about to enter. "Of course, of course, I know the drill, Dante." Neith, Standing in front of Faust hands over a small piece of paper that is the size of a business card to the old man. "You may enter." The old man welcomes them with a smile on his face. Neith pushes the curtain to her side with a hand as she enters inside. Faust catches a glimpse of what is inside, he sees a huge shadow with fur inside. With the curiosity building up, Faust pulls the curtain to aside to walk in. "Be careful." The old man mutters as Faust enters inside. 124 Diverse Alley - 02 The moment Faust enters the curtain, his emotions started overflowing as he is struck in awe. A huge creature covered in fur is in front of him. "Oh, new customers!" The fur started talking by itself. "What the HELL?" A fur is talking to me. "Who you calling a fur?" The dark shape in fur responded. "I''m not calling you anything." Neith''s voice is heard from within the fur. Faust did not say anything for a brief moment. "Ok? Auntie? Did you get eaten by the fur or is there a portal inside?" Faust cupped his hands in front of his mouth and as he yells. "What are you saying? Faust? Hello?" Faust hears Neith again, and this time, he realizes the voice is coming from behind the fur. As Faust tries to go around the fur, the fur slowly starts moving. Faust sees Neith, and walks towards her. She is under the street light which was suspended from the roof, as Faust walks close to her, he notices the fur is of orange colour. And it is a fur coat worn by a tall and huge man. This man from behind, in his fur coat without a ray of light, looks like a huge creature full of fur, "You know this kid?" The huge man asks Neith. His voice is one of those extremely deep voice that is buried in the roots of your brain once you hear them. There''s no way you will ever forget his voice. "Of course, he is with me." "Auntie? Here you are. I was worried. This place is so dark by the way." Faust says as he gets near Neith. "This is built underground. The roof above us is a city with roads." The tall man assists Faust, describing the place. "Ok, Bang! I will see you next time." Neith does not speak anything else and decides to move on with her business. Bang pauses while looking at her and Faust before eventually saying. "It''s ok, You have my code, right? Hit me up sometime." I would like all of us to meet and hang out once again." Bang says and sends off her off unwillingly. He wanted to stay and have a chat with her for some more time, but seems like Neith decided not to talk to him in front of Faust. Understanding what''s in her mind, Bang sends her off in her way. "Woe auntie, you know many people here as well." Faust wants to ask her about Bang. But he doesn''t want to be rude as to checking up on her. For which he decides to bring him up in a casual way. "Of course, don''t you know what I used to do." "So is he your friend or?" Faust asks cautiously. "He is someone I know from the past. Anyway, be careful to cover your nose. We''re entering the wild market." Neith takes out a tissue, covering her mouth and passes a tissue towards Faust. "Oh, what do you mean by wild market." As Faust asks, he sees a purple smoke in front of him. He goes on to cover his nose and mouth with a tissue. As they both are approaching, Faust notices a bad pungent smell, it''s getting stronger as they reach the market. "Buy these! Just caught wild beasts from the forest of darkness." A guy shouts from outside of a shop. Faust can see a form of cage from inside the purple smoke. Everyone is wearing a sort of mask and looking inside the cages and some are discussing with the shopkeepers. The wild market is a place where they sell wild beasts that are poached. These are not your ordinary beasts, rather, these are mutilated and evolved species, due to excess oxygen that is present in some forests. The entire mankind has isolated itself in a small bubble and surrounding this bubble is a vast ocean. But, between the bubble filled with oxygen and man-made protective screen of sunlight is a huge dense forest that is growing rapidly. "They sell wild beasts here, mostly the nobles that visit this market. They have a wide variety of animals here. Some come here to buy the beasts for amusement while others come here to choose their dinner." Neith explains to Faust, who is looking at the cages. Everything inside the cages is dark, but Faust''s eyes catch two small beautiful wolf cubs being handed over to a couple. "The cubs are crying and trying to get away while the shopkeeper keeps pulling their chains that are wrapped around their necks. The chains are suffocating the cubs and they are being dragged in the dirt without a concern. It looks painful just to see them struggling. The cubs reminded Faust of Bella, but he kept walking by. Soon, they got out of the purple smoke, Neith took off her tissue and kept it in her pocket. Faust followed her and after crossing a few more shops. "Oh, young man! Yes, you! Come here." Another guy calls for Faust with a bracelet in his hand. "Oh boy, look at you! Overflowing with spiritual power." The guy says. "Who me?" Faust asks in surprise. He is the only known living person who has no spiritual power in the entire world. And this shopkeeper is saying he is overflowing with spiritual power? "Just try this bracelet, It is for both offensive and defensive. We will also give you an elemental stone-free if you buy this." "And keep waiting, your powers will bloom and one day you will become a soldier in one of the powerhouses." The person announces. At this point, Faust is just staring at the shopkeeper with a poker face. *"Really keepah?"* Faust said in his head before Neith call him and he starts walking on his way. "How long more auntie?" "We''re almost there." A decent-sized shop appears in front of them both with the words ''T R A D E" written on the signature board outside of the shop. "This is it." Neith enters the shop. 125 Diverse Alley - 03 "This is it, huh?" Faust keeps staring at the shop painted in black. It is built as one of the oldest bars, with all wood. Glass windows for ventilation and a white signature board in front of the shop that is attached on top of the entrance. Faust follows the steps of Neith and enters inside. The whole shop is quiet and on either side, elemental stones are displayed inside a glass display. There are all seven types of elemental stones without the black one. There also some stones that implanted inside rings and watches. Faust is mesmerized by the wide variety of tools and places his hand on the glass display out of admiration. These elemental stones are like gems and the tools are made of gold and platinum-like jewels. "I wouldn''t touch them if I were you." He hears a female voice from behind him that startles him quite a bit. He immediately retracts his hand and steps away from the glass. A girl appears from behind, carrying a spray in her hand. She sprays onto the place where Faust placed his hand and starts wiping it off with a cloth. She repeats the process until the glass starts to shine. "This glass is of low quality, so if you touch it, your fingerprints are clearly shown on it. And if my boss notices them, I will be punished." She utters in a low voice. Faust has found her voice, unique and adorable. It sounds like a female character from an anime. She is wearing a tight figure-hugging black jumpsuit like clothes. It looks like an outfit with only zipper in front. In a sense, the dress is enhancing her every shape, The dress is kind of leather. She bends down to wipe the dust on the bottom of the glass. Her hair is brown and short, one side of her hair is really short while the other side is long enough to cover one side of her face, over her left eye. "*Uh oh."* Faust says in his head as her outfit is getting tighter and tighter as if it''s going to be torn. He is surprised that she could bend first of all, as her pants are tighter than normal and look like they will be ripped apart if she even bows to someone. "Faust!" Neith calls for him from inside. Faust takes off the tissue that is in his pockets to wipe the sweat off his forehead. He notices that his forehead has gotten hot. He folds it and places it back in his pocket and starts going deeper into the shop. "There are also tools in this shop huh?" Faust tells as he is walking to where Neith is standing. In front of her is a wooden table and she seems to be talking to a middle-aged man. "N-o, Listen! That is not. Why can''t you understand?" "I''m telling you, we don''t buy black stones. Those are useless as pebbles." The guy sitting down in his chair is arguing with Neith, without even listening to what she is saying. "Faust, show him the stones that you have got. He is thinking that I came back here to sell the black stone again." Neith yells in anger. She is fuming like a fire. "Faust takes out his pouch from his other pocket, takes out the stones and places it on the table in front of him. One red stone and Four green stones. The man jumps out of his chair seeing five finely polished stones on his table. "Melissa!" The man yells and the same girl walks towards them. "Who disturbed him again?" She asks in a really sweet voice. She walks over towards the other side of the table to the guy and plants a thin earpiece in his left ear. "Ahhhh, now I can hear properly, are you sure you guys came to sell the stones?" The man wants to check with them again. He could not believe, he is looking at brand new elemental stones. "Tell us the prices first, if we like it, we will trade them. If not, we will go to some other city." Neith raises her voice, she is not being the kind and caring aunt anymore, her body language describes her as strong military personnel. "Yes, yes! Normally it is three hundred thousand Kani for the red stone and five hundred thousand for green. But, since it''s you, I will give you a price that you cannot deny." "Five hundred thousand for the red and seven hundred for the green. Final price. No more bargains with me." The man says in a rather aggressive and demanding tone. His voice is resonating around the whole shop even when he speaks normally. If he were to shout, it would make one quiver in fear immediately. "Ok, nice to know." Neith, takes all of the stones, turns back and starts walking. Faust is confused, but he follows Neith in her steps. "W-w-wait wait wait! What happened to my princess? Come back here and let us talk." Neith stops in her tracks upon hearing the words of the man. "Come one, let''s not be hasty, tell me if you don''t like the deal, but don''t just walk out on me." Neith comes back furiously and slams the stones on the table. She leans forward onto the table. Her eyes are burning like a fire. "Look here, old man. We don''t have all day to sit and discuss with you." "These elemental stones are not even used once in their lifetime. You think I''m stupid to take five hundred and leave? Did you forget about me?" Neith says and the table that her hand is on starts producing snowflakes and shortly the snowflakes turns into ice freezing the wood around her hand. Melissa, who is standing beside the man, draws a short gun from under the table to point it towards Neith and aims at her, *click* In a blink of an eye, the gun that is in the hands of Melissa is in Faust''s hands and he takes out the red elemental stone off the gun. Melissa and the man sitting there are beyond shocked. The shotgun is instantly teleported into Faust''s hands. 126 Diverse robbers in the Dark Alley "Oh, Oh stop it, please, Melissa just reacted that way, because I cannot move my limbs. Forgive her rudeness and listen to me." The man sitting in the chair lost control over his limbs due to an accident. He describes the actions of Melissa as the protection of her master. "Well, my kid here did what he is supposed to, protecting his family." Neith is not going back or showing signs of kindness, no matter what the man is saying. "Okay! Nine hundred thousand for the red stone and one million for the greens. I cannot go up than this, I would go bankrupt if I raise the stakes any further." The man sitting in the chair turns his head towards Melissa and nods his head. Melissa takes out a thin rectangular box from under the table and places it in front of them. The box projected a visual screen in front of them and a visual keyboard. "Please enter your code in that and I will transfer the money from me to you." He instructs Neith. The code here is a seven-digit number that everyone on the mainland possess, or rather, given to them by the government. It acts to activate your mobile, vehicle locks, passwords and banks. "The price is but, I would rather take metal money than digital. You see, I need to pay someone back. That is why we are selling the stones too. Otherwise, why would we even sell the new stones?" Neith insists that he pay them in metal. Money in metal is the currency in the form of metal coins. Paper money is banned long before. Due to the reduction of the earth to only one percent of land and even in the one percent, the forests are filled with mutilated and evolved beasts. It is hard to make paper out of trees. Which is why the metal coins are introduced in the place of paper. "O-kay, as per your wish." With a heavy sigh, he turns towards Melissa again and gestures her to bring something from the inside. Neith, particularly asked for money, because she knows that the dark alley is full of frauds, they can scam her account anytime. Which is why she denied for digital money and asked for cash in particular. "A total of four million nine hundred thousand, all in the form of metal coins." He yells at Melissa who has gone into the room. She brings back a huge briefcase, filled with coins, that are arranged in a row. Melissa hands over the case to Neith and Neith gives it to Faust. She then passes the stones to the man sitting and Melissa takes them over and puts it in front of the man. Meanwhile, Faust touches the case all around while observing the material of the case, the smell and the texture of the case. Melissa and the man sitting finds it very odd, but does not say anything. "Will see you later again." Neith takes her leave and both her and Faust walks out of the shop. They keep walking back the same way they came from. This time there is no Bang in front of the entrance. Both of them walks out of the old gray curtain. The old man is still sitting there as a guard. "Pleasure doing business with you. Have a good day!" He greets them both as they start to climb the stairs of the alley. "Oh shoot!" Faust says in a loud voice, Neith turns back instantly and holds the arms of Faust tightly. "What happened?" Neith asks him while checking her surroundings. "I wanted to buy some tools for myself, ish, let''s come back some other day." "Tools? Since when did you become familiar with the tools Faust?" Neith asks him, he does not even have spiritual power to use any tools. "Oh, no-no. I''m learning a new skill from the senior of my school. And his skills need to have a thin magic - thread and some normal equipment that I wanted to use. But it''s ok-" Faust explains her about the tools and before they could start going. Two guys covered in hoods and masks that cover half of their face, snatches away the case that Faust is holding and starts running. Faust and Neith just climbed the stairs and they get robbed while the old man is still seeing them. Neith first looks towards the old man, he does not move an inch or speak anything. "Faust!" She yells. Faust stretches his hand in front of him. The guy running with his is running while hugging the case in his chest. They are already twenty feet away from them both and are running very quickly. *Bong* With the sound of a bong, as if someone has played a heavy bass, the case is back into Faust''s hands, he holds the handle of the case tightly this time. "Where did these guys come from now?" Faust says and the two guys running are confused. They turn back to see that the case is back at Faust again. The two men turn back facing Faust and Neith, they look determined to get the case back. As Neith and Faust wait for the next move to be made. A bunch of people show up, coming from inside of the shops and on the roofs of shops. There are a total of fifteen people, all covered in gray hoods and a mask on their face, covering their nose and mouth. A faint smirk is seen on the face of the old man sitting in front of the curtain. "Fausto." "Uun" Neith and Faust responds to each other''s call as if they understood what they need to do. The fifteen men start walking towards the two. Two portals open on either side of Faust. "He is not a normal person, let''s finish this fast." The man in the middle of the fifteen speaks and all of them start running towards the two. They are running in the alley, jumping on top of the roofs of shops from one shop to another. Neith places one of her legs behind and one in front and places herself in the running pose. She pushes her hind leg into the ground as she is getting ready to take off. Faust, on the other hand, folds his left hand in a way that his index and middle fingers are open while the rest are closed. He points the fingers down towards the ground and with a flick, he moves his wrist from bottom to upwards as he is directing something towards Neith. The portals that are on either side of Faust suddenly emits two swords. One of them is Faust''s purple colour sword that is given to him by Neith. The other one is crimson-coloured with golden handle. Neith dashes off towards the bunch at the same moment, her arms are crossed under one another and her hands are reaching for the swords that are on either side of her. She holds the sword on her left with her right hand. And the sword on her right with her left hand. Meanwhile, two of them have come very close to her. They are holding a large two-man cross saw. A long blade with two handles on each side. Both of them are holding it on each side and planning to ram Neith with the blade to behead her in one swing. As they come close, Neith, disappeared and appeared behind them. She is still in her same posing and still drawing her swords from their scabbards. But disappeared in front and appeared behind the two men. As if she has teleported. 127 The End of Faus "How did she disappear? These guys are looking dangerous, switch to mid-range, take positions. "The man in the middle orders the remaining. The man''s voice is also strange, it is of a computer voice that sounds like a robot. The people in the alley draw barrel guns. The guns are as short as a short gun, which is the size of their hands. They aim the barrels on the walls and roofs of the shorts and walls and a cable comes out of the gun with a hook on the end of the cable. They all jump onto the roofs of shops and walls, keeping their distance from Neith. The fifteen of them takes out another small gun that is gleaming in purple color. "All of them are lightning users?" Faust whispers under his breath, but, people start shooting and the guns emit real bullets that are in the shape of chips. Neith is evading all the bullets in the same way before. She is disappearing into thin air and reappearing in other places. "How is she avoiding all the attacks? Get the crossbows and get her now!" The man in the center commands all the members again. "Hmm, the bullets are emitting electricity?" Faust tries to analyze the guns and weapons the people are using. The guns are like tasers with bullets. The chips are emitting electricity after making contact with the ground. Soon, crossbows enter the scene with half the people using crossbows while the other half are shooting the guns with electric darts. Neith twirls and jumps back to avoid the bullets. She then Launches herself onto the roofs of the shop with a leap. The roof, she wanted to jump onto is already filled with three people on the top. "No way she is going to come here." One of the guys says after seeing how low her jump is. The roof of the sop is fifteen feet tall and Neith''s jump barely made five feet. "You cannot dodge in midair." He draws out the pistol and takes his aim on her. Suddenly, Neith disappears again. *Slash* "AHHHHHH!" The man on the roof is withering in pain. His back is slashed from his right shoulder to his left hip, leaving a bloody scar. "Sword Arts -" A blue light is shimmering on the right hip of Neith, from inside her shirt. The nerves in her body are getting cold as her blue nerves are visible to the eyes of the people near her. It is spreading throughout her body and the blue ice element is visible in her veins as her nerves on her hands are turning blue. Her hands are again producing snowflakes, which froze and covered the handle of the sword in ice, that slowly crept onto the blade. The sharp edge of the blade is covered in thin ice that extended further making her swords as ice blades. "Sword Arts - Ice shackles" Neith uttered from her cold blue lips. Instantly, a patch of ice formed from under her right foot that travels to the guy standing on her right and with a slash the ice tears his clothes, skin and flesh. The eye cuts his body in half. A similar thing happens to the guy standing on her left. A path of ice formed from under her left foot that travelled at jet speed, tearing the flesh of the man. *Gulp* Witnessing the ice element and the sword techniques, the robbers couldn''t help but swallow a large wad of saliva. They are still in shock that they forgot to point their guns at her to shoot her. In the next moment, Neith is on top of another roof, she is moving very close and fighting three on her own. "Sh-shoot her" One of the hooligans, yells in desperation. Wiping his sweat off, he aims at her and starts shooting. Yet again, all the bullets missed her, but struck their gang members, and all three of them collapsed on the roof from the shock. "You Idiots!" The man ordering them is flustered and he looks at Faust, who is standing with one of his hands in his pocket and holding the case of money with his other hand. "I know how she is moving so fast. I had a hunch." The leader of the mob, says as he sneakily moves towards Faust. Neith on the other side is swiftly moving from one roof to another. Seven of them are already down. The old man is sitting in front of the stairs, notices one thing about Faust, who is standing in front of him. Ten feet away from him. The eyes of Faust are moving very quickly. It''s as if he is painting a picture with his eyes or moving his eyes to observe a very fast-moving object. The thing that is happening with Faust is, he is helping Neith to fight. The reason behind her disappearance. Faust is supporting her by teleporting her repeatedly. She is not receiving any damage as she is teleporting before any arrows or bullets hit her. And she is being teleported at the blind spots of the mob to land an immediate lethal strike. The leader of the mob realized that Faust is behind the fast moments of Neith. But he doesn''t know that it is teleportation. And hence he is moving towards Faust in stealth. The leader sneaks in closer to Faust. Just being fifteen feet away from him. He reaches into the pockets of his hoodie and takes out an orb. The orb looks like a soap bubble at first look, but it is hard and emits a mixture of white and pink colors. He is staring at Faust and immediately, the surroundings of Faust started to emit pink smoke. Faust notices that pink smoke is devouring his surroundings. Shortly, his entire view is blocked and he, himself is consumed in the pink smoke. The last thing that he sees is an evil smirk on the face of the old man, sitting in front of the stairs. 127 Queen of Ice Kingdom "How did she disappear? These guys are looking dangerous, switch to mid-range, take positions. "The man in the middle orders the remaining. The man''s voice is also strange, it is of a computer voice that sounds like a robot. The people in the alley draw barrel guns. The guns are as short as a short gun, which is the size of their hands. They aim the barrels on the walls and roofs of the shorts and walls and a cable comes out of the gun with a hook on the end of the cable. They all jump onto the roofs of shops and walls, keeping their distance from Neith. The fifteen of them takes out another small gun that is gleaming in purple color. "All of them are lightning users?" Faust whispers under his breath, but, people start shooting and the guns emit real bullets that are in the shape of chips. Neith is evading all the bullets in the same way before. She is disappearing into thin air and reappearing in other places. "How is she avoiding all the attacks? Get the crossbows and get her now!" The man in the center commands all the members again. "Hmm, the bullets are emitting electricity?" Faust tries to analyze the guns and weapons the people are using. The guns are like tasers with bullets. The chips are emitting electricity after making contact with the ground. Soon, crossbows enter the scene with half the people using crossbows while the other half are shooting the guns with electric darts. Neith twirls and jumps back to avoid the bullets. She then Launches herself onto the roofs of the shop with a leap. The roof, she wanted to jump onto is already filled with three people on the top. "No way she is going to come here." One of the guys says after seeing how low her jump is. The roof of the sop is fifteen feet tall and Neith''s jump barely made five feet. "You cannot dodge in midair." He draws out the pistol and takes his aim on her. Suddenly, Neith disappears again. *Slash* "AHHHHHH!" The man on the roof is withering in pain. His back is slashed from his right shoulder to his left hip, leaving a bloody scar. "Sword Arts -" A blue light is shimmering on the right hip of Neith, from inside her shirt. The nerves in her body are getting cold as her blue nerves are visible to the eyes of the people near her. It is spreading throughout her body and the blue ice element is visible in her veins as her nerves on her hands are turning blue. Her hands are again producing snowflakes, which froze and covered the handle of the sword in ice, that slowly crept onto the blade. The sharp edge of the blade is covered in thin ice that extended further making her swords as ice blades. "Sword Arts - Ice shackles" Neith uttered from her cold blue lips. Instantly, a patch of ice formed from under her right foot that travels to the guy standing on her right and with a slash the ice tears his clothes, skin and flesh. The eye cuts his body in half. A similar thing happens to the guy standing on her left. A path of ice formed from under her left foot that travelled at jet speed, tearing the flesh of the man.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. *Gulp* Witnessing the ice element and the sword techniques, the robbers couldn''t help but swallow a large wad of saliva. They are still in shock that they forgot to point their guns at her to shoot her. In the next moment, Neith is on top of another roof, she is moving very close and fighting three on her own. "Sh-shoot her" One of the hooligans, yells in desperation. Wiping his sweat off, he aims at her and starts shooting. Yet again, all the bullets missed her, but struck their gang members, and all three of them collapsed on the roof from the shock. "You Idiots!" The man ordering them is flustered and he looks at Faust, who is standing with one of his hands in his pocket and holding the case of money with his other hand. "I know how she is moving so fast. I had a hunch." The leader of the mob, says as he sneakily moves towards Faust. Neith on the other side is swiftly moving from one roof to another. Seven of them are already down. The old man is sitting in front of the stairs, notices one thing about Faust, who is standing in front of him. Ten feet away from him. The eyes of Faust are moving very quickly. It''s as if he is painting a picture with his eyes or moving his eyes to observe a very fast-moving object. The thing that is happening with Faust is, he is helping Neith to fight. The reason behind her disappearance. Faust is supporting her by teleporting her repeatedly. She is not receiving any damage as she is teleporting before any arrows or bullets hit her. And she is being teleported at the blind spots of the mob to land an immediate lethal strike. The leader of the mob realized that Faust is behind the fast moments of Neith. But he doesn''t know that it is teleportation. And hence he is moving towards Faust in stealth. The leader sneaks in closer to Faust. Just being fifteen feet away from him. He reaches into the pockets of his hoodie and takes out an orb. The orb looks like a soap bubble at first look, but it is hard and emits a mixture of white and pink colors. He is staring at Faust and immediately, the surroundings of Faust started to emit pink smoke. Faust notices that pink smoke is devouring his surroundings. Shortly, his entire view is blocked and he, himself is consumed in the pink smoke. The last thing that he sees is an evil smirk on the face of the old man, sitting in front of the stairs. 128 The End of Faus Faust tries to wave his hand to touch the smoke that is around him. It is like a pink cloud. "I saw this somewhere Is it?" Faust remembers the first time he saw a cloud of this type. It is the spiritual cloud that he saw along with Yui, in the spiritual world. Apparently, when you keep a handful of this cloud in your mouth. It boosts up your spiritual power to another level. *"Is this done wanted? To improve the spiritual power of their gang?"* If they want to boost up the spiritual power of their members. They would be aware of Faust. Is this done knowing that Faust does not have spiritual power? Is what running in Faust''s head. *Thud Thud Thud~* Among this smoke, Faust starts to hear footsteps, he can tell that a person is coming closer towards him. But Faust does not fear or get alarmed, he stays cool and looks in the direction, where he is hearing the footsteps from. "You are not scared of what is happening around you?" The leader of the mob walks towards Faust and asks him in surprise. "What is there to be scared? You made a smokescreen to take me out or what?" "Yes, taking you a kid out is better for us that heading straight for that strong woman. I''m sure you are not in the fight because you are not strong. You are just supporting her in a fight. Now prepare yourself." The leader estimates that Faust is weak because he cannot sense spiritual power from Faust. And a fact that Faust is still fourteen. He thought, he could come and take out Faust first, or take him as a hostage or knock him and steal the case, so the other members can fall back from fighting with Neith. "Haha, I have been underestimated haven''t I? Faust says with a smirk. He knows that the person in front of him is not more powerful than him. As Faust and the leader keeps talking, the leader slowly lifts his hand and with his fingertips. He slides his mask down. He looks like he is in his mid-forties. He has a thin beard with both grey and black hair mixed. What''s more noticeable about his face is a scar that is on his chin which is stretched to his cheeks. He slowly removes the hoodie on his head and Faust became concerned with what he is seeing. The scar on his cheek is split open as a fold. It is further stretched onto his forehead and his head. There is no hair on the side of his head. Also, the scar is completely open at the side of his head, exposing his skull and brain that look half-eaten. "You look pretty ugly." Faust utters at the leader. "Really? Why don''t you look at yourself and say the same thing?" Faust felt something is wrong, as soon as he heard the words from the leader. The first thing he did is to sense if there is anyone else in the smoke. Secondly, he checks his surroundings and then notices something strange is happening with his hands. The skin on top of his hands looks old with wrinkles, Faust pulls up the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbow and all of his arm from his elbow. His skin turned like the skin of an old man. He looks at the leader again and he is surprised. He and the leader are of the same height. Last time he checked, he is taller than the leader. Shortly, blood drip from the jaw of Faust on his left. He gently touches the side of his cheeks and his cheek is split in half. It seems similar to the scar on the leader. "Why don''t you touch a little higher?" The leader utters in a cocky voice. Feeling anxious, Faust moves his hand above and the skin on the side of his head is gone. He felt his brain, the skull is broken from his eye. *" What is happening?"* Faust thinks to himself. He feels no pain at the side of his head. it is just numb for all he can feel. And the other and most important thing is his wound looks exactly like the scar that is on the leader of the mob who is standing in front of him. Meanwhile, Neith notices that she is not getting the support she wants from Faust. She places an ice wall behind her, where the bullets are coming from and keep fighting with four people in front of her and takes a glimpse towards where Faust is. She is startled by what she sees. "Impossible! They are still alive?" Neith utters as she gets panicked and tries to jump to another roof to reach Faust. But the moment she gets out of the ice defense, she put up behind her, bullets and arrows started raining at her, making her go back inside her defenses. *"Be careful Faust! It is a deadly illusion."* What Neith sees is not smoke. She looks at Faust and the leader of the mob standing in front of each other. What Faust is experiencing is all an illusion that is made possible due to the orb. All the pink smoke, including the evil grin on the face of the old man that Faust saw, is also an illusion made by the leader of the mob. Even the scar on Faust''s face, the face of the leader might be an illusion. But Faust is not aware of this. "Hah, say goodnight kid." The leader pulls out a short knife from behind his hoodie. There is no smoke surrounding Faust and his eyes have turned white as if he is in another world. "She became slow all of a sudden, get her now! This is our chance." The men near Neith yells while she is already fighting four of them at once. The leader jumps to Faust in one leap, he holds the knife in such a way that the sharp side of the blade is facing outside of his hold and he swings the knife in front of the neck of Faust to slit his head open. 129 The Warning "Heh, say goodnight kid."The leader jumps to Faust in one leap, he holds the sword in such a way that the sharp side of the blade is facing outside of his hold and he swings the knife in front of the neck of Faust to slit his head open. "Huh?" The knife is on the skin of Faust, but it did not cut or go through. The leader is surprised at why his knife did not get through. "A cheap illusion I would say." Faust is sounding abnormal than now. His voice is not calm or arrogant as it is till now. He sounds like a crazy guy. Faust holds the tip of the blade with his fingertips before it digs into his skin. He turns his face towards the leader who is on his right. The eyes of the leader widen. The right eye of Faust is all red with green pupil. He stopped the knife with his left hand and his right hand is holding the case. Faust goes for a strike with the case onto the stomach of the leader. He swings the case from backwards, The leader pushes his body back and swiftly tries to move away from Faust. "What?" The leader cannot move back, Faust held his right wrist tightly, the same hand that he tried to attack with a knife. He got himself caught and unable to go away from Faust. *"How is a kid, so strong."* He thinks for himself while anticipating where the next attack comes from. Faust again swings the case to his front from the side, targeting the abdomen of the leader. Realizing he cannot go back, the leader pushes his gut back and bends his chest forward to avoid the strike. As the case came closer to his abdomen, the case instantly disappeared and the right hand of Faust travels upwards fast and grips the neck of the leader. *"It''s a feint."* The leader played into the hands of Faust. Faust is suffocating the neck of the man without mercy, as he is not able to talk anymore, an electric structure is broken with a cloud of black smoke coming from the neck of the leader. "Huh?" A computer frame to protect your neck? Lame." Faust grunts out and grips his neck tightly again. "Ahh" He screams, but his voice is different than before. So the frame is a voice changer? Faust thought. Faust is suspicious and wanted to see who is behind the mask. He reaches for the mask and pulls it down. For is frozen for a moment, it is Melissa from the shop he just visited. His grip on her wrist loosens, Melissa finds the opening that Faust gave her, while he in shock, she flips the knife towards Faust in her hand and goes to ram the knife in his eye. Instantly, Faust blocks the knife by landing a hit on the forearm of Melissa with the lower side of his hand, with the soft part between the wrist and fingers. Blocking her hand from stabbing him, he swings his right hand back as he slaps her on her cheeks with the back of his hand. His knuckles dig inside her cheeks, causing her unbearable pain, he then swings the same hand to his front and slaps her again on the other side of her face. The slap paralyzes Melissa with a shock. Half of her face is numb while she keeps hearing a bell ringing constantly in her head. To end this fight, Faust takes a step towards her, clenches his fists tightly and lands a powerful uppercut. Only the knuckle bone on his middle finger makes direct contact with her chin. Her chin clamped with her upper set of teeth, it sent a jolt to her brain and she immediately rolls her eyes up and falls on the ground lifeless. Faust immediately turns back around and looks up at the roof behind him. It''s the man from the shop he traded the stones. He said, he met with an accident and could not move his limbs. But he is on top of the roof with a crossbow aimed at Faust. *"How did he notice me? Anyway, he wouldn''t be able to stop this!"* He mutters in his head while being surprised, at the same time decides to shoot Faust anyway and shoots his crossbow that is glimmering in green. The green elemental stone provides extra wind and enhances the speed of the projectiles they shoot. And the man has three green stones embedded in his crossbow. He rained arrows made of air, the arrows keep raining down on Faust, but none of them hit him. The shopkeeper on the roof gets scared by seeing Faust. The arrows keep landing on the concrete roads while Faust is casually walking without getting hit by an arrow. He then sees Neith is having trouble with the rest of seven people. He tilts his face to a side like a lunatic and his lips form a creepy curve as he smiles. *Snap* He snaps his fingers and all seven of them who circled Neith and trying to fight her are now around Faust. They are surprised and before they even realize, the arrows from the shopkeeper''s crossbow hit four of them and they collapse immediately. Seeing what he did, the shopkeeper holds his shooting, and immediately, Neith teleports in front of him and her swords are on the neck of him. He dropped his crossbows and surrendered. The three on the ground with Faust, also dropped their guns and tasers as they surrender. "Kneel down!" Faust commands the three of them. The robbers kneel down in a circle around Faust. Faust enjoys the view as he laughs. Finally, he gives a psychotic stare to the old man sitting in front of the stairs. *Sleeeck* The heads of the three robbers kneeling down around Faust in a circle fly in the air with blood squirting out of their decapitated bodies. Faust does not have a sword, nor does he move his hands. But the heads of the three are cleanly cut at the same time. "Faust!" Neith, shouts at the horrible self of Faust. "You need not kill them, they have surrendered," Neith yells at him. The curtain beside the old man opens at the same time and Bang walks out slowly with his huge body. His body covered the whole stairway. He came as a security to the old man. Everyone can sense the blood lust emitting from Faust. "You don''t understand!" The old man sitting in front of the stairway lifts his head up. His amber eyes look Faust straight in the eye as Faust utters the words. I won''t give second chances, if one is thinking about messing with me. I will make him go through real hell. I will burn his arms multiple times at the same spot. I will burn it, heal it and repeat until his tendons start to profuse pus. I will then cut off his limbs and peel his skin slowly, torturing his body as his soul will scream endlessly, while he is still alive and barely breathing, I will make him feel the pain and the experience of hellish punishment. "Then I will hang him to the wall as a showpiece. He is like the deer to me which I had hunted. Thus, Do not try to scare me, I will pay you back tenfold." Even though at first it sounds like an explanation to Neith. The last two lines seemed like they are directed towards the old man and Bang. Faust walks away after saying what he wanted and Neith follows him without saying a word to Bang. 130 The Beginning Neith is startled by the sudden change in Faust. Only she knows that it is the other personality of Faust, that said the words to Bang and the boss of the whole dark alley, the old man that is sitting in front of the stairs. "What is that Nawab! I have never seen anyone with that level of blood lust and strength, but no spiritual power." After Faust and Neith left the area, Bang asks the old man. The old man took a long pause. It''s as if he could not believe he saw a person like Faust. "That is the devil!" The old man whispers gently. *"Since when did he become so powerful and angry? Looks like his teleportation speed increased after something that has happened in the house of Ashura''s."* *"He could not use to hurt anyone without his weapon or someone around back in the day. But this time, he cut them without any movement. I have been observing carefully and he has never moved. To cut them with his hands. What are his powers?" Neith is thinning hardly before reaching the home? After they have gone home, Faust is back to normal self. He hands over the money to Neith and asks her to send the money to Tsumugi''s house. None of them spoke about what had happened or why it had happened. - "The school festival is very near. I just wanted to know how did you synergy, increase with Faust?" The principal Shizu asks all the seven members, who is representing the Medellin high school in the festival. "Huh? With him?" The student council president Cameron asks Shizu, her voice explains how low she felt when asked if her synergy is good with a newbie freshman. "Isn''t he training with you guys all this time?." "Of course not, why would he train with us? He''s just here to watch and gain experience. That is enough for him." Cameron rolls her eyes as she says. Principal Shizu holds his head in distress. "What did I tell you to do and what did you do all these days?" Shizu yells at Cameron. Cameron does not understand what she did, no one can blame her for not knowing. It''s just, she hasn''t witnessed the true power of Faust. *Faust, please, you know what to do. Please let our school win this tournament." Shizu gets up from his seat, comes close and holds Faust hand in his and pleads him with eyes full of regret. "I will definitely do my best, ha-ha cannot for sure say that I will win." Faust replies as he rubs his nose with his other hand. "What the hell? My grandpa has gone mad. It''s going to be us to bring our school in the top 10 so don''t worry." Cameron assures her grandfather and leaves the room. Faust and Awarnach follows her behind. "Ok, I want you all to go pack your bags and meet here at the school at shape eight in the evening. The bus will be ready and we will go there." Cameron announces to the students, including Faust, but in the end, she stares at Faust from top to bottom and rolls her eyes on him. *"The hell is her problem guy."* Faust cracks his neck sideways, to go get ready. "See you after four hours." Awarnach says and takes his leave. "See you too." - At eight, all seven participants in the festival gather near the school and a huge deluxe bus is already waiting for them. Each of them gets into the bus one by one and takes the seat of their liking. The last ones are Faust and Awarnach. Awarnach sees an empty seat in the first row itself. Since Awarnach is tall and huge. It is really hard for a guy if his personality to suffer in the adjusting seats, so he takes a seat there and informs Faust that he got his seat. The total bus is almost empty, as there are only seven students and a coach. Faust goes tit eh middle compartment. He finds an empty seat and everyone gets ready to go. The start of the trip has been a hit. Everyone is talking about different things, strategies and shares the experience of their previous festivals. "I heard that this time it''s going to be a snowy mountain." The temperature as they are all going suddenly drops as one of the students mention, it is going to be a snowy mountain. Faust is reminded of his home town Mindoro, as he heard the snow mountain. The road they are travelling starts narrowing down as they see hills. It is a beautiful view that everyone should see once in their lifetime. The bus entered the mountain path. Where, the road circles around a hill. And the hill they are climbing is around many hills. The road is narrow and can only fit two small busses on the road. One side of the road is attached to the hill and the other side of the road is completely open. There is no fence at the edges as well. One wrong move and the bus could fall into the pits. At every turn the bus makes, it is getting adventurous to see the bus turn at the edges of the road. At the same time, it is also mind-blowing as they get the view of the hills and the small river flowing in between them. As the bus goes higher on the hill. The view has become more exotic. Just looking at the sun setting down behind a mountain. It''s as if the sun is hiding behind a hill, cold breeze is blowing on their faces, neck and travels down to the chest through the gap in their shirts, making the shirts bloat as the cold air is hugging their bodies, sending chills down their spines. The bus keeps going up and down the hills, the sun goes down completely, But Faust notices something as the bus is slowly taking a turn. Something is shining in rainbow colors at the place that he sees. It is disappearing and appearing and illuminating various colours. The bus turn to the other side, Faust looks at his surroundings for the people that can analyze it. He notices Cameron, who is sitting beside him in the other row. "Cameron!" He decides to call her before the bus passes from the same area. "Come here, please." Cameron hops onto his seat on his call, but while also feeling creeped out as to not know why he called her. "Keep an eye out and let me know if you see anything weird." Faust, tells her. "What will be weird? It is dark outside, we cannot see anything." It is indeed dark. But Faust can see a structure that is shining in different colours. Whereas, Faust called her because she is a light element user. And she would be familiar with lights and their purpose or origins. They pass through the same area again and this time Faust sees it clearly in the dark. It''s a circle that is glimmering in a purple colour that looks like a gateway to somewhere. "Do you see it? Tell me you see that." Faust points towards the structure that he sees. "I cannot see anything," Cameron replies. "No, it''s right there. Can''t you see the purple structure?" Faust asks again while pointing in its direction. "I cannot see anything. Don''t see mirages, we''re not travelling in a dessert." Cameron goes back to her seat. Faust does not give up, he calls up Awarnach to his seat to show him and he gives the same answer as Cameron.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. *"Why is it that only I can see it and no one else can''t?"* Faust asks himself. 131 Its an Old Cave Shortly, The bus stops near a hotel that is residing on the hill, very close to the circular structure that Faust saw on the way. "I really saw a circular structure over there. How can you guys not see it?" Faust tells to Awarnach as they enter the hotel. "We will be staying here for the night. And will continue as soon as the sun is up. So, finish up your things quickly." Cameron announces to the six. "She is still so full of herself man." Faust says, looking Cameron announces the schedule with her hands resting on her hips and while standing in a heroic pose. Everyone sits for dinner including the driver of their bus. "I need to go and check the batteries on the bus. So, I need to head out after dinner." The driver tells Cameron and her gang beforehand that he is heading out after dinner. "I will also come with you, please leave me in the way." Faust adds in. "Where are you going to?" Cameron asks Faust. "I want to check something."Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "You still believe there is something in those hills? And you wanna check that? I cannot afford to send a member out at night. I will be held responsible for anything that happens to you." Cameron refuses his departure. "Heh, you can say what you want and I will do what I want." "As if you can do that easily. I will keep my eyes on you." "Good luck!" Faust says with a smirk. After dinner, the bus driver heads out, he gets into his bus and drives off. Faust did not go after him. He finishes his dinner last and heads into his room and locks it from the inside. Cameron after observing Faust, until he goes into his room. Heads to her room to sleep. "Uh, can you stop in the next turn?" Faust says to the driver while standing in front of the door. "Ahhhh! H-h-h-how? You?" The driver is startled, the bus almost loses control over the edge of the road. "I''m on the bus all this time, you did not see me?" Faust tells the driver. "Please stop here. Thank you, see you tomorrow." Faust gets down at where he wanted to and goes back his way. Faust slides down the hill and starts going towards the circular structure. He can still see the structure glowing from the far. No wild animal comes closer to Faust. He reaches the structure finally. And what he sees in front of him is a long curve made of glowing dust. It''s like a curve made by the fireflies that are glowing in different colours. There is no opening and it does not seem like a portal. He can see the land on the other side through the circle. "So there is nothing here? Did I waste my time?" As Faust mutters, a rabbit that is about the size of a dog comes out hopping. Faust becomes cautious as soon as he saw that. After coming out, the rabbit goes inside again the same way it came. It''s as if there''s a mirror in the middle that takes you to another place. Faust moves closer, he moves his hand first and it felt as if he is passing through some bubble. He walks into it, it is not a portal to some other dimension. It is on earth, but he is at a different place. There is a huge den in front of him with a pack of lions sitting in it. Faust starts observing everything that is in every direction other than the den. He does not go in, as its only lion''s den. But shortly, a lion grunts at him, he looks towards the lion, it groans this time as if it is calling him inside. As Faust moves closer to the den, all the lions start walking out. Again, these are the lions, that are huge and taller than a man. They quietly leave the den as if they do not want to disturb Faust. The inside of the den is deeper. There is a small hill inside the Den and a place to go down the hill. Faust goes up the hill and in front of him is sparkling water. The water is glowing in blue and sparkling as if it contains all the stars of the sky inside it. He goes closer to the small lake and places his hand in the water. The waters start cleaning dirt on his hand and traverse his whole body, cleaning and healing small wounds. It''s almost like the water is cleansing him, before entering a temple. The water then goes dormant. Faust notices there is one more cabin in the cave. The whole cave is circular as if it''s a building from the past. He goes into the small room in the cave and there are many writings, written on the walls all around the room. As he moves closer, he sees a drawing on the stone table in front of him. He moves closer and wipes the dirt off the table, and after observing the drawing thoroughly. He is struck with the biggest shock. The drawing resembles the scabbard of his sword Fukitsuna Masamune. He brings out the black sword from his portal. And the drawing matches the scabbard flawlessly. He places it above the drawing to see if he could find any clues and the sword is pulled from his hand and it hovers on top of the stone table. The whole cabin is activated as the whole room turns gold. The black sword also turns to golden white as it was before. Faust''s heart starts beating faster, he wipes the sweat off his forehead. He doesn''t know what or why it is there. He reaches to the sword and moves it from the stone table. And the whole room is turned back to the normal old cave and his sword has gone back to normal. "I thought Ares is presented this sword by the House of Ashura''s. But is this cave is where he found it?" "If so, then the story about Ashura getting his Ashura sword from the devils.... Did he get it from somewhere like this?" Faust starts to speculate about different things. "What do you want?" Cameron opens her door and is surprised to see the driver standing outside her room. and he looks scared and worried as his face is sweating. "Ma''am! Faust came with me, I dropped him off at a place. He said he would be back in thirty minutes. I went and get the batteries checked and I have waited an hour at the place where I dropped him. But he did not come back." "I thought, he came back home, so I came back. But now, when I''m knocking on his door. He is not responding. Its as if there is no one in the room. I think he is stuck someone in those hills." The driver explains to Cameron. But she is surprised at what she is hearing. "How can he go out? I saw him eating and go inside the room. And at that time you were already gone." "I dropped him and saw him going down the hill with my own eyes. Please come with me and let''s search for him, ma''am." The driver says worriedly. "No, come with me." Cameron takes the driver and heads towards Faust''s room and starts knocking on the door while calling out his name. "I don''t know what my sword is doing at this place or when it is taken by Ares. I don''t'' know anything that has happened until now." Faust is lost in thoughts near the cave. 132 Old Rivals, New Introduction There is no response from inside the room. Cameron is bothered and goes on to knock on the door. Still no response from inside. "Hm, the driver would have left already, it''s been a long time. I should head back now." Faust decides to go back. "Faust? Are you there? I''m going to have to break the door lock if you don''t come out." Cameron says and with every knock on the door, her concern is increasing as she starts to suspect if he is really in the room. "I''m telling you, ma''am, he is not in the room. Please, let''s go out and search for him. He must still be alive." The driver tries to convince her. *Clack* The doorknob starts moving from the inside. The driver is shocked and Cameron looks relieved. The door opens and Faust comes out of the room in his nightclothes. "What do you guys want? I was so tired and trying to sleep and you guys keep knocking on the door." Faust comes out, yawning and goes off to both of them for disturbing her sleep. "Oh, Faust! You are back? Did you walk all the way?" The driver asks with a smile of relief on his face. "Walk? Back? Me? What are you talking about?" Faust asks him as if he does not know anything. "Forget about it and you go back inside to sleep. I will handle him." Cameron says as she crosses her arms and glares at the driver. "Ma''am, I''m for re-" *Slap~* Cameron goes back into her room and the driver walks towards his room while holding his right cheek in pain. Faust teleported back into his room. There are some certain conditions to be met for Faust to teleport. He should see the place where he wants to teleport, he should be aware of the texture of the land and the area of the place. The smell, the colours and the touch of the place that he is in. These conditions should be met for Faust to teleport. He ate dinner late for everyone, including the driver to leave. He did so, Cameron does not be unto him all the time. He then goes inside the room to make himself familiar with his room, the touch, smell and texture of the bed. After he is done, he teleports into the bus, in his seat that he spent the whole day in. After he is done in the cave. He teleports directly to his room that he checked prior. That is how he avoided getting caught by Cameron and at the same time, achieved what he wanted to do. - "Hello, uncle! Did you sleep well last night?" In the morning, all of them start travelling in the bus again. Faust greets the driver and he turned his face to his other side as he saw Faust entering the bus. "We will reach the place today. I hope everyone is ready for the battle. There will be lots of soldiers in the place from different schools. Let''s not lose to any one of them and show our fighting spirit. Always stay strong." Cameron comes behind Faust and after everyone is settled in their seats, Cameron takes the lead to boost up the confidence of her team, "Yeahhhhhh!!!!" "We Are going to win!" The people respond back to Cameron other than Faust and Awarnach. Later, they enter the cities that are built on top of the mountains. There are tunnels and bridges from mountain to mountain. The mountain peaks are filled with snow. "We are lucky! It''s not snowing today." The driver tells the students and they enter the hotels where teams from other schools are resting. As they stop at the entrance, another bus that belongs to another school stops with them on the other side of the entrance. "It''s them." One of the senior utters as soon as he saw the newly arrived bus. "Oh, if it isn''t the Medellin high school? How are you, my friend." The driver of the other bus puts his arm on the shoulder of the driver of Cameron and greets them in a mockery. "Heh, look, they even have a first-year participating this year." "They have given up on the top ten this year." Two of the people mock Faust as they see the only freshman in their rival''s team. "East! West! You both brothers cannot stay quiet for a minute without taunting other people?" The captain of the opposite side tells his members as both of the schools walk side by side against each other while entering the hotel. "If you make them cry now itself, you cannot enjoy seeing them cry during the match." The face of their leader becomes creepy as he too joins the mockery gang and he utters while staring at Cameron. "Do not bother with the dogs'' guys. All they do is bark." Cameron tells her team in a cocky voice. The leader of the opposite school draws his gun out and points it towards Cameron and she puts up her light wall in between them. Both of the groups are raging against each other as they have a grudge against each other. "How dare you call us dogs, you low life bitch!" We can finish you and your school here at this very mo-" The leader says and before he finishes he is pushed back by a hand. The light wall in between them is shattered to pieces. Cameron did not understand what had happened to her strong wall, neither the leader of the other group leader understood what had happened. He is pushed back and falls on his back. "I''m sorry guys, but first, lets us go eat and then fight in the ring," Faust says. "He is in front?" Both of the members are walking in a queue side by side. And Faust is on the side of the East, who mocked him. But now the light wall has disappeared and he is in front? East is confused. "HOW DARE YOU." The leader gets back on his feet to point his gun at Faust, but his gun is disappeared. He checks on the ground if he had lost it, but it is not on the ground. He keeps searching for his gun in frustration. "Oh, by the way, don''t play with these toys all the time." Faust while walking forward with Awarnach behind him, throws an object towards the leader. He holds the object that is flying towards him and it is his gun. *"When did he get this?"* Both the leader of the opposite school and Cameron are left with thinking. Neither of them saw Faust making any moves, but his gun is in him. 133 Flag Game "Dammit! Who is he? Did any of you saw him move?" Santner, the leader of the other school, asks his teammates. Everyone stays silent when he asked them if they saw his movements. "Is he carrying any purple stones? Are his clothes or shoes shining in purple colour?" The purple stone is the element of lightning. It is also used as a stone of electricity. The busses run on the power of the batters. And it is these purple stones that are in the batteries. Also, Garuda, the fastest general is the lightning user. But the secret behind his lightning is, his clothes and enhanced shoes which are enhanced using the purple stones. A person can move quickly when they are equipped with the white stones which enhances the physical properties of a person when equipped or with the purple stone with the lightning element or, using the green stone to enhance your clothes which makes you travel a little faster using the air element. But the air element is not as quick as the white stone or purple stone. "I-" East opens his mouth to say something. "I-i''m standing just beside him and did not even notice when he moved." East tells Santner which made him even more frustrated. "Gather all the white stones and increase your physical properties when you a=fight against that school. And look out for him." Santner changes the strategies at the last moment and explains to all of his teammates. "Who are they by the way? They are so weak." Faust asks Awarnach who are sharing a room together. They are the school from the upper city, they''re from the house of Elbaf." Awarnach replies to Faust. "Elbaf?" "That is the city of the Giants, as per our history." Awarnach describes. "There is a team meeting, Cameron wants the both of you to be present in her room in five minutes." One of the seniors, informs Faust and Awarnach. - Faust and Awarnach goes to Cameron''s room. "Our first match is with the house of Elbaf!" Cameron tells to Awarnach and Faust with a concerned face. "Let''s just perform well and hope that we won''t get eliminated in the first round itself. If we lose even one round, we are out of this segment." Cameron warns her people. "Awarnach, I want you to be our rear guard like usual and help us like always." "What is the first match?"Faust asks Cameron. "You will learn it tomorrow. Make sure to sit close to the team and observe our moments." Cameron belittles Faust without intention. "It''s Kill or Get Killed. A game of plundering flags." Awarnach explains to Faust. "I think Faust should be in the assaulting group." Awarnach adds his voice for Faust but no one pays attention to him and Faust stopsAwarnach before he wants to knock a person to make them listen. "We''re going with the defence again this time and Awarnach will as usual be a rearguard, protecting us in the front lines. Faust doesn''t understand anything that Cameron is saying. She is saying rearguard but staying on the front lines to defend? He brings Awarnach out of the room and asks him about the game. "It is a flag game. There will be three flags and on each flag, there will be a lot of soldiers. You and five others get to be the commander, leader, squad leader, Major and defence. And either try to protect all three flags or plunder the flags of the opposite side." Awarnach answers Faust. "But if we do not attack, won''t we lose for not plundering any?" Faust asks a question. "It also depends on how many commanders or leaders you takedown." "Taking out a commander gives you three points. Taking out a leader gives you two points. One point for the two squad leaders each. Four points for the Major and Five points to take out the defence." "I''m one of the squad leader, that commands my soldiers and suppress the coming squad leaders or commanders. Cameron is the defence with her light element. Mayu is the other squad leader that supports me." "Elton, the guy with glasses is the commander. Saburus, the lightning user is the leader and Howard, the healing element is the major." Awarnach explains the positions, squads and the rules of the match to Faust. The soldiers here are the artificial humanoids, which are soldier level. From the past decade, no school have come close to plunder all three flags, because a huge mob of humanoids is present at every flag. And Commander, leader and Major protect each flag and the rest are their support while the defence makes it harder for the assaulter to reach the flags. "I see, let''s go! Faust and Awarnach heads towards their room and goes to sleep. While Cameron and Santner stay up all night planning the strategies to perfectly win the match tomorrow. - "Are you not going to ask them to let you participate in it?" Awarnach asks Faust in the morning. Fust has gone out to complete his morning exercises and awarnach is ready with the uniform of their school. Awarnach is wearing black pants and an orange leather jacket with zipper and a black tee inside. "Aren''t you wearing any armor?" Faust asks in a surprise upon seeing Awarnach''s outfit. "We put a tool on our body that gives the protective defenses to our bodies." Armours only cover certain places, leaving many openings. Whereas this shield covers the total body. All of the Medellin schools starts going towards the arena. Cameron is wearing a long dress that is black with orange carvings on it, with a black hair band that ties her blonde hair back. But what stood out the most is the dress of Mayu. The squad leader with Awarnach. She is wearing an orange kimono with a black belt wrapped around her waist. She is holding a black folding fan in her hands, which have Japanese words written on it. "Where is this Elton? What is taking him so long?" Cameron yells near the bus as everyone is waiting for Elton to show up. "Listen to me, it is getting late, you guys go and finish the formalities and I will stay, find him and bring him back to you." The coach of the school speaks up. Cameron agrees and all of them heads to the stadium on the bus. The stadium is filled with many t school students and fellow competitors. 134 Fated One The stadium is filled with all the schools and fellow competitors of other schools. "What are you looking at sir? That little kid? I know right? He looks like the only freshman among all our schools." A member of Leviathan''s school starts a conversation with him. "What do you think about him? Does he looks strong?" Leviathan asks him. "Him? haha not at all, sir. He is not even at the lowest levels. Do not be concerned with such puny beings sire, you are truly one of a gifted one. The world, has a constant urge to wage wars, destroy mother Earth and to show supremacy. The Rich gets richer and the poor grow poorer. "Rei! collect everything as fast as you can, we need to leave soon before someone comes." An old man hurriedly tells his grand-daughter, while both of them are collecting metal, gold, silver and whatever they can find useful from the pile of dead bodies in the war field. Right now, it''s a war between the only two nations existing on earth, after the end of the earth and humanity, this is the new beginning. With only one continent that survived the chaos. To begin yet another one. The cries of people involved are heard throughout the cities. Desperate screams and wails were causing sleepless nights to many civilians. "Grandpa! It''s 4:30 in the morning, why do we need t-" Rei a nine year old kid, pauses upon stumbling across a severed head with it''s brain gouged out. The sight caused her to puke her intestines out while being scared. You...stupid girl! We need to live! Collect whatever you find useful." The old man yells at Rei, he is here on this battlefield, risking his life, trying to scavenge whatever he can for his family back in the village and he does not want his work to be slowed down because of Rei. He yells at Rei but his sights are fixated upon the severed head, he slowly slips his hand to grab the brain. *Gulp* Rei who was watching her grandfather all the while is beyond grossed out as her grandfather grips the gooey brain and slides it inside his bag. Rei closes her mouth with her hand, suppressing her urge to puke and continues her search. "Well well, look at this will you? looks like we have caught two little sneaky rats here." A deep voice sent chills down the spine of Rei. There is a battalion of soldiers in their stealth clothes. *"It''s not the time for soldiers to assemble yet, but these people are here this early? Crossing borders and scouting for information is their motive?"* The old man is confused with the sudden appearance of the soldiers. "Do you not respect the people who died protecting you? Do you not know how big of a sin this is?" The one leading the battalion asks the old man. "P-please Mighty soldier, please spare us for this one last time." The old man instantly falls on the feet of the captain and pleads. The captain raises his leg to place his foot on the head of the old man who is bowing down. The heel of his shoe is digging into the skin of the old man. "Naturally, you would be hanged, if the higher ups were to know what you have done." The captain passes the old man and walks towards Rei with an amusing expression on his face to continue. "But, I''m a kind hearted person, so I will let you go, and I will let you keep what you stole." He says firmly. "Ahhh! Ahhh! My master, we are so lucky today, an angel himself came to our rescue." The old man joins both of his hands, he gets up on his feet and decides to leave. As he was about to take the hand of Rei and leave, the captain pulls the girl to his side and a soldier from behind grabs the girl''s face, covering her mouth and holds her tight. She felt as though her body has been locked, the hand of the soldier is pressing hard on her mouth, as if he wants to break her skull. She suffocated under his hand. "B-But sire?" The old man is dumbstruck with what he just saw. "S-sire? She is only nine years old, le-let us go sire." He pleads helplessly while watching his grand-daughter struggling to get out the hold.. "What are you talking about? Girl? Where is the girl? I didn''t see anyone, it was only you from the start." The captain put his hand on the shoulder of Rei, she persistently tries to get rid of his hold, but is tightly restrained by the soldier holding her. "We are telling you there is no girl here, stop bothering us, you don''t wanna go? Fine! Become our sand bag." Ten of the soldiers circles the old man, pushes him around, pin him to the ground and starts pummeling on him with their feet. Rei breaks down into tears and pleads with her eyes. However, the captain slips his hand under the sleeves of her dress. Rei stumbles in shock and tries to move away from him, but she... being a kid, is not even able to escape from the holds of these men. Where the captain and his soldiers gladly laughs while kicking a helpless old man. He places his other hand on Rei, completely holding her by the shoulders. "~~~!!" Suddenly, all the soldiers felt tons of pressure around them, there is a sudden spike of blood lust in the atmosphere. The skies seem to have turned dark and the winds are roaring. *"Th-This is way above the charts, there is no human who possess this immense spiritual power."* The soldiers and the captain are frozen in fear, the pressure built up on their bodies is immense, it''s as if the very nature is hungry for their blood. Amidst this chaos, the eyes of captain widens as he watches something. At first glance, it was just a man walking towards them, but then, strange aura is being emitted by the man, all of the aura being released like a steam from his body is headed above to the sky. There lies a representation of the very devil above him, with screeching voice and pointy teeth, it''s tongue is out of its mouth oozing with juices while eyeing at the soldiers. The man came up from behind the old man, who has no clue of what happened or why the soldiers froze in fear, taking this chance, Rei ran towards her grandpa. "Excuse me old man! But do you happen to know the way to Agartha nation?" As the old man turns around to the voice, the aura disappears, along with the climatic change. It''s peaceful and silent, like the eerie calm before the storm. "Wh-who are you? You cannot be here, do you know that you will be hanged if you are seen here? Before the old man can answer, the soldiers who are now able to move, ran their mouths while being hesitant to make a move. "Ahh! Ignore them! Please show me the way." The man asks Rei''s grandpa again. "It''s this way." Rei gestures her hand towards the border, facing the man with a blank face. "Ahh! Such a cute kid, I''m really thankful for your help." He says as he draws his arms on either side with a smile with squinty eyes, as if he is enjoying this conversation. "You need to come here" The captain utters in anger. He grips Rei''s arm, pulling her towards him. *!!!~* Rei is at the same place as before, the captain is in confusion, he is sure he pulled her. Upon closer look, he saw a hand sticking on Rei''s arm, it looks similar, he looks over at his own arm. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" His hand is cut till the elbow, he held the arm in a panic. "Dammit! You asked for this." The soldiers immediately responded by drawing their guns to shoot at the man. The strange man however did not respond to anything, his eyes are still closed with a happy expression on his face. "Too annoying!" He mutters in a cold voice. "God arts - Reality Swap!" *Whoosh~* The entire war field area of 10km consisting of tanks, artillery, the fence, the barricades, the life, the dead, everything, except the old man and his granddaughter within the 10km radius disappeared instantly in a blink of an eye, leaving a huge trench on the ground and the sky is clear, the sun appears as a red rose, blooming in the soil of the blue sky. Only a trace of the man''s extraordinary power remained on the border where the man stood upright. Even the land that was soaked with blood has disappeared, as if someone has erased them forever from mother Earth. "Maybe I overdid it" - said the voice softly to himself. "You both are free to go now, I need to go too." He says to Rei and her grandpa as he crosses the borders of one of the nations that is involved in this awful war. No trace of remorse could possibly be seen on his face as he walked out, like a body with no soul or feelings. . . . The people in the HQ(Headquarters) are desperately trying to contact the front lines but none seem to be responding. All of the soldiers are quickly trying to connect to cameras or phone lines. "What is the status." The head of the HQ yells while he stands behind the soldiers who were rushing to get the Intel. "I''m asking, what is the status idiots!" The yells from the head sends chills down the spine of the soldiers. One of the soldiers with glasses leaps forward and gets up from his seat. "Th-the entire front lines have disappeared!" The soldier says with a blank face. "D-Disappeared?" The head asks in a puzzled voice. "Ye-yes, even the war field. The very land is empty all over and no trace of blood or a soldier''s body is found." The soldier replies, as if he himself does not believe in the report he got. "EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!" Out of nowhere, an alarm goes off with loud sirens. "We are under attack by someone- he- he doesn''t seem normal !"- a report came by fast through a speaker from the camp nearby. "What is happening here? Under attack by whom? I want the surveillance camera right now! Let me see what''s happening!" - the head yells in panic, it spelled chaos in every corner of the camp. "A stealth drone is dispatched to the sight now, sir" A soldier in the HQ room yells out. His hands are trembling in fear and he has to force his fingers to type on the virtual keyboard. But, the view that the HQ sees as the drone arrives at the camp is beyond horrific. No one could have described the graphic that they witnessed. [At the camp] "Gather up! Take aim and fire in his direction!" A captain orders his fifteen soldiers, and the soldiers fire endless bullets from their Assault Rifles. The ground before them trembles and all the dust turns into a screen of smoke. "G-get the generals! We might have pinned him down." The captain passes an order to one of his soldiers. "Dispatch the tanks and helicopters to assist the generals, no matter how strong he may be, he cannot take on generals." The head in the HQ commands his soldiers. The tension in the atmosphere increases with all the backup moving out with two tanks, helicopters, wranglers with no roof or side door with two machine guns on either sides are dispatched. One of the tanks emits green color while the other emits red, both the helicopters are surrounded with a mist like purple aura. And the wranglers, both emits red aura. All the artillery, soldiers and generals gather around the spot that the man was hit. Footsteps are heard and a man is seen walking towards the cluster of soldiers from within the smoke. The rhythm of his footsteps is perfectly synchronized, showing his confidence. A man with ash colored hoodie covered his head and blue jeans gives his appearance to the soldiers. Pale skin, long black hair that is fluttering over his right eye he carries an uninterested expression. His hand resting on the two katanas strapped on the same side of his waist. His every gesture and movement displayed a very majestic aura around him. "Who is this kid?" A general with two mechanic gloves on his hands, speaks in an arrogant voice. On top of his gloves Is a small circular shaped dial, which is divided into three parts, decorated with three stones, red, green and white, on each part of the dial. "Huffh, go with a synchronized attack, he will be torn from limb to limb into pieces." Another general with grey goatee and two curved blades on his back says with a smile on his face. He is ashamed to be summoned to the battlefield to deal with a twenty year old looking kid in front of him. "Synchronized attacks it is!!" The captains in front of the generals yells to the soldiers in the front. The tanks glow in their respective auras followed by the wranglers, all the soldiers ready their rifles, grenade launchers and sub-machine guns. "Let me join the fun." The general with mechanic gloves says as he stretches his arms and approaches to the front. The green stone on the dial of his gloves turns towards a pointer that locks the green stone tightly. In a blink, his gloves gives out a green aura. "Twin Air Cannons." Air swirls, curls and gathers around the gloves taking the shape of two push-handles, the general grips his hands around the handles and pulls his arms behind him. "FIREE!" The call goes out and instantly, the cannons leaves with a thunderous sound from the tanks. Machine guns starts going off from the wranglers with number of bullets being fired and the bullets from the guns of every single soldier that is standing, along with the cannons of a general. *Snap!* "Freeze!" a word is uttered from the man, who is by this time is surrounded by all the bullets, cannons, grenades and inhuman elemental energy from every side. The next moment, everything froze as if the time has suddenly stopped. The artillery is all around the man in a perfect circle, he reaches out and pulls one of the katana to his other side. With both of his hands on both of his katanas, he utters. "Oni-Iaido (Iaido Of The Demon)" He tilts his katanas lower, flicks the hand guard of his katana with his thumbs, making the swords come out and withdraws them back into the scabbards right away. With an explosive sound, all the artillery around him is sliced cleanly, the tanks are cleanly cut in half, along with the wranglers. As time seems to move and everything went back to normal. The faces of the people around the man have turned white. They are in a state of confusion as to what has happened. In the meanwhile, the sound of metal rattling against each other attracts the ears of the generals. The man in front has withdrawn the swords from his scabbards. The general with the gloves seems to notice one of the swords, and as everyone is staring, he disappears in a blink. Cries of the people are heard from the back, soldiers are getting cut down becoming a sacrifice to the sharpness of his swords. As the generals are watching, the man ran a perfect circle among the soldiers, as the limbs of the people fly in the air. "W-we need to stop him." The old general pulls out the blades from his back. *Eeeeuk~~* He made a sound as his neck is cleanly cut, while he is still holding his blades in his hand. He did not even see the attack coming. The general with the gloves is immediately alarmed. Next attack fell on his gloves, the man is attacking from different directions in incredible speed even though the general is not able to see the attacks, he blocked them with his gloves. After a couple of attacks, his gloves are shattered to pieces. *"He-he only aimed for my gloves? And this teleportation¡­ he can teleport at this speed? And his sword."* As he is lost in the thoughts, a powerful kick landed on his chest, sending him a few feet away. "S-soldiers! Cover me!" He yelled in despair. Two of the soldiers appeared in front of the general to protect him. But as he watched, the two were decapitated in a second. The blood splashed onto the face of the man with swords. The general slowly crawls back while being dead scared of the man slowly walking towards him. As their eyes meet, the general in the ground realises. *"T-th-the Devil"* the general recalls the person in front of him. Blood red eyes, pointy teeth and the devilish bloodlust aura. *"I-i need to let the people in HQ know, it is him! The devil."* The general gets up on his knees, turns around and tries to run. "F-Fuck! It''s the de-" *Slice* The head of the general left the rest of his body as he tries to let the people know of the man''s identity. "It''s time for your nation to repent for the atrocities that it has committed" - says the man in a low and kind voice as he drops his neck back with a psychotic look towards the helicopters and the drones that are watching this nightmare. "Telepo - Hmmm, no, I can use three of them at once for now, let''s see if I can increase it to four or five at one time." The man talks to himself and leaps forward. "Time....." ¨C Mindoro - Year 5062 Mindoro is a remote village with a subtropical highland climate, set among beautiful hills and mystical woods. A golden shrine stands atop of the four hills surrounding the village and the whole area is covered with grassy terrains folded inwards, leaving wide fertile plains to build houses. All the houses are supported as well as connected to each other. The village only consists of groups of houses built nearby each other in a perfect circle with lanes dividing them into four equal parts. Painted and decorated in different colors. The village at night is the most beautiful sight to watch, as the street lights illuminate the road. Where, the light then merges with the colors of houses. It takes upon the form of a flower bud shining in spiritual light blue color. Each shrine built of gold on each hilltop, glows bright yellow taking the form of golden petals. These colors at night when viewed from the tallest hill a little far from the village looks like a Divine flower from heaven. Mindoro is also a home to rich natural heritage. The dense forests and its flowers which bloom at night release their wonderful sweet fragrances. The snow glows with neon-like colors when the moonlight sparkles on top of the mountain peaks. The shrines which are always situated on top of each hills are always guarded by the villagers. One can always feel the mysterious vibrant resonating sound.waves, which feels like tons of energy passing through your body that sends chills down your spine. As you enter the woods in the village, you can see various kinds of animals and rare birds such as crimson horned pheasant, marble tailed ducks and Red neck, blue colored birds that resembles a red peacock. A species known to be nearly extinct out in the world can be found inside the forests of Mindoro. Taking care of all these endangered / rare species of trees and animals, is a kind old doctor living with his grandson while treating animals and trying to protect ''Mother Nature'' from getting destroyed by the hands of other humans in the real world. He feels as though his grandson, whom he adores greatly, is one of the best gifts he has ever received. He takes pride in raising him alone single handedly, without the parents of his grandson. Grandpa Gus is a very kind hearted person. He has long hair and prickly beard hair, which pokes me like thorns every time I try to hug him and play with his beard in wonder. Are the feelings of eight year old ''Faust''. The house or chalet where Faust and Gus live, is built on top of the mountain crest in order to offer an amazing 360¡ã view. The chalet consists of two floors where the first floor consists of the small animals that Gus takes care of, along with the two beds for them to sleep in. And the living furniture and the egg incubators are placed on the second floor. The rear of the house is sheltered by the cliff and forest while the front cantilevers above the hill with full height glass walls, exposing them to the views of the village underneath them. "The village is as pretty as ever grandpa" Faust murmurs while he is lost in admiration, watching the incandescence of the village, as he is getting ready for a story from Gus. "Grandpa I want a story of a hero again!, hero!, hero!" Faust instantly turns back and shouts in an excitement. With a cheeky smile surfacing upon his face. While wondering which story Gus will be reading to him tonight. Seeing how excited Faust is, Gus starts reading him the story. And as soon as Gus starts, Faust is imagining himself in the position of the main character. Saving people in dire and tough situations while being praised as the hero. Achieving his dreams and many more and slowly, he falls into a deep sleep. Faust really admires people who have a dream of their own and those who work towards making their dreams come true, especially his grandpa Gus. He admires his grandpa so much that he wants to be like him when he grows up. Saving all kinds of animals and vegetation. But of course, he mainly wants to save and help humans more than anything. - The next morning, little Faust wakes up rubbing his eyes feeling lazy as his legs wobbling. He walks towards Bella, a husky that is living with him since his childhood. He raises his hand up to pet Bella on her temple, but before he could do so. "Fausty! Get ready and come fast. We should reach school on time at least today." Gus who is preparing breakfast yells at Faust. He knows that Faust and Bella doesn''t stop once they start playing. And he doesn''t want that to happen when they are already late for school. Faust with a poker face glares at Gus as his hand is stopped in mid air. "It''s time for me to go rebel, it''s now or never for Bella." Saying that he places his hand on Bella and pets her for a few seconds, before he goes on his way. As Gus and Faust start for school while climbing down the mountain on a scooter, his grandpa tries to nail some safety lessons in his head, like: who to talk to, and how to cross a road. He did all this inorder to keep Faust focused. Faust is the type of kid who slips into his own world, whenever he is by himself due to the loneliness he had growing up. Without parents or any siblings. For this, Gus need to keep talking continuously. Even after all the efforts from Gus, Faust still ends up in his imaginary world, as his grandpa''s lecture is boring. He imagines himself dashing at high speed on side of the road while jumping from tree to tree and buildings. *At the school* "Again! today, I''m going to do the tasks I have been given. I''ll make a name for myself and be on top of the school''s rank. I will crush the students and shock the teachers with my answers and even solve the grown up math problems without breaking a sweat, muahahaha!!" Faust lets out a ridiculous laugh wanting to sound like an evil conqueror. He gets all ready to take on his delusional self. "So here you are, strongest kick boxer of this school and..... My rival heh heh", suddenly a tough looking kid appears with his arms crossed, a sly smile on his mouth and huge nose like every silly villain appearing in a story. He gives a cocky little smirk to Faust, while his eyes are half-closed and head slightly tilted. 135 History "Ah Nincompoop" Faust says as his eyes widens, raising his eyebrows, completely taken over by surprise. "Uh...." The kid in front of him pauses I''m a shock before continuing. "It''s Nicholas troop! Not nincompoop oi Faust! How dare you?? You never call me with my real name" Nick short for Nicholas starts to whine and complain about how Faust never calls him with his real name. Faust, who barely have friends at school is a calm and shy kid. When it comes to making friends for him, it takes weeks and months to even talk to the person sitting just beside him in class. He doesn''t like to involve in any of the quarrels that normal kids at his school usually do. So much for being a big dreamer at home, but a quiet and shy kid at school. To emphasize more about how quiet of a kid Faust really is, he never cries. He does, but in a low and squeaky voice ever since he was a baby. It''s a strange thing to ever witness. A child that doesn''t even make a noise as an infant and cry out like any newborn child would. And so, Faust ended up having only 3 friends in the whole school. And the way he made friends is also strange in different situations. *Backstory of how Faust and Nick met* Faust''s ears perk up as he overhears a kid yelling too loudly from behind, while he is having his lunch in a corner of the cafeteria''s table seat. "I''m a black belt in karate, I will just sweep the whole floor with you if you don''t stop bullying other people" Nick is threatening a bully who is throwing his fangs on a timid girl. Nick couldn''t stand the bully''s behavior, he really wants to scare him and impress the girl at the same time. Before he can show off his heroic image, Nick is on the ground with bruises on several places of his body. *"This bully never heard of the word ''mercy'' or what?"* Nick thinks to himself as he moans in a squeaky voice. This is the first time Faust notices Nick. "What a weird kid" He mumbles under his breath, looking at Nick, who is a goner by now. The next day, Faust is having his lunch again all by himself in his usual spot and again he heard the same kid from yesterday, who has started roaring, loud as a lion. And surprisingly, an adult voice too joins him. Out of curiosity, Faust stands up from his spot to see what the commotion is about. *"Ah it''s that weird kid from yesterday"* Faust realizes while watching Nick. *"Bu-but wait"* he pauses before saying *"Who is this big thug beside him?"* Faust wonders as he sees a huge guy standing beside Nick. The adult next to Nick is his dad, who is one of the village''s security. But he has really thick eyebrows and a scary face with a scar across his face which is given to him by a ''cat'' not in a war or in some fight. Which leaves an impression of him being a thug and makes the kids think he is truly a gangster. Where in reality he is a village guard. The next thing Faust notices is Nick''s father shouting and abusing the bully directly in his face. He is so enraged and riled up that his son got beaten up badly. And according to Nick''s dad, if it is for his son, he is ready to pick a fight with anyone. At the same time the bully is scared to his wit and only thinking of running from that situation. But he got nowhere to go since he''s pretty much being backed up against the wall like a prisoner. "Wa-wait, he is not stopping with just the bully?" Faust is looking at more people getting yelled at by Nick''s father. "Who are the people trying to defend the bully? That must be his parents and this thug is yelling at them too??" Faust watches while his jaw''s dropping, he tightly rolled up his fists in excitement. "Whoa, here comes the teachers. This old dude will stop now tsk tsk" But to Faust''s surprise... "He is still going and is shouting at teachers too??? Wow, AMAZINVVVV! this old dude is really amazinvvv!!" Faust really wants to reach out to Nick''s father and tell him how cool he is, yelling at everyone to defend his son, but he is too scared to do that as Nick''s father continued to yell at everyone that is approaching him, he is really unstoppable. But later on, he figures out a way to approach Nick''s father and that is through Nick. "Yo! You are so coollll" Faust stands in front of Nick with a goofy expression and giving thumbs up to Nick with admiration written all over his face. Nick upon hearing this, is very happy, *"If not the girl admiring me, a guy admiring me for my coolness is not too bad" he thinks as he tries to smile, exposing his broken tooth. *"I''m a dumb fool who got into this mess."* Nick, while dying internally pats on the shoulder of Faust saying " thanks for the compliment, want to eat together?." Faust who thought his plan is working agrees and the both of them started eating together from that day and Faust who became Nick''s friend with a secret intention to learn how to be a Savage like Nick''s father, now really thought of Nick as his real close friend as they continue to get closer as each day passes by. "Back to the present story" "So poop (referring to Nick), let''s go to our base and discuss about how we deal with these monsters." Faust says with a bright smile on his face. Faust, Nick and their two other friends love to play the hero''s of the school with Faust being the best kickboxer, Nick the Karate Master, Roy(a Noble''s kid) being the space hero and Tim the higher class men and 2 years older than the three doesn''t like to play any character. He stays a normal kid and cultivates his land and grows vegetables. And the monsters that Faust is referring to are the bullies of the school. Faust and his friends are currently good at dealing with level 1, level 2 and level 3 rank monsters who are bullies from 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades in their school. The kick boxing, karate and every other martial arts are ancient techniques in this modern world of 5062. No one ever saw or heard of someone using these skills. However, there is a belief that very few people in this entire world can use ancient martial art techniques. But no one is allowed to teach or learn these fighting arts. If anyone is seen using them in public, they are hunted and killed instantly by the government. And so the ancient martial arts nor the healing arts were passed down through generations. The only fighting arts used in this age is military arts. It involves the use of weapons that have special attributes and technology that does the impossible. Faust and Nick are friends from the start. However, they met Roy and Tim during a brawl between the high schoolers and middle schoolers on one fine day. *One fine day of spring* The taunts between the middle schoolers and high schoolers grew intensely which lead to a huge brawl between both of them. Both sides are too angry and are just pushing each other while yelling loudly enough to resonate around the whole school where every teacher and student can hear this ruckus, yet no one passing by cares. Because these particular students have been having a brawl from past three years and never once in three years they hit each other. All they do is cause a huge ruckus, raise some dust off the ground and disperse like a scripted fight on stages. They only want the 10 minutes attention and want people to realise that these are the hard boiled bad guys in the school. But the reality is that no other students or teachers are willing to spare their time to stop the fights and resolve the issues Yet, there are four kids who watches the brawl between these two mobs from the school balcony, standing next to each other and with excitement filled in their faces and the happiness they faced when they saw the high schoolers running away from the fight because the middle schoolers overcame them with numbers which happens every time. The eyes of these four met each other, where Nick starts talking. "So you guys came here to have a fight with us or what?" Nick, with an arrogance filled voice asks Roy and Tim who he has just met. "We''re just here to watch the brawl" Roy and Tim answers at the same time with surprised faces as they didn''t want to start any trouble. "So you guys came here just like us? To watch and learn? asks Nick. "Indeed" Roy and Tim replies by nodding their heads. With just that, the four of them starts talking and their conversation led to one thing and another. They even get to know about how all four of them shared the same interests and goals with each other and became closest friends to one another. Faust, Nick, Roy and Tim all have the same kind of thinking. That it is so cool when you fight a higher class men, win and make them run with their tails between their legs. They hoped that one day after they beat the air out of the high schoolers, they gain popularity, all the people in school will fear them, rush to come see them and bow down to them respectfully as they walk in the middle of a corridor, where people from two groups and crest a path for them to walk through. To make their dream come true, they had always hung out together making several plans to beat the high schoolers. And suddenly, the auspicious day of their first fight arrives, they were prepared to go all out. Nick came running to Faust wearing a severe expression on his face. He came and grabbed the wrist of Faust "Faust! we gotta go, come with me!" Nick yells out at Faust while breathing panting for breath. "What happened Nicko! Chill and learn to enjoy the life yo!" Faust says casually while sleeping on the floor and reading a comic, without even taking a glance at the exhausted Nick. "Just come, will you! Jerk!" Nick pulls Faust like a little kid by force, smacks his head to make him sit on his bicycle and drives off as Roy and Tim join them along the way on their own bikes. "So are you really telling us the truth?" Roy asks Nick with an intense look on his face. "Of course! He really is arrogant, fearless and most of all hailed as the strongest in his grade. Picking fights with everyone without ever losing a fight. We need to let him have a taste of his first loss." Nick declares with an evil grin. "If he is as arrogant and strong as you say he is, then we definitely need to take him down," Roy says as excitement erects inside him. He strongly feels that the bully needs to know his place and it''s a nice opportunity to establish the power of these four among the school by taking down this bully. On the other hand, Faust doesn''t really get what is happening, but he can see that they are going to have a fight and he is dead scared to go into his first fight. He soon realises that his limbs are not in his authority anymore, he is quivering in fear and his heart is beating fast faster than ever, almost as his whole chest is throbbing without rest. He feels like a coward for cowering, he wanted to make up his mind for his first-ever fight. He takes a glimpse at his friends to see if he is the only one feeling uneasy. What he saw left him open-mouthed, all of his three friends were just as scared as him. "This is really a pressured situation, but I''m gonna do it for my friends and myself!" Faust whispers to himself while gathering up his courage to take on anything that awaits him. As they finally reached the place, the serious expression they had on their face started to disappear along with their nervousness. They''re all standing in front of the fearless bully that Nick highly spoke off. But to their surprise, the fearless and unbeatable kid that Nick told them about is a 6 years old cute kid standing in front of them with his arms resting on his hips. Roy cannot express his feelings, he is too disappointed to even let his emotions be seen, he just stands there thinking to himself *"Find me a glass of water, please bring a glass of water, no not glass I''m gonna find a building and jump down from the roof. Guys don''t stop me now. I''m going to the roof* Roy fights with his inner self. "Oiii NICK! is This the KID you talked about?" He asks while gritting his teeth. Roy is beyond disappointed that even death can''t save him from this embarrassment. A normal death by drowning is too easy so he wanted to embarrass himself even more by wanting to drown in a glass of water. On the other hand, Faust is way too relaxed when he realised that they are going to fight with a kid. He sarcastically smiled without realizing it. Nick hesitatingly steps ahead, getting closer to the kid to introduce his friends who are standing behind him with pride and honour as if Nick is going to introduce them as legendary weapons in his artillery. "Faust! Master brown belt in kickboxing" - Nick yells right in Kid''s face. *Awkward Silence* The only martial art Nick was ever exposed to is karate and he doesn''t really know what kickboxing is, he thinks, karate rules apply to every other martial art. Faust looks at Nick with surprise and admiration as tears started streaming out from his eyes. *"Na-Na-Na.... uwahhhh.** He calms his inner cry baby *"Nachos poop you!!! YOU even know about kickboxing and the belts I posses, you even estimated my strength with brown belt which is way higher than black belt didn''t you?*Faust thinks to himself while crying inside. Faust himself doesn''t know what kickboxing or karate or what those freaking belts are given for, he estimated that in karate the belt with more exquisite colour is powerful of all. According to him, plain black coloured and most commonly used belt is the lowest level. And a multi-coloured belt rainbow-like belt, which never existed and will never exist and if already exists I(author) hope it is cursed and is in the depths of hell and no one can ever reach it. ~~Break Time~~ According to Faust, the multi-coloured belt is the highest level of all. He estimated strength with fashion. Nick continues on with his yelling not even caring if it''s right or not. "Roy, also a purple belt in space hero" Nick announces majestically. *Double Awkward silence* "There is only one belt for space heroes with a button in the middle. Which, when pressed gives us wings(a reference to his space hero toy)" Roy tells Nick in a low embarrassed voice. No words to explain the kid''s innocence at all. stupid little kids. Cute stupid little kids. Shitty cute stupid little kids. Dammi, all kids shitty kids. Kids.kids.kids kids kids.kidssssss. ~~Intense break time~~ Nick looks at Tim and yells to the kid - "The higher class senpai!"And he seems to enter deep thinking realm, he comes out to shout "THAT''S IT!" Without knowing what else to say about Tim, as he don''t play heroes of the school like the other three. "you still wanna fight?" - Nick asks while giving a rough flick to the kid''s forehead. Tim however is so disappointed and was left in shock that everyone can see his soul leaving the earth. In the meantime, Faust steps up ahead, cracks his fingers and stares at the kid with a scary face and the rest of his friends followed Faust in doing the same. The poor kid who couldn''t even talk properly is overwhelmed by the four as tears gather in his eyes. Especially with scary Nick who keeps flicking the forehead of the kid until it becomes red. ~No kids were harmed during this~ "MOMMY, THESE BIG GUYS ARE BULLYING ME!!.... wahhhh" the kid starts to cry in a very loud and leecherous voice. The adults, villagers and even some beautiful high school girls in the alley, stopped in their tracks to glare at Faust and his friends. "Whaa-- dammit you better remember this and cry a lot and tell everyone in your school not to mess with us!" Nick yells as he grabs his bike to make a run for it. Faust and the rest follow after Nick quickly and they happily ride back home cheerfully, thinking their first fight is a huge success. Most of the kids don''t pick on these four, because of the higher classmen Tim who look serious all the time, Nick who is 4 feet 3 inches at the age of 8 with big buff body like his dad and Roy because he is a noble. Whereas Faust at 8 is less than 3''5" with thin arms and a tiny body. After reaching home, Faust cheerfully plays with Bella, checks on all the eggs in and out of incubators, helps his grandpa with preparing dinner and enjoys the view of the village while sitting on top of the hill with Bella as he waits patiently for storytime. "Grandpa! Nick is so knowledgeable" - Faust starts talking to his grandpa while both arrange the animals in their places for the night and his grandpa tuck him in bed after finishing their job neatly. "Really? What did he do to gain your recognition?" Gus asks while kindly smiling towards Faust. "He knows that there is a brown belt in kickboxing, and also a purple belt in space hero. I wish I was that knowledgeable." Faust replies while he pulls his bed near the window so he can watch the village as he sleeps "Hahaha" Gus starts laughing and asks a question curiously "so you like these ancient martial arts that Nick told you about?." "Of course I do! People can do anything with martial arts" Faust replies with a smile. "Anything huh..." Gus mumbles to himself with a little unseen grim on his face, as if he knew that martial arts that can help people to do anything doesn''t really exist. "Come now Faust, I will tell you a story about a superhero with a sword that can cut mountains and air as it changes colours" Gus surprises Faust with his words. 136 Next Round All the countries started to dig, mine and burn the mother Earth for the resources to make weapons and continued until they ended up using everything and the mother Earth started to crumble as fragments into the thick and dark space as if it''s not being held together as a sphere anymore, causing tsunami''s and volcanic eruptions and many other weathering occasions. The atmosphere became dense with all the polluted particles in air making it hard for humans to breathe and massive earthquakes which were never measured or recorded in the history ever before. It was the worst nightmare of the mankind ever. Many countries were flooded by their natural heritage of mountains and seas. It is estimated that all of the land went underwater. And only 1% remain surfacing on earth. The tectonic plates movement started to happen leaving the earth with only one continent divided by a huge rigorous one big ocean. And some of the earth''s tectonic plates were left as small islands scattered around earth and became abandoned and uninhabited. Mindoro is one of those islands bigger in size which wasn''t discovered by the world, because of harsh nature surrounding it acting as a barrier without letting any human to even discover this island with the advanced technology they have. There are two more villages on the island along with Mindoro. Even though Mindoro is casted away from the rest of the world, the people who used to live at that time has preserved the language and farming and field cultivation and many cultures and literature and later passed them down to their younger generations. After the earth has settled from the catastrophic events. The global leaders of every nation came together and discussed about forming a single country, a single rule and a single government to avoid making same mistakes over and over that ate the earth to bits. This is the dream of all the leaders who has fantasized about world peace. All the Nations came together and formed a single giant country and everyone thought there won''t be any fights anymore and that everyone could live happily and peacefully. If only this was true. The single country would have to take up on all of the languages and cultures and history from the past thousands of years and absorbing them is isn''t as easy as they thought. Currencies and democracy didn''t have singular opinion on which one they should decide upon as there should only be one currency on the entire planet. However, there is a better side to it as everyone came together united to tackle the problem the earth has faced with climate changes and greenhouse effects. Every country shared their own technologies, the acts of war is eliminated, quality of life in this giant single country has become very balanced and having only one global currency across the country, reduced the economic power and the need of currency exchange was erased. Resulting with every human being able to afford for his own health. However, again, there are many who opposed to this and the reasoning is about a wrong person being put in charge of the entire planet and this caused massive revolution. Some leaders forced their political ideologies into the minds of people under them, making them into thinking that there is no other democracy greater than their own, which has lead to genocides and religious issues and erasing the democracies by wars and force is the option that people choose. The people split in two with different agenda''s and thus the two nations Aztec and Agartha has formed. . . . . "A sword?" Faust asks in surprise. "What? didn''t you know about any sword fighting martial arts? you heard about kick boxing but never heard about a sword?" Gus asks as he thinks with a paining expression showing on his face. *"What happened to the weapon and culture of the one, who used to hold a sword and who set principles to their own life and who used to fight by their principles by putting their lives along with their honor on only sword and no other use of weapons or no back hand plays, what happened to those brave warriors who thinks dying in a war is a great honor than fleeing from the enemy like a cowardice"* Gus feels in his heart as he feels flustered and sad because the legends of such brave swordsmen has and is being erased from the history like it never existed before. Breaking the silence, Faust tells Gus what he knew - "well I just heard about most of the martial arts names that involves fighting, but I never heard of any fights with a sword, what is a sword?" - Faust asks with curiosity. "well, you know about the kitchen knives right? A sword is the same but have a longer blade and a grip to hold on to and its intended to thrust and slice whatever that comes in its way and this superhero I''m going to tell you about has immerse respect and love towards swords, but somehow the sword that he uses is a little curvy and has been crafted by the gods in heaven from what I heard." Gus replies to Faust. "So Faust, outside Mindoro there used to be one huge land and a giant country." Gus tells Faust. "Ehhhh I didn''t know... A huge land? Without ocean surrounding it? " Faust is surprised, for him Mindoro is the only land he knew. He didn''t know something so vast existed outside Mindoro and he has never thought about it either until his grandpa mention it to him. "Yes And the giant country broke and became two, both of the Nations suffered huge loss, the weapons and artillery became to be made once again, the taxes are increased way high to make weapons of war." *"War? People suffered? The people outside must be so bad"* Faust thinks to himself "The earth itself at that time when two nations just formed has gone through many changes and the technologies of both nations accomplished new heights and during this, the people of both nations suddenly got their hands on infinite amount of resources." Gus continues on with his story. "Electricity, air, atmosphere and power to change the reality. Both the Nations have achieved these things within their grasp and as anticipated, both nations started a war for power struggle with the newly found resources and enhanced weapons. A new world war took place." "During this war a small band of 5 soldiers were washed away to the shore of a small village surrounded by mountains and hills, which no one knew existed before. However, even after being washed off to shore from the ocean, one of them seemed conscious. He was also badly injured, but for some reason he was still standing very strong and compelling." "The soldier looked like he''s between 18-20 with long hair tied backwards. He was holding the four soldiers who washed to shore with him tightly, one in each of his hands, one in between his legs and the last one he bite the vest that the soldier was wearing and was carrying him using his teeth and neck muscles." "His hands were tightly holding onto the bullet proof vests that the soldiers were wearing. His grip on the vests from both of his hands were so tight as if his hands were tightly locked to the vests as he was holding them. The vests were even shredded and ripped at the spot he was holding them, that is how powerful his grip seemed. It''s almost like he could crush rock Boulders with his bare hands." "The weight he carried with his body would be around 400 - 500 kg as the soldiers were well built. The solider that was being carried by his teeth would weight around 80kgs, and he held them tight in this harsh ocean and whirlpools and got here?" The villagers standing before him are watching in disbelief. Gus continues on with the story. Back in 5015 The man carrying them is very much determined to save the lives of his friends, he carried them and drag them to safety onto the shore. Then he filled his lungs full of air and shouted -"please save my friends" with a very loud and clear voice that resonated the whole village. He was standing tall as a proud warrior who prefers death over dishonor, and as the people are approaching him, they can see every fiber in his muscle is twitching and soaring as if they''re crying. He seems to be feeling a sharp pain in his bones as if someone is carving his bones while he is alive. Yet he still stands tall as his body is letting out hot steam made visible as the rays of a setting sun hit his body and his blue eyes were black as if he was knocked unconscious long ago and as though his body is just moving on his sheer will. He really seemed like a true warrior who never gives up no matter what and keeps fighting the oceans, enemies and even gods until he changes his fate himself. This was the first time something hit Gus hard on his lazy and unmotivated life. He realized that humans with inhuman capability exist and that is the power of ones sheer will. The body of the warrior who seemed stronger than anyone in the village has ever seen suddenly started to fall as though the body is assured that the 4 soldiers are safe and the task given to the body is completed and fell onto the ground as if the life stopped inside the body completely. 15 year old Gus know something was wrong so he rushed toward the soldiers and caught the falling body. As soon as he held the soldier in his hands, the hairs on Gus body stood up as if he witnessed something incredible. *Is this the pride of a warrior?* Gus thought to himself. 137 Questions Ares walks out of the house with the help of clutches and his right arm in an arm sling. He instantly gets blown away by the sight his eyes are met with. He finds himself surrounded by grassy terrains all around him with hills, and a small village in the middle. A beach could be seen faintly across the mountains. There are small, steep trekking steps to get down from the hill that Gus house is located on and the stair way is curved. There is room for only one foot on each step. It really looked like a stairway to hell. It could really become one if they were not careful enough. It is certainly not for the weak hearted. One needs to be careful of the slippery wet steps. And with strong winds blowing in the midway, it is naturally hard for a normal person to crawl down and even harder for Ares to get down as he cannot use the strength of his two feet completely. "Mr. Ares, would you prefer going down with a rope way?" Gus asks with consideration. The rope way is good for two people at a time and a person needs to pull the rope to make the wheel move. The cart will travel in any way they chose to move it. "No no, no need for you to use any force" Alex tries to speak, but before he could - Out of nowhere Yang suddenly takes a long leap and jumps down the hill from the peak without any hesitation. For Gus who has no idea about the superhuman strategy of advance technology panicked and worried at the sight of seeing Yang jumping down the mountain. "What?? Mr.Yang! Oh no, this is bad!!" Gus is greatly in shock at what Yang has done and rushes to the cape to see what has happened to him. Yang is wearing two leather gloves which seem to be reinforced with steel near the knuckles but what draws our attention to it is, there is a red stone on the palms of his gloves which started to emit a red aura, the red mist like aura swirled around his arms like a snake coiling around branches.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Yang seems like he is getting ready to aim at the ground by drawing one of his arm behind him and his other arm in front of him. *Oomph!" he threw a punch in the air as he approaches the foot of mountain. It''s nothing different from him punching the air. Following his punch, a strong gust of wind is created around Yang, as though he has blasted a canon, which decreased the falling momentum of Yang. In mere 5 seconds after Yang jumped off the mountain, he landed on the ground normally as though he is hopping on the ground. "Wh... what in the world did I see just now?!" Gus panicked upon seeing such power and strength displayed in front of him. He was of all more surprised and curious of the gloves that Yang was wearing, as Yang''s gloves are now back to normal with the red stone looking dormant and the aura disappeared into thin air. "pfff, yeah, what a show off. Doing a little circus trick to impress people. So mature of him." Tanya says with an arrogant and smirking smile and none of the soldiers on top of the mountain standing with Gus seemed surprised. In fact the look on the soldier''s faces shows displeasure. "Oh! So our tools are fixed this fast? No wonder having you with us is a big relief" Ares praises Alex with his words and starts to climb down off the hill using the small steps. Even though the winds are strong and the steps are too small that it is hard to climb down for a normal person and for people like Ares its almost impossible. But to Gus''s surprise, Ares and the rest are comfortable getting down the mountain without any problem. They do it while talking to each other about different things. Actually, it''s Gus who is being left behind unable to keep up with the soldiers as he keep rushing down to catch up with the soldiers. "Oooof! It was easier than I thought it would be, eh? Now, my saviour Gus, let''s go see and explore the island" Ares is moving all around in excitement and jumping around like a kid, as if he wasn''t hurt at all. "Cap''n are you really hurt?" Albert asks with a smirk and suspicion written all over his face while Ares nervously just laugh it off without saying a word. As they continue to walk, the soldiers comes across the dogs and hens that welcomed them on the streets. The people too started recognizing the wounded soldiers that were washed ashore. Everyone started to greet them and wish them to recover soon. Each of the villagers tried to grab and take the soldiers to their houses as guests, to introduce many things to the soldiers as they walk by. "We also have guinea pigs over here." A women says while pointing her finger towards a fence and a little garden with a little house built for guinea pigs. "Guinea pigs? Oh wow guinea pigs, I see them in the garden." Ares face lit up as he see guinea pigs in the lady''s garden. "You don''t see guinea pigs in cities and concrete jungle nowadays." Alex says. "But why Guinea pigs? Are they just your pets?" Tanya asks the lady who showed them. "Yes..." The lady replies with a smile. "Oh wow! This lady also has some vegetables and mint leaf growing in her small garden" Ares talks excitedly like a little child. "Are you cultivating on this land?" Yang asks the lady. "Yes, me and my sister Tisha(age-18) cultivate and grows vegetables in this garden. The chicken eggs help us earn a little money and our dogs here guard the garden and guinea pigs" Rissa (age -22), the lady who invited them over to her garden explains to Yang. "Who is the person hiding behind you all this while?" Tanya asks Rissa with curiosity and she peeks over Rissa shoulder to get a better look at who''s behind her. Year 5015- Mindoro in the past . . . . Captain Ares!, Captain Ares! ... Wake up, Ares!"- The four soldiers saved by their captain stand beside his bed with their arms and legs wrapped up in bandages, as Ares tries to opens his eyes "Aryyyyyyy!!..... You are finally awake after 3 weeks of sleep, I was so worried about you" A very fair female soldier, with sparkling eyes, long eyelashes and an exquisite nose, says worryingly in the face of Ares while being awkwardly close to him. "What the..." Ares (age - 20) confusedly tries to get up, but his body does not respond to any movement he make. "What happened to my body?" Ares asked in surprise. "All of your muscles and tendons got torn apart. 7 broken ribs, and multiple fractures." Gus (age - 15) replies while he is preparing medicine few meters away from Ares sitting at his desk. All the soldiers were living with Gus in his house on a hill, a little far from the village. "As the kid says, Captain, you were badly hurt and been on bed for 3 whole weeks. The villagers and this kid took good care of you and us. Tanya, move your goofy face away from captain''s!, let him breathe." Says another soldier with glasses, he seems to be a very smart, yet nerdy person. "I''m not a kid oi, I''m almost the same age as you all, just a little short.... arghhhh!" An annoyed Gus shouts to the soldier who called him a kid. "Among the 50, only five of us survived. The enemy ships were assisted by storms and whirlpools. We lost our soldiers. This shows what happens to a squad if their captain is a young lad. Almost every squad has experienced people as their cap''n and just because you were considered a genius, we are now stuck with someone who is the same age as us. Some genius who managed to get his entire troop killed." A soldier with a tattoo of Chinese letters on his right arm belittles Ares with a rather arrogant voice, filled with hatred. "You are right. I''m sorry that we lost them because of my incompetence"- Ares replies with a grim and gentle look on his face. He is ready to take the blame and shoulder the weights of the dead as his sole responsibility. He feels it was his fault that they had died. Gus seems surprised and could not digest the fact that Ares saved 4 men without a thought about his own life and brought them to safety all by himself and yet, he blames himself for what happened? This triggered Gus and he was about to speak up for him, but was stopped by what he heard from on of the soldier. "No-not at all Ares. If you haven''t ordered us to sail the ships into the storm, we wouldn''t have gotten rid of the enemies on our tail. If we kept continuing to fight, none of us would be alive here. I''m deeply thankful to you for saving me" - the youngest of all soldiers, Alex (17), replies with hesitation and gratitude while bowing his head down with utmost respect towards Ares. Hearing what Alex said, Gus really didn''t have anything to say and his heart settles down. "Also someone else might still be alive just like us. I''m sure of it" - Tanya (19) the female soldier adds soothing words along with Alex. "Alex, Tanya, thank you for your kind words, but it doesn''t change that everything happened because of my orders, I''m the one responsible for the lives of my subordinates." Ares replies bitterly. "Not at-" Albert, the soldier with glasses (21), tries to say something but was interrupted in the middle by the soldier with the tattoo. "As far as you remember what had happened, you are making our party a weak one, with your ideals, inexperience and feelings." Yang(21) the soldier with the tattoo says, storming out of the room angrily. "What did he say? Does he not even have little gratitude for the person who saved his life?!"- Gus yells after Yang and tries to follow him. "Please, why are you getting mad at him? That is how a military personnel should behave" Albert says while holding onto Gus''s right arm stopping him from going outside to confront Yang. The soldiers looks down as if they don''t have anything to say to Yang. The military soldiers shouldn''t and aren''t supposed to show any emotions or feelings, showing any is considered being weak. Ares always treats his subordinates as his own friends since they are all of same age, but for Yang, it is weakness and weakness is intolerable for him. He believes being cold and cutting off emotions from the heart is a better way to treat one''s subordinates, only then can a person truly become strong. Not only Yang, but all the soldiers in modern-day were trained and raised that way since they were young children, they never experienced a motherly or fatherly love before. "Oh Ares!, We still have two nano restoration syringes. If you take two of them you are definitely going to recover instantly." Alex excitedly reminds Ares as he takes out the syringes. Nanoresucts or nano restoration syringes are heals for soldiers. When these syringes are injected directly into the nerves, the nano particles combined with a healing element(mixture of a healing substance that is available in main country) instantly start repairing the cuts, internal bleed and even fractures. No matter how much one is near death, when one injection of these nanoresucts is given, it will keep them alive at all costs. "Huh? Recover instantly? But his whole body is damaged, it''s gonna take him at least 8-12 months for his whole body to heal. Even after 12 months there is no guarantee that his body will go back to the way it was-s....." Gus starts uttering words without a pause. Ares want to explain Gus about their heals, but it''s a military secret, so he just changes the topic. "Ahhh.... By the way Gus, I heard that you guys took care of us when none of us were able to move. I really owe you and your city big time. Let me meet the mayor." Ares asks one last favor from Gus politely and appreciating him at the same time. "But Ares, its not like a city.... I don''t really know how to tell you"-Alex, the another nerdy guy in the party checks and inspects around the island after he gained consciousness and strength to walk, and now he wants to show off his knowledge and nerd skills and impress his cap''n, that his nerdy behaviour is nothing less from a badass soldier''s. "What''s a city?" Gus interrupts in the middle - "And what''s a mayor? If you want to meet someone important, I can take you guys to the Village chief who lives at the foot of the mountain in the village, but there is no one called mayor here". "Village?" - Ares says in surprise "That''s what I was going to tell you about Ares, this village is situated on something we studied in our books. Something which we did not anticipate would exist. It is an island, an island with three villages which are 20- 30kms apart from one another. Also, one of the village seems to have some good weaponry too, It seems they harbour craftsmen and strategists in their village. I can tell by having a glance at their armors and barricades they have around the village. I have concluded this much." Alex proudly explains everything in a hurry and fear, that someone might interrupt him again. "Yes, we got raided by a village 3 years ago. They are well equipped in heavy armor and raised hell, we tried to defend ourselves but in the end we lost everything. They have taken everything precious to me and the villagers." Gus says in a vicious voice. The unnamed island has three villages situated on top of it with each village at the each corner of the island. One of the village is Mindoro, the other one called Caracus and the last one is Sable. Caracus is a village which chooses weapons over cultivating lands and seeks blood more than water. Caracus has been raiding both Mindoro and Sable from past 4 decades. Whenever the village goes low on resources and food, they raise a war over other villages. A recent raid happened 3 years ago on Mindoro and it took both of Gus''s parents and ever since then Gus have been left alone, which is why he despises Caracus to the core but he couldn''t do anything to take his vengeance out on them. "An island you say? That is impossible. Did you really scout the area well?" Ares''s face seems to be brightened up with what he had heard. Hearing about an island is nothing to get excited about, but Ares and his party is living in the 51st century. After the catastrophe, the earth only had one continent and no traces of islands has ever discovered by humans. Ares have only lived on a giant land which consisted, desserts, snow and spring all at once and they have only heard and read about the islands in history classes and books. Nobody living on the main land ever came across an island, so this is pretty much new and adventurous to Ares. "Alex, fast inject me with the nanoresucts but only one is enough. We need to save the other one for ourselves if we get into trouble on our way back from here" Ares smiles very brightly and starts planning excitedly on what he should do on this island as he beckons Alex to give him the heals. "Oohhhhhh... Cap''n, even after you are on bed without being able to move an limb, you still chose to take only one nanoresuct to save the other for us in future. You truly are our kind cap''n" Alex starts tearing up happily. *"if we run into trouble my butt, if I took two nanoresucts now, I will be fully healed and you guys will bug me to start going back to the mainland. We will be in war before we know it. If I took only one, it will be hard on my body, but I can stay here on this island until my body heals completely. Now it''s time for me to run around this island and have a perfect holiday, heh! heh! heh!"* Ares laughs mischievously inside his mind Alex takes out one of the nanoresuct, it is an injection but the fluid inside is green in color. The liquid is sparkling because of the presence of the nano particles inside. As he inject the nanoresuct into his median vein forearm, Ares is able to get up and sit on his own in mere 20 seconds and is freely able to move his left arm easily, however his right arm feels piercing pain when he try to move it up and down. This makes Ares unable to move his arm well. When he gets out of his bed to walk, his left leg is not able to bear his weight. *"Hmm my right hand and left leg are in really bad shape, this is worse than I had imagined. Howeveerrr... heh! this island is lifeee!!!* Ares thinks to himself cheerfully... 138 Revolution Yang felt a little tense as his and Tisha''s eyes meet for the very first time. His heart-felt as light as a feather, almost floating, he couldn''t take his gaze off from Tisha. Tisha is a shy and timid looking girl. She has very soft and fair skin that looks very delicate. It''s so creamy white that it seems if her skin ever comes in contact with anyone, it will make it dusty. Tisha''s fair skin has more pink added to it now as she sees Yang''s gaze fixated on her. She hurriedly looks down trying to avoid his gaze as she blushes and her round amber coloured eyes sparkles. It attracts Yang, who had never felt anything like this before. His heart is racing fast not allowing his feelings to settle down. He has never seen a girl who could stir up his heart and soften him up completely. "Ahem... Yang let''s move on now?" Ares says to Yang before things get more awkward. He has seen what was going on between Tisha and Yang. "Oh why... I wish someone would look at me too with their blue piercing eyes ahhhh~" Rissa playfully says as she gets closer to Ares and leans on his shoulder referring to how Yang looks at Tisha. "Ah, how much I wish someone would hold my hand too" Tanya furiously says under her breath as she holds the other arm of Ares and glares at Rissa. Ares can feel that Rissa and Tanya are pressing their chest against him as if they''re competing against each other. "Whaaaa!!! well.... We.... ooooooooo ummmm" Ares face turns super red at this situation unfolded and he have a really tough time to utter words out of his mouth. "Ta-Tanyaaaa!!!!! Ares, you popular bastard!. Alex give me my weapon. I''m going to incinerate these creatures!." Albert cries out loudly for Tanya while hating Ares for his popularity among women, as he shouts at Alex, asking for his weapons. "Haha, I just like to tease young boys. Well, all of you are welcome to come buy eggs and vegetables from us anytime. I only sell vegetables to people who are special to me" Rissa says in a seductive tone while she runs her finger on Gus''s cheek. Gus shivers at her touch and he backs away quickly, tilting his head down as it got red and hot. "Ahhhh, Alex kill me please Alex I don''t want to live anymore!!!" Albert shouts while he grabs Alex''s neck and suffocates him. Albert is beyond disappointed that even a 15y/o gets more action than him and he curses his very own virgin life. "Ahhhhhh, Albert I will hold your hands if you want just don''t kill me pweasee!" Alex annoyingly said to Albert and frowns. I will do anything you want, just don''t take your anger out on me and choke me to death is what Alex wanted to say. "We need to leave now, we will come for dinner sometime later" Ares says and runs out of the house without even wanting to look back at what he has just experienced. Yang looks around and comes back to his senses. He takes his leave quietly but as he leaves, he sneakily looks back at Tisha who was still hiding behind her sister. Tisha who was brave enough to look up after the soldiers left, caught Yang is still looking at her when he is about to leave and she smiles at him shyly, but sweetly at the same time. A smile that rivals the beauty of cherry blossoms that instantly melted Yang''s heart even further. As everyone heads towards the house the village chief lives in, no one has noticed how Yang was suddenly acting strangely, except for Ares. *"So a woman can do this to any kind of man huh"* Ares smiles in secrecy at the reddish face of Yang, who was just a cold-blooded soldier a while ago inside Gus''s house. As they enter the chief''s house, Gus notices a pair of shoes left in front of the door which was never seen by him in this entire village. He quickly realized that something is wrong with the noises and unfamiliar voices coming from inside the house. Gus suddenly rushes towards the entrance, the soldiers realizing the unusual seriousness in Gus''s behavior, follows him as he opens the door hastily. "WHAAT THE HELL..!!!! What are you guys doing in our village??!!" Gus yells with rage. And he takes out his scalpel and rushes towards the person sitting in front of his village chief and point it at him threateningly. "No Gus, hold on!." The chief of Mindoro village, Mars, shouts in surprise of the action taken by Gus. Gus is just overtaken by his rage, he couldn''t listen to a single sound n the room, because in front of him are the people from Caracus village and his long time enemies. But they seemed to come here to talk to the chief about something peacefully. *"It''s legal as long as it''s not our men who drew the weapon first."* One of the guards from Caracus village feels the meeting is useless and takes this as an opportunity to attack the villagers and dashes towards Gus with his blade which is longer than an arm of a person. Gus could not even see a person coming towards him to take his head, the rest of the guards from Caracus that are in the room realizes the blood lust of one of their guard who is charging towards Gus with a huge blade. The guard was about to swing his huge blade to cut Gus vertically into two, but suddenly a person appeared in between him and Gus. He stopped Gus with his clutches and halts the swing of the blade by holding the sharp edge with his finger tips. "Ow ow, a huge blade for a scalpel? This is a little unfair, don''t you think? Hehe". Ares playfully said to the soldier with a mischievous smile. *"Wha-what..! who is this person!, I cannot move my blade inwards to cut him nor can I retract my blade. His hand isn''t even budging!"*The guard thinks while witnessing the power difference between him and Ares. *"Is he even human?!!"* "I suggest you to refrain from your violent thoughts." Ares says to the guard while his bright smile starts to fade away slowly and turning into a killer expression. Ares is emitting a strong aura. The guards and the soldiers in the room can feel his aura from a distance, his eyes are turning cold and sending chills down the spines of the guards of Caracus. It''s almost as if they are looking at a demon that they cannot be comparable in strength. The atmosphere inside that single room became greatly tensed and every guard in the room automatically drew their weapons out as their pure animal instinct is telling them that death is coming in their way in the form of Ares. "Why don''t we talk first? I want a cup of coffee if possible, my whole body is so sore hah! hah! hah!." Ares suddenly changes his presence and laughs in a goofy voice. "Gus, soldiers, please calm down." The village chief speaks up trying to calm his people down. "Stand down!" the official of Caracus orders his guards in a commanding tone. The official looks like a strict and serious person. Ares loosens his grip off the huge blade and the guard with the blade steps back from Ares like a helpless hyena backing from Lion''s vicious strike. The soldiers and the chief are relieved, but the official from the Caracus village and his 4 guards were not relieved by a bit at all. All of them are shocked and scared, they did not expect Mindoro to posses such strong kind of people like Ares. "Chief Mars, what are these people doing here?" Gus asks the chief bitterly. "We got attacked.... by outsiders, they annihilated our village. They have different weapons that blew away our barricades, pierced through our armor, we suffered a huge loss" the official from Caracus replies. "That''s what you ge..." Gus was about to add insult to the injury, but before he could, he was interrupted. "They said we were hiding 5 soldiers" The official said to Gus. Gus and the soldiers were dumbstruck. Ares and his party are the only 5 soldiers on the entire island. Did they get tracked down and are now being hunted? 139 The Determination of a Hungry Beas The stadium is filled with all the schools and fellow competitors of other schools. "What are you looking at sir? That little kid? I know right? He looks like the only freshman among all our schools." A member of Leviathan''s school starts a conversation with him. "What do you think about him? Does he look strong?" Leviathan asks him. "Him? Ha-ha, not at all, sir. He is not even at the lowest levels. Do not be concerned with such puny beings sire, you are truly one of a genius kind." His team praises for the talent that Leviathan possesses. "Whereas, he must be the weakest of everyone his age. I''m going to go meet up without team members now, let''s go, sire." He leaves after saying. "He is probably the strongest of all the high schoolers right now." Leviathan mutters under his breath and goes on his way. - Back at Neith. "So, there is no other way for his cure? We cannot save him in any way?" Neith asks the man sitting in front of her wearing a long white lab coat. "Neith, I don''t know what to tell you, you know the answer for yourself and you are still asking me the same question over and over." The man replies while holding the stethoscope in his neck with both of his hands. Neith visited her old friend, who is a doctor to get some help for Faust to deal with his personality disorder. In this modern world, there is an instant cure for any kind of physical injuries and wounds, but mental illness is a different case. _ "C-captain F-Faust?" Fab and Jonathan are standing in front of Faust and Awarnach, eyes of Faust widen in shock upon seeing his squad in far away from the house. "Wha-what are you doing here Fab? I thought I left the house to you." Faust asks in a suspicion. "Me and Jonathan here are ordered to carry the escort guard duties for Prince Leviathan and other nobles that are participating in the festival today." Fab explains his duties to Faust, who still seems to be concerning musing about something. "Captain Fausto! What are you doing here?" Jonathan jumps out from behind Fab, grabs and holds Faust with an over-enthusiastic hug. "But we do not have a squad yet, so you guys are not allowed to perform any duties that require you to work completely out of the upper land." Faust brief''s the conversation. Though he laughs at Jonathan''s hug, he looks upset about the fact that they left Tsumugi at the house. Tsumugi has long been facing discrimination and hates when Faust joined her house. It continued long after they had won the purge and it became worse after Tsumugi refused to trade the stones with the house. Faust is worried about the safety of Tsumugi without Fab and Jonathan. "Also, we came here to scout our new four members here." Jonathan says proudly as his chest is pumped out with pride. "Scouting for new members?" Faust asks in an excitement. "Yes! That is the main purpose of this festival. To find the best talent in these high school kids and take them under your wing." Fab announces to Faust. "Ahh! I get it now, leave it to me." Faust turns towards the clusters of participants that are participating along with his school. Faust asks Fab to leave the responsibilities of selecting new squad members to him. "That is really-" "Faust, they are panicking in the camp, you need to come back and announce the thing that you were wanting to." As Fab and Faust are talking about this event, Awarnach walks towards them both, interrupting their conversation unintentionally. He is more concerned about the quarrel of his schoolmates. "Oh, he is under you Faust? Is he a martial artist too? His muscles look well-toned and flexible for gymnastics." Fab asks as he runs a body scan on Awarnach with his eyes thoroughly. A small seed of hope and dreams sows in the heart of Awarnach after hearing the words of Fab. "That is right, Faust is a captain of an entire branch of the house, he can get me enrolled for the test. And if I achieve the basic score, I will be taken in as a soldier." He thinks to himself. "No, I already know the type of martial art he uses. It is not useful." Faust utters in a cold yet arrogant voice, that shattered the dream of Awarnach as he snaps from his daydreaming. "Faust looks at awarnach who looks to be in a shock with his mouth slightly opened upon hearing the words of the person he admired. Faust turns towards Awarnach staring him in his eyes. "Did you hear what I said?" He asked. "Your martial arts is old and full of loops." Faust continues to break Awarnach''s hopes and dreams with one thing after another. "What are you supposed to do now? Awarnach!" Faust raises his tone as he boldly asks Awarnach. "You need to evolve your arts. Find new ways, find new techniques and the way you can use it. Fuse it with any other skill you learn." Awarnach who is lowering his head with his eyes closed in the disappointment of getting rejected till now has opened his teary eyes slowly. Listening to Faust, he raises his head slowly. Faust in front of him is smiling brightly, he looks like a skinny, hungry wild beast who has not eaten anything from years. His strive and hunger for power are reflecting in his eyes and words. "You need to become stronger than me in the use of your art. I don''t want mere common soldiers in my house Awarnach! I want the best of the best in my house. It is up to you. If you want to become a mere common no-name soldier or a soldier that can rival his captain?" " Let me tell you, I''m not the type that is satisfied with smaller achievements. I''m looking for something that is way beyond everyone''s reach." Faust ends his words and starts walking to his camp. Fab is struck with unanswered questions and keeps staring at Faust, Jonathan smiles at Faust''s words as he hides his raging passion in the tight grip of his fists. Awarnach stands there stunned, the hair on his body is standing straight up. *"A boy with such conviction and hunger for power. He is not satisfied with his achievements. Normally a person would be happy if he entered a powerhouse. He will stop growing and start fighting for what he protects. But this kid not only joined a house, but became a captain and defeated a general class and is living a dream of every child. But he still looks as hungry as he did before."* Awarnach thinks, turns back and starts following Faust in his steps back to their camp. - "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN TO SAY, COACH?" Cameron keeps yelling on her phone at the coach who is with Elton. "B-but Cameron, he is not coming out of his room, I don''t know what to do anymore." The coach replies from the other side of the phone. "But what is the problem?" Cameron asks desperately for the reason. "H-His," Their coach on the other side of the phone is stuttering and hesitating to give the news to Cameron. "Heh! Oh wait, someone is missing in your team, where is the lightning element dude? Hahaha." Santner and the school of Elbaf, on their way to the arena, mockingly laugh at Cameron. "Nice, he is the only decent assaulter in your group and without him, you cannot even take our squad leader. And this time, we have a plan to take out all three of your flags and send you down the road of despair hahaha." Santner declares the fight against them and heads to the arena. "Coach, tell me what happened. I can handle it." Realizing that this might all be the plan of Elbaf, Cameron asks the coach once again. "W-well, he is having diarrhea, he is not even coming out of the bathroom from the past one hour." The coach says to Cameron on the phone. "The what?!! I told that idiot to not eat those spicy prawns last night. I thought it the work of these Elbaf people, but it is not! It is that idiot''s fault." Cameron disconnects the call in the frustration. "Cameron, what are we supposed to do now? He is our assaulter, and without a proper assaulter. It is impossible to do anything." Mayu comes to ask Cameron about the dire situation they are in. "We still have an option!" The Major of the group, Benjamin comes forth with an idea. "How about the first year? You can put him inside your defence and he will attack the coming enemies from within your shield. We got no other choice." Benjamin lays down his plan. - Somewhere far away in the sky, between the two worlds, at the gateway of spirits, A person seems to be walking with composure and elegance. As he is the true royal among all. Covered in mysterious black clothes, a long black cloak up to his knees and skin-tight black jeans with black leather shoes. "Prince Yuji! Greetings my lord." A worker in there welcomes the man and leads him to a mob that is gathered in the plain sight. The man is slender and slim, his eyes are glittering in orange colour as his short hair is tottering on top of his ears and near his eyes. His skin is so fair with a hint of blush red color at the top of his ear and the tip of his nose. "What is happening here?" The man whispered from his mouth, his husky voice is not bold or manly, but is thunderous enough to alert the mob around that a person with power and royalty in his blood has visited them. The mob broke into two paving a way towards a person. "Sire, his name is frost, he is insisting to come to hell with us, he went as far to pick a fight with us. And the rest of the souls, after seeing that their fellow soul is trying to make a huge ruckus asking for freedom." A guard with a black spear in his hand replies to Yuji as a servant complaining to his master. "Fa-Faust?" Yuji asks as his voice starts to shiver.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "No, sire its Frost." The guard replies. "Take care of it quickly." Yuji replies to his royal guards, turns back and heads his way. "Yui." He utters as he clenches his fists tightly and walks faster. - "Um-umm. I''m not a thief. I got sleepy and- slept and- I woke up here." Faust (10 years old) says in a low confused voice, stuttering while his cheeks turned red and with fear in his voice as he tried to not look in the eyes of Yui. "Huh? So you slept and came up here, huh? I''m so sorry then. You have died and you don''t even know that. Poor wandering spirit." Yui (11 years old) says with redemption and feeling sad for Faust. "Huh? No -no I''m not dead, nothing happened to me, I just fell asleep and woke up here. I can still feel the pain if I pinch myself so I''m not dreaming nor dead definitely ." Faust says with a hint of tension building up in his voice. "You feel pain, huh?" The girl comes closer to Faust and stares right into his eyes intensely without flicking a bit. Faust keeps staring at her, wondering what is about to happen as the atmosphere becomes tense. *Bam!!~* The girl kicks the shin of Faust so hard!. "Ouchhhhh!!! Ahhhhhh!!!! it hurtsss!!!" Faust holds his shin and hops around on one leg. *"Wth? I''m supposed to be moving faster and evade every danger, on pure animal instinct and yet she landed a hit on me? Am I slacking off too much? Get back to your senses Faust!!"* Faust slaps himself on the cheek hard to snap back to his senses. He could feel the sharp pain spreading from his slap, but he got no time to notice it and he reaches out to the axe tied on his hips. 140 Yuji "Ehhhh!! I can''t feel it, where did it go!!! Did I drop it somewhere, oh no!." "Oh no!" Faust jumps around, panicking and searching for his axe which was supposed to be on his hips. *"Why is he jumping around like a buffoon."* The girl thought to herself and that Faust was the most ridiculous person she has ever met so far. "I hit your leg, why would your kidney be gone?" Yui asks as Faust is searching on his hips. She thought that Faust is too dumb that he must have assumed that he lost his kidney and it popped out and dropped somewhere. "My axe! I''m searching for my axe! Not my kidney, I''m not that stupid oi." Faust turns to face the girl with his sad puppy eyes looking right into hers like a little kid. "My axe, my axe, my axe, I lost it, help me find it." Faust cries and pleads to her and was all over the girl as he kept moving hyper-fast without resting. "You need to know, you are dead. That''s why the things you had when you are alive won''t come to this world, like your axe. This is the spirit realm; The spirit world. The dead passes through this world or just wanders around here without knowing where to head to. Let me find some guardians and you will be guided out of here." The girl breaks down everything casually as if she knew every grain in that world. - ''Present'' "It''s that guy, I can never forget him." Yuji keeps walking while reminiscing the events. - "What you looking at? Come, it will be easier this way." Yui is floating in the air and gestures Faust to fly like her. "Umm, I don''t know how to fly though," Faust says quietly. "Eh, it''s easy, release your spiritual power. Once it is connected with the spiritual power of this world you can just fly as you walk, it becomes one of those things. I don''t know how to explain it, haha." Yui laughs, embarrassed. Faust doesn''t seem to understand anything, he was really confused. "It''s ok, close your eyes and focus on your spiritual power." Yui says again as she senses how clueless Faust really is about these things. "I don''t even know what spiritual power is." Faust says as his puppy eyes appear once again. "Are you for real? Why am I stuck with such a guy?" Yui impatiently says as she comes down and grabs one of Faust''s hand. "Ok, I''m going to let my spiritual power flow into you." Yui says while she closes her eyes and her face becomes so peaceful. All of a sudden, a white cosmos like aura surrounds Yui''s body. Faust is mind-blown by what he sees, but he stays quiet as he thinks that this special skill needs one to focus. The white cosmos like aura then passes onto Faust and Faust starts to float up in the air. "There, we are better now, hehe." Yui says and takes off with Faust while holding his hand tightly. Faust can feel air gushing onto his face, he is so scared that he had shut his eyes tightly, he doesn''t want to look down no matter what. "What are you, a baby? Nothing would happen to you even if you fall here, the atmosphere is not the same as on earth. Open your eyes as we can only fly in this dimension, we need to enjoy this feeling of flying." Yui says while she spreads her hands wide and enjoys the flight. Faust slowly opens his eyes out of fear and he sees everything under him is moving so slowly, they are passing through the orange like clouds and yet nothing happens to them. Yui takes them high in the sky to a blue coloured cloud. The cloud is not like a normal one, but is somehow emitting aura or energy in the form of dim light. "I will let you experience something good hehe" Yui says as they both land on the blue clouds. "This is the spirit cloud, go on take a part of a cloud and lick it or shove it in your mouth." Yui says as she takes a handful of cloud which seems like cotton candy and she licks the cloud. The white aura around Yui suddenly gets brighter for a second and goes back to normal. "Mmmmmmmmmmmmm~ so goodddd." Yui says and claps her hands in excitement and laughs like a kid as if she has tasted the most delicious candy ever. Faust out of curiosity dips his finger in the sparkling cloud and licks it. *Zap!!~~* all the neurons in Faust''s brain feel like they got struck by lighting. Faust felt like electricity just passed throughout his entire body sending chills down his spine and he breathes heavily. "Wahhhh, I think this is what the adults call drugs, I don''t think we are supposed to be doing it." Scaredy Faust tells Yui. "Hahaha, no, you silly." All of a sudden, Yui stuffs a huge amount of the cloud in Faust''s mouth as she smiles brightly like a mischievous kid having fun. Faust felt a huge surge of power flowing inside him, he falls on his knees and then gasps hard for air. "Not fair Yui, I was nice to you. How can you do this to me?." Faust says while sparkling tears roll off his eyes. While this is happening a light red aura is spreading on the back of Faust''s shirt, a small cylindrical tube formed only above Faust''s spinal cord. The red aura also seemed to be in the form of a spine made out of the aura. It goes unnoticed by both Faust and Yui. "The element of these spirit clouds is used in the preparation of boosters and resucts. I heard it from my dad." Yui says proudly. "Uh-huh, prepare yourself now. It''s for revenge." Faust hides a handful of the cloud in his hand behind his back and runs towards Yui with an evil face and Yui realizing Faust''s plan runs away and they both keep running while laughing loudly which resonates the sky. "Haha, I had so much fun. I normally don''t get to enjoy like today. But we haven''t been able to find a way to send you back to where you came from." Yui muddles while she stares in the sky feeling joyous. "Ahem~" a voice is heard. Both feel a presence behind them and take a protective stance, as they turn around to face the newcomer. "Lord Uriel?! What brings you here? Did my brother cause any trouble for you? I will set him straight at this instant. Please forgive him." Yui pleads without even listening to the man, kneeling on one knee and draws her arm out. There was a tall, sturdy guy in front of Faust and Yui in a long royal-like white gown, with golden strips at shoulder portion in a spreading flame like pattern, wrapped with a hood. It seems like an assassin''s cloth wear. The guy also has a long staff in his hand with a huge black stone, the size of a fist, situated at the head of the golden staff. A mysterious black aura slithers around his body. Uriel walks up to Yui and flung forward his right hand. Yui then take the offered hand and grazes her lips against his the knuckles, as an offering of respect, politeness and loyalty. "Faust get down on your knee and kiss the Lord''s hand, fast!" Yui whispers nervously, half -afraid for Faust. As Faust is about to bend on his knee, the huge guy says "Oh no no, don''t bother about formalities, I''m Uriel." The tall guy stops Faust from getting on his knees and offers his hand for a handshake. Yui is dumbstruck by this gesture from her lord. *"lord Uriel is normally a very strict King-like personality, who accepts only royalty treatment. Why so different with Faust?* Thoughts began flooding Yui''s head. "Nice to meet you Mr. Uriel, I''m Faust." Faust introduces himself casually and shakes the hands with Uriel politely. "This is the chief Guardian in this world you idiot, he is almost like an angel here. Please forgive him, Lord Uriel. I apologise in his place." Yui says in a panic. Faust too panics after hearing Yui -"wahhh, I''m sorry chief Uriel. It is an honor to meet a celestial lord." Faust utters whatever that came into his head. "It''s really ok, I''m not a bad guy, you know." Uriel says as he thinks to himself deeply observing *"Is it really him? Why is he acting like a weakling? Something must be wrong here, am I even talking to the correct person?"* Uriel questions himself while he glares at Faust''s finger. *"No thread of life, huh? Guess I must be mistaken."* Uriel felt as though he came to a final conclusion. "Um, Mr. Uriel I''m not able to go back to the place I came from. Will you please help me find my way back? " Faust pleads Uriel in the most cutest ways like a lost puppy. "Yo-you idiot, Lord Uriel has more things to deal with than solving our problem." Yui says as she starts to sweat more hearing Faust''s balderdash. "It''s alright, I can send people to where they came from. It''s really simple, you see." Uriel says as he lifts his staff up, the black stone on the staff starts to shine brightly. "Please wait a second Lord Uriel." Yui says with a rather worried face. "If you go now. I don''t know if we will ever meet. So I''m thinking.... " As Yui was saying. "It''s ok if we split up. I know that we will surely meet someday no matter what." Faust interrupts Yui and he smiled at her like he had never done before. "I want to meet you everyday, you are the only friend I had up till now in my life." Yui struggles to tell Faust that she wanted to be his friend, she wanted to play and explore with him everyday. "Since I don''t have any tracking devices and you don''t have a spiritual power, it will be impossible for me to find you the next time you come into this world." *" He doesn''t have a spiritual power?* Uriel is shocked upon hearing this and looks keenly at Faust. "I''m going to attach my thread of life to you, so that whenever you come into this world, I can reach you easily." Yui tells Faust as she moves closer to him, grabbing the hand of Faust, holds his hand in hers, closes her eyes and seemed to be chanting something. Faust''s cheeks get heated up, his ears turning red. A pile of thread forms around the pinky finger of Faust, which is connected to Yui''s hands. Now the thread could be traced back to the real body of Yui, as well as her soul whenever Faust returns into this realm. "Okay, move back, Yui" Uriel says, as he lifts his staff in the air and touches Faust with the black stone. *poosshh!!!~~* Faust disappears all of a sudden and wakes up in the shrine. "I had a really good time, dad." Yui says to Uriel with a bright smile. "I told you to stop addressing me like that. You are just a tool to me." Uriel glares to Yui with a cold voice as his eyes turn dark. "I''m sorry lord Uriel, since you were being so kind and loving towards that boy, I thought you had accepted me." Yui says, crestfallen, while her eyes get covered by her hair strands. Glittering tears roll down from her eyes. "You both are of same age, yet he is special compared to you, which is why I was fond of him." Uriel says without any change in expressions and disappears into thin air. 141 Conspiracy The spirit world is our earth but in a different dimension. The view of earth is different from within the spirit world. The humans and other living beings cannot see you, but you can see them and you can also see the other beings from the spirit world who are floating around. The spiritual dimension consists of three layers, the first layer where you arrive when you enter this dimension is the spirit gateway, which just seems to be floating in the air like magic. Everything below you is concealed, but above is open. The layer above it, that you reach when you go upwards, is the upper spirit world. The guardians, spirit clouds and higher-level beings that guard this dimension reside there. When you go downwards from the spirit gateway through the concealed ground, you will reach the mortal world, which is the human world. Faust and Yui were now in the mortal world. Yui holds the hand of Faust and says. "Last time we flew upwards right? So now, let''s fly down." Yui says this like it was a normal thing to do for her, as she and Faust''s feet start sinking in the invisible land and entering another dimension. Faust is at loss of words when his whole body sinks in. There was a real city below them, but the atmosphere is more foggy and dark rather than clear and nice. Faust and Yui are floating as if they''re inside a water body. "What place is this?" Faust asks while being mesmerized watching the city and new people move around, busying themselves, below him. "It''s somewhere on the Mainland. We cannot choose a particular place to go from the gateway." Yui says while watching Faust with a smile appearing on her face. "Let''s go. I will give you a tour, hahaha." Yui grabs Faust''s hand and flies all around the place as she excitedly explains to him about the mortals world along the way. Faust comes and visits Yui whenever he can trick the guard and get into the shrines. They become very close friends, they both start training together as Faust did with Tim back at home before. Faust uses his fists to train and Yui uses her spear. They both explore the spirit world and sometimes visit the palace of Uriel and spend some time with him while he watches Faust fight with Yui. This has become one of his training sessions for Faust for months after months. But while Faust and Yui are training together and getting stronger together, a certain meeting is taking place. Inside a certain house built in the clouds. "So, someone is meeting up with the princess and spending time with her? And Uriel just let it slide? Who is that kid? Is he a prince of any world?" A man looking like a noble with an all-black military uniform with cross bone badges on one part of his shirt asks. A thin black belt is worn across the body from neck to waist and another thick belt is worn around the waist with a couple of short guns hanging from the belt. "No, my Lord, there is no information on that kid, nor do we know why Uriel approves of them interacting with each other." said another man who is standing next to him, while he bows his head down with utmost respect and loyalty. "We can''t let this to continue, get the top kids from our house and keep that little brat, who is distracting our princess, away from her." The man in the uniform says taken over by rage and disappointment, that was clearly visible in his eyes. "Very well, my Lord, I will make sure our kids will stand up to their name." The man standing next to him replies. "And about the meeting with Uriel in a few days regarding him being our ally, our Royal king asked you to take care of the meeting." The man tells the person who was enveloping in rage. "Hmmmm, that''s a piece of good news now." The guy in the military uniform responds. After a few days, in a huge palace which is seemed to be covered in gold. It is shining brightly with festive sounds and people welcoming nobles from the earth to this realm. They are meant to have a meeting about making Uriel the king of the spirit world as their alliance and loyal guardian. "Lord Lucifer, we are visiting Uriel''s palace for an alliance, but if he sniffs out our plans for his daughter and that kid, we won''t come back alive from the palace. Please rethink this matter about teaching the kid a lesson." Simon says to the guy in the black military uniform who wanted to teach Faust a lesson. Simon is the loyal guard of Lucifer, from the house of nobles of earth called "The house of asuras(demons). One of the strongest houses of Aztec Nation, on earth. Lucifer just smiles as a reply to what Simon says. "Did you hand over the mission to our kids?" Lucifer asks Simon. "Yes Lord, I formed a team of 4 members from the top and I gave them the gear they wanted," Simon replies to Lucifer. "Great, give them that device too, we can''t go unprepared with the princess of the spirit world." Lucifer says with a displeased and evil smile on his face. Simon with a raised eyebrow "B-by device, you don''t mean that soul whisper, do you? My Lord, it is too risky, it disrupts one''s soul!" Simon panicked. Lucifer once again just smiles as a reply to Simon who seems to be in a shock. *"This is not good. Uriel is a monster, he will slaughter every member of the house that betrays him. If he gets to know that Lord Lucifer is planning something against his daughter. I''m sure it will cause a war with the whole house, not just lord Lucifer, also we are not fully prepared to fight these creatures yet"* Simon keeps thinking of the consequences of this meeting. Lucifer gets stares from the Noble''s of other houses who are walking in the balcony along with him towards the meeting hall. "Is that the Lucifer? The maniac from the so-called house of demons? He looks like a useless twig to me." A noble from another house ''The house of Rauza(garden)'' from Agartha nation wearing a green military outfit talks to his guard regarding Lucifer. "Yeah, having the brains and strategy is not important. Having the strength is important here heh. The house of Asuras sent this weakling to ask Uriel to be their loyal guardian for the next decade? Pathetic." Another noble from ''the house of Nina(gift/gifted) from Aztec nation in a brown outfit adds fuel to the words of noble from Rauza. "How dare you both make a mockery of my master? Do you all want a piece of my cumberjung??" Simon says while he takes out a wooden shaft with flails on both ends. The cumberjung is a special weapon, it has two double-ended flails of two sharpened discs attached via a metal chain to a wooden shaft on either side, which is engraved with mouldings for grip. "What did you say, you damn peasant?! How dare you raise your voice against us?!" The noble from Agartha said angrily as his face grew darker from frowning, looking down on Simon at the same time. "Simon, let''s go, we have things to do rather than bark at these people," Lucifer tells Simon coolly. *"Hmph, talk as much as you want Lucifer, once we convince Uriel to take our side with a strategy we made, we will destroy you people and I will personally slice you and your peasant into pieces."* The noble from Agartha thinks as he suppresses his anger to tear down Lucifer, who is right in front of him. First thing as Lucifer and Simon enters the room, Lucifer gets chills down his spine and sweat starts to roll off his face as he was nervous to see Uriel who is standing right in front of him without saying any words. His dark aura is emitting from his body and his amber-like eyes glimmering from inside his hoodie. *"What happened? Why does he look so serious? Did he figure out our motives?!"* Simon is out of words to define his terror. "I''m sorry Lucifer, but Simon just broke the ironclad rule of not activating weapons inside the palace, I''m afraid he cannot accompany you anymore inside the meeting hall." Uriel says to Lucifer with a comfortable smile. The noble from Agartha lets out a little smirk from the corner of his mouth upon hearing Uriel. "Ah, I''m sorry Mr Uriel. Simon, you can wait outside." Lucifer says and heads inside the room and Simon stays back outside the room, but fear has taken upon him after seeing the behaviour of the noble from Agartha. "The Nobles from different families of the earth. I, Uriel welcome you all for the meeting held once every 10 years. It is an honour for me to be with the house of Mutual court, and I would like to hear if the other houses have any task that I can help with for the next 10 years." Uriel said with ease as he welcomes different Nobles of earth from different houses and the meeting begins. *"20 years ago, I came here as a guard for the research teams. I crawled my way up to squad captain, married a noble, became a noble and now I am a general. I''m going to make this meeting a success. I will give Uriel to the house, I will give him whatever the hell he wants and I will make sure to pin him down and decapitate him when the right time comes. Like a person who ties a rope to the tail of a dragonfly, cuts off its wings, its freedom to fly, and then stabs its heart with a needle. Not to mention, killing it slowly"* Lucifer thinks to himself evil-ly as this was his main goal from the beginning. It has been stuck in his head for a while and this is was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. "Greetings Lord Uriel, since the pact has formed between the spirit world and earth, we of Asura house has never once been granted your services. But please heed what I have to say on behalf of my house for the Lord of the spirit world." Lucifer starts his speech by acting a very down to earth and kind, loyal man. Like a snake hiding its motives for a mouthful of food and shelter waiting for the right time of backstabbing. After 4 hours inside the meeting hall. All the Nobles starts coming out from the room, almost all of their faces show disappointment and grief but the look on Lucifer is a disgusted face, full of anger. His eyes are red and he seemed like is about to burst out spreading fire aura to burn everything to ashes. As it seemed his own plans turned to the burnt pages. "M-master? I''m really happy you came out unscathed. I thought that snake from Agartha nation tried to corner you." Lucifer just passes by angrily without even hearing the words. "Simon, get our men ready, the next time that kid enters this world, it should be the last visit for him!" Lucifer orders Simon in a rather commanding, yet angry and hasty voice. "Y-yes my Lord," Simon says while he bows his head, thinking what took place inside the meeting that made his master so mad. Simon then after coming to the house seems to be typing in a virtual keyboard which is being projected from a box, shining purple in colour. A purple stone can be seen emitting electrical energy from within the projector. ''Mission - Testing of Soul Whisper device. Subject - Uriel''s daughter and an unknown kid. Team - Brawlers.Jr in a 4 men squad. Mission status - Started.'' 142 Downfall of a Princess Simon types the words and sends it back to earth. *In the house of Asuras* "Mission for Brawlers junior team." A man who takes care of the information centre in the house of Asuras says while he hands over two small rectangle-shaped magnets and asks a guard to deliver the magnets to the junior team of Brawlers. The squad captain of the Jr. Brawlers receive the magnets. A certain seal is connecting the two magnets, once the captain removed the seals, both magnets float in the air repelling from each other and form a virtual note as big as a tablet made of electromagnetic waves. The two magnets are like a sealed scroll from the old days and when the seal is removed the two magnets move far from each other like the opening of the scroll and displays the message on a green note made of magnetic waves. "Let''s go, men, we got a mission from Lord Lucifer." A familiar voice is heard commanding three of the other men, after reviewing the message. After a few days, in the place of nowhere on the layer of gateway... "What a lucky coincidence to meet you both here at this time." A familiar voice comes from behind Faust and Yui. Roney and his 3 friends were standing behind them at a distance from Faust and Yui. "Hmmm, you guys never learn, do you? I have been training harder for the past 6 months. I''m stronger than before." Faust says in a cheeky way with the air full of confidence, he was sure he could kick their butts again. Yui, however, is shocked and seems scared, she couldn''t find the correct words to utter. These people in the past tried to bully Yui when she was alone and cornered her. Where Faust defended Yui and kicked all the high schoolers and sent them back their way. "Heh, let''s see what you have got the kid." Roney says while he smiles from the corner of his mouth. He is fuming with the rage of revenge. No matter what the case is, he wants to take his revenge. "N-no, Faust, don''t go near them!" Faust charges at Roney and his friends at a great speed before Yui finishes her sentence. "Hahahaha!! hah!!!, the same old way of fighting?" Roney says while he lifts his head up and covers it with his hand and laughs like a maniac. *Beeeeepp!!!!~* A sharp, high pitched sound resonates in the head of Faust, his body stops in its tracks, he does not hear any sound other than the loud beep sound in his head and his body could not respond to the moments of Roney and his friends. Roney and his friends appear to be equipped with exoskeletons that are grafted to their arms and legs. Yui had seen these frames before, she knows the extent of the danger they can cause. Not only the exoskeletons, but some stones are planted in the frames and the weapons they are carrying. "Hahaha, you are down already? I haven''t even gotten started yet." Roney laughs mockingly as he has his share of fun with Faust. " Well, now it''s your turn, miss guardian princess," Roney says with extreme anger as he turns to face Yui and traces of his mocking tone in his voice is replaced with rage. Two of Roney''s friends goes after Yui, but before she could draw her spear out, the same sound that Faust heard is heard by Yui and before she knows it, she is down on the ground. Her face displays how shocked she is of the sudden painful ambush. The frames that Roney and his friends are wearing are powerful Exoskeletons. These frames allow them to jump at an incredible height, punch through doors and walls and much more incredible power adds with the stones. Roney and all of his friends are equipped with a crystal-like transparent stone. This stone enhances the human capabilities and makes them superhuman and it gives them super strength that is beyond words. This combined with the exosuits makes the foe much stronger than Faust and Yui combined. *Far away in the house on clouds. Lucifer watches the whole thing on a big virtual screen made of electromagnetic waves in his hall and Simon is sweating. He knows what he saw just now, was something he should have never witnessed* "Thank you for starting the show Lucifer." Another noble from the house of Asuras watching the whole thing virtually presented before him says while he cherishes it gratefully and tons of other Nobles started to flood on the screen as expected.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Are you ready for the main show?" Lucifer says while he is smiling in satisfaction and pleasure, watching Roney and his friends making a mockery of Faust and Yui. "Of course! Your shows are always interesting." Uriel who is sitting behind him on the couch replies to Lucifer with an evil smile on his face. Simon is confused about how Uriel is alright with Lucifer hurting his daughter and couldn''t comprehend how sensitive the matter is right now. His whole house and family could potentially get wiped out if Uriel dislikes even a bit of what Lucifer is showing him Yui''s father and the friendly ally, Uriel is the one plotting behind this all this time. - What happened kiddo? You were so full of yourself until now. What happened to that attitude now? Huh?" Roney gives an evil smirk. "I want to see you shout and act cocky, come on get up! At least try to get up on your feet. Or we will just stomp on that little bitch, and carve her face with my little knife." Roney is completely making fun of Faust. He and his friends stomp on Faust, kicking him when he tries to get up on his knees. They keep knocking him down on the ground, again and again, laughing loudly like maniacs. *"Huh? Why? Why am I on the ground?! It must be some trick, there is no way I would lose. I learned martial arts and sword arts. There is no freaking way I would stay stuck on the ground!."* Faust thinks to himself while desperately trying to get up on his feet but his body doesn''t listen to him. He falls back down as he tries to get up, but Roney and his friends keep stomping on. It makes it even more impossible for him to get up and punch the shit out of Roney. "Eh, I''m so bored with him now" Roney turns his head creepily toward Yui and he licks his lips, ready to eat his main dish course for the day. "let''s see how our princes-s..." Roney stops in mid-sentence and the look on his face shows shock instead of delight. Yui is standing with the support of her spear and the two people who went to deal with Yui are suddenly down on the ground, helplessly trying to crawl away from Yui in fear. A black aura surrounds Yui''s body and it accumulates in her spear covering all of her spear in the pitch-black mist. It is the exact same aura of Uriel''s. The black mist-like aura then spreads to the blade and tries to take the form of some sharp strange blade but it stops as if it isn''t fully nurtured yet. "Don''t hurt him anymore, or I will kill you all," Yui says while her clothes and hair are waving around wildly in the black aura. Her eyes, at this point, were pitch black, dark like a black hole, wanting to swallow all the people in front of her. She looked like a death God enraged to the point of no turning back. *Back at the place of Lucifer.* "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you our secret weapon, the killing machine, Inside the flesh of the girl. This seals our deal of having you and your daughter for the next 10 years I presume? Lord Uriel." Says Lucifer while his arms spread wide open to each side defining his inner feelings that he achieved something greater. Uriel, however, doesn''t seem to be listening to Lucifer, he is lost in the admiration of thoughts for Yui. *"That aura, the shape of the blade, this is what we need. We have the ruler of the world. We don''t need to fear others anymore. I WILL FREAKING TURN HER INTO A PERFECT KILLING MACHINE!!!* Uriel is filled with greed and ambitions in his heart as he found out his daughter''s true power. He even had to clench his fist tight, to hold his excitement from exploding and embarrassing himself in front of these foolish people. Lucifer who has been eyeing Uriel the whole time realizes how excited he is with this new profound luck. He sneers in his heart at the disgusted sight of Uriel. "This is not the end Lord Uriel, let me show you something greater, a weapon which will make you conquer the spirit world and nobody would ever be able to win a war against you. A weapon which only works in the realm of spirits." Said Lucifer. Uriel snaps back from his trance-like state, after hearing the words spoken by Lucifer. "What do you mean?" Uriel asks Lucifer wondering what else is there other than awakening Yui''s powers. Simon who has been on the side, staying quiet this whole time and spectating the show is taken over by surprise at Uriel''s sudden change of state from admiration to suspicion. The air in the room became too heavy for him to breath as he senses the uneasy feeling returns once again. *"This is it, if this doesn''t please Uriel as Lucifer wanted, this room is going to be the end of me and for Asura house as well.* Simon holds on to his breath not daring to accept this unwise plan. "Please watch the screen" Lucifer advises Uriel and lets out a cocky smile at Simon as a way of saying "watch what I''m about to do now, Simon." *Back at Roney and Yui''s face off* "Heh this is just getting better and better," Roney says while looking at the overpowered Yui, he reaches out to his pockets and pulls out two silver-coloured discs and inserts them in his gloves calmly. "Hmmmm, maybe 10 Newton force is enough for you?" Roney turns the rotatory dial attached on the side of his wrist in anticlockwise motion and the discs on the back of his hand start showing the faint signs of vibration. "And now-" Roney takes off fiercely at a very high speed and circle all around Yui in order to confuse her of his position and to strike at her blind spot. However, Yui''s eyes were fixated on Roney the whole time, not even twitching or blinking a bit from Roney''s traces. *"She''s keeping up with this speed when she''s only about 9 or 10 years old? How can she be such a monster? I need to increase my physical enhancement!* Roney thought to himself and freaks out a bit by Yui''s sudden smartness. He then low-key smiles, while inserting another white crystal-like stone into his exosuit. As soon as the stone activates it emits white colour. The nerves bulge up on Roney and blood gushes throughout his body speedily. "This is about enough." Roney charges at Yui while whispering the words to himself. *Boom!!!~* Yui is kicked from behind and is sent flying at 20 feet away from Roney, rolling over and finally stopping in her traces. Roney who charged at her face suddenly disappeared midway and appeared behind Yui. Even though Yui caught his moves with her eyes, her body couldn''t respond in time and got kicked by Roney. As Yui stops rolling off the ground and balances herself, she waits and watches out for his next move. But Roney is not present at the same spot he kicked her before. Yui frowns upon her eyebrows as to where Roney took off to and suddenly... "Soul Whisper" Roney suddenly appears behind Yui again and chants the Divine words in a whisper while holding up his hand. 143 Backstabb - 1 *Back in Lucifer''s place* "Wahahaha, there it is!!! The strongest weapon in the spirit world." Lucifer is rejoicing in his achievement clapping his hand wildly. All the other Noble''s also praises Lucifer for his accomplishment. *"It indeed is a really powerful weapon, to think that these humans excel so much in intelligence. They have been preparing this to fight me eventually and take over the spirit world. He is just showing off his new weapon to gain more supporters.* Uriel thinks to himself finally realizing the intentions of Lucifer''s plans in having Uriel serving/helping his Asura family for a decade. "The soul whisper can disrupt your soul and your spiritual power. It basically causes disturbances in the balance of the power by alternating the mass and by increasing the acceleration. It increases the force and the force released from the discs collides with the force of your soul. That causes major disturbances. This, however, makes you completely useless for an hour in the spirit world." "The more the force is applied to you, the more time it takes for one to recover hehe, doesn''t this sound just about good Uriel?" Lucifer asks as he mocks Faust, "if every being in the universe needs to enter the spirit world, they should either use the oscillatory machine or go through the soul. Since most of them are souls, my soul whisper can disrupt every soul." Lucifer explains about the device proudly while seeming to questioning if Uriel has the same powerful machine as he does to defend himself from Lucifer. "It is really good indeed. I''m happy I chose your family to serve. I get to learn a lot of things from the intelligent Lucifer himself. I can also improve my world''s technology and use your house''s technology to create more incredible things." Uriel didn''t give in to the intimidation of Lucifer but in return gave a very tight slap of words to Lucifer making Lucifer lose credits to Uriel and have Lucifer''s intelligence credited to him. *Back to Roney and Yui* "No!!! This can''t happen!!" Faust who just witnessed everything says in disbelief. Faust refuses to accept what he saw. Yui is bleeding from her nose and ears. She lay on the ground, lifeless. "Dammit!!! I told you! I told you not to mess with her at all! I will make every one of you payback." Faust is in rage. His friend and the first girl he has ever been with was laying down lifeless in front of him. Being a guy he should fight along with her. Being a swordsman he shouldn''t be on the ground making her, his friend fight in his place. "You will all PAY ." Faust gets up on his feet while his knees are trembling. He stands still and charges toward Roney like a mad bull taken over by rage. - "Dammit!!! I told you not to mess with her!!!!!"Faust charges towards Roney like a mad bull completely taken over by the anger. "Beep!!~~~" *"This same attack again, dammit! I won''t be taken down so easily. I cannot be defeated. I''m learning the ancient martial arts I will never go down by this soul shit.* Faust survived the attack of soul whisper on his sheer will. The same attack couldn''t disrupt his soul this time and he could never let that happen again. "This is called making things hard for me, you little brat." Roney falls back after saying the words and breathes heavily. *"This device is eating up my spiritual power so fast!"* Roney suddenly realizes the sacrifice he had to make for the drawbacks of soul whisper. Roney removes the two physical enhancers, the white crystal stones from his exo-suit. He reaches out to his wrists and rotates the dial on his right in the anticlockwise direction. "75 Newtons. I''m going to kill you if you don''t walk away from here." Roney warns Faust with a convicted tone. *"I have removed my body enhancement stones. This should stop them from consuming my spiritual power and all of it goes toward these whispering discs. I''m going to teach him what adulthood really consists of."* Roney justified and he stares down at Faust. *"Breathe in-breathe out. Focus, target the vital points, block and attack, hit and run. First cut off his arms and legs, and then go for his heart"* Faust suddenly becomes calm, resembling still water. He thinks of calculating the attacking way to take down Roney. Yet, inside his heart, he is scared. He is only a 10-year-old kid. He is afraid and his heart just doesn''t seem to be in control. It just doesn''t settle down, but he tries to act brave in front of the only girl in his life. He wants to protect her. He doesn''t want to go down while she is watching. Faust clenches his fist, but the middle phalanx (middle bone) of his index finger is protruding outwards, more than the rest of his fingers. All the fingers are folded inwardly clenching like a fist. But the index finger is only folded halfway, and it looked like he is holding a knife in his knuckles. Roney and Lucifer are taken over by confusion as to which martial art Faust is using. Faust takes off, hoping to catch up-to-speed with Roney and he is doing great keeping up with Roney even when Roney is having the advantage of the exosuit. Faust pushes him close hand-hand combat with Roney and moves incredibly fast without letting Roney catch a breath. *Thud!!!~~* As everybody is watching, the right arm of Roney doesn''t see to move or even show the slightest moment. Faust has severed the communication between the brain and his right arm. "Your tendon inside your arm has been cut and the nerves are dead." Faust smirks and tells to Roney as to how big a mistake he made, of messing with Faust. Faust landed a hard blow on Roney''s arm joint, and the next second, his arm is numb. "It''s not over yet!!" Faust shouts and jumps forward. He repeatedly lands many hits on the Roney''s face, his chest. Roney is scratched and cut wherever Faust made contact. Even his exo suits which are defending him are dislocated and twisted at some parts on his chest. Faust finally lands another hit. A hard hit in between the elbow and funny bone of Roney''s elbow. It was a hard hit on his pressure point. Roney stumbled. Now, Roney''s two arms are numb and lifeless and this creates an opportunity for Faust to end this fight. Roney could feel he''s losing this fight, but he did not want to give up and get beaten up by a kid who''s younger than him, he was desperately prideful at this point. "Captain, let us help you." Roney''s friends yells from behind. "STOP MESSING WITH MEEEE!!!!" Roney shouts and jumps back instantly. "Do you think I''m that weak that you pathetic people have to come and help me?" Roney yells at his friends angrily. "Repair!" Roney shouts loud. Suddenly the exo-suit he is wearing responded to his voice commands and injects a nanoresuct into his spine directly from behind. Faust is taken over by shock. Both arms of Roney are back to normal in just a second. "I will make you regret this, you shithead." Roney grits his teeth harder with rage taking over his body completely. Faust rushes towards Roney as he wanted to finish this fight early without letting Roney to give enough time for him to rethink another plan. "I''ll make a mess of you!." Faust says as he draws his fist back to land a punch. "Soul Whisper." Roney utters calmly. Trauma takes place for Faust after this incident where he almost died. "Hahah, when the soul whisper is at Max power, it can just shred and tear your spirit. The pain is greater than the pain you experience when you are in normal body. Every tissue that has been torn gives 100 more times sensation and pain than in normal body, if this isn''t the beautiful art, I don''t know what else is hahahaha!!"Lucifer laughs demonical-ly while he admires his creation. "The experiment is a success on my side, how did your conversation go lord Uriel?" His smile gets taken over by curiosity and malicious intentions, with a joyous expression spread on his face. "It''s a success too, she agreed to join the sect, this mission is our pure success. I''m really happy what we both achieved from this event today, heh." Uriel says to Lucifer with a straight face. They both meet each other and shakes hands with bright smiles as a token of respect. "Then only one thing is left if you please." Lucifer says to Uriel and seems as though he cannot wait any longer for what he is about to do. "Of course," Uriel says, while his eyes turn pitch black in an instant, the black aura extends from his body, completely surrounding Lucifer and both of them instantly, in a pure evil second are teleported to Faust and Roney. *"She left me, no one is here to help me, my arms hurts, am I going to die? My whole life, I don''t want to die at a young age .* Faust still holds his arm and cries while he is down on both of his knees as Uriel arrives with Lucifer. "Ah... Uncle Uriellll!!" Faust says while he looks at Uriel with all the hope in the world in his eyes. Faust just wants to hug Uriel and cry all he wants in relief that he came to protect him. *"It must be Yui, she went to call Uncle Uriel. She didn''t abandon me.* Faust gets excited by his thoughts and joyfully laughs after seeing Uriel. "Oh ya oh ya! look at the hope in his eyes, my sweet little kid who has done a great job in helping me with my experiment today." Lucifer says with a psychotic smile towards Faust. He is still feeling overjoyed with his accomplishments today that he wanted to give Faust a tight hug and thank him for their successful experiment today. *"Huh? Who is this guy standing beside Uncle Uriel? Experiment? What is he talking about? Anyways, I need to go to Uncle Uriel, maybe he can heal my arm. I don''t want to be crippled at a young age, I need to live long, I don''t wanna die."* Faust slowly gets up on his feet and runs toward Uriel in hope. To Faust, Uriel is like his uncle now as he is interacting with him from the past 6 months and he starts calling Uriel as uncle and Uriel too doesn''t say anything back. "Uncle-Uncle Uriel, help me Uncle, these guys are trying to kill me, please - they even hurt Yui, do not leave any one of them. And before that can you heal my arm uncle? It hurts a lot and I can''t feel it. Please uncle, do something." Faust tells Uriel who is just standing with a straight face without any kind of emotion showing on his face. "Of course, I came here to protect you Faust." Uriel says and takes a pause. "But before that apologize to these people for making them hate you. And then they will forgive you." Uriel says with a cold voice. *"Huh? What is uncle saying? Apologize? They are going to kill me. Did uncle lose his mind? Or did he become a saint all of a sudden? Hell with apologies* Faust rage fully thought while starring at Roney and his friends. "Haha kid, no use in asking your Uncle Uriel, he can''t help you right now. But I like you since you helped me achieve my goal. So let''s do this, kneel in front of everyone behind you and touch their feet with your head and ask for forgiveness. If they agree, I will let you go home right now hah hah." Lucifer confirms Uriel''s words and let him know that he doesn''t have any other option. "Huh? Unc-" Faust looks at Uriel to try to reason with him, but Uriel wasn''t willing to even look at him, let alone responding in any way. He was emotionless without any expression on his face. Just like a statue would be and Faust''s hope once again wad shattered into pieces. Faust with no hopes left gets up on his feet and seemingly shuts out his emotions. He walks towards Roney and his friends without even seeming to care where he is walking, or towards whom. His world is only dark now. He felt oppressed and forced. Everyone around him is older and matured. Still, they make a child go through hell. What kind of experiment? What kind of humanity? What kind of a Human? What is a human? All these different kinds of thoughts flood inside his head. He kneels on each person''s foot. Leans forward and touches their foot with his forehead and asks for forgiveness like a wooden dummy who is obeying a command without any feelings left. 144 Red-Eyed Faus *"Goddammit, will anyone come and save me from this situation? I just want to die, Why am I so afraid to die? The principles of a swordsman, the pride of a warrior, I don''t have any left now. I''m just a coward in the end, dammit! dammit! dammit! dammit! dammit!. I just want to die but I want to live, why am I still such a coward? I''m just a piece of crap, useless shit!"* This is a shameful, embarrassing and traumatizing event for Faust. He was always so proud of himself and the way Gus Pampers him, makes him always bloat and bluff about his pride. He always thought that no one could beat him and that he was more special than everyone else as he gets to learns martial arts, continuously praised for his efforts by his master every day. As Faust kneels in front of Roney and as he was about to beg him for forgiveness, Roney steps back without letting Faust forehead touch his shoes. Instead, he raises his feet and stomps hard on the back of Faust''s head. "Bend your head with respect." Roney says while his feet are pressing harder on Faust''s head to the point of it burying down the ground. *Arghhhhhhh!!, dammitttt!, dammitttt!, Faust you pathetic piece of trash!!! You''re so damn useless!!!!* Faust instantly breaks down in tears for his incompetence and presses his badly wounded arm hard to feel the pain as blood gushes out from the cuts and keeps flowing out to the ground. "But, don''t just ask us for forgiveness, it doesn''t take you anywhere" Roney spitefully smile "The guy standing there is our master and the only guy who can protect you, go beg him." Roney says while pointing towards Lucifer and kicks Faust to ask forgiveness from Lucifer. At this point, Faust just gives up on his pride and accepts himself a worthless guy and walks towards Lucifer. Grovelling at his feet, Faust''s forehead touches the boots of Lucifer and asks him for forgiveness, shamelessly. "Hahaha, such an obedient kid what shall we do with this kid Mr Uriel? You want him for your use?" Lucifer asks Uriel as if Faust is a plaything or a nonliving thing that doesn''t require any guilt for him. "Well, I did give my word that we will spare him." Uriel tells Lucifer about his talk with Yui. "Ahh well then, I wanted to spare him too, since he helped me a lot in my experiment, " Lucifer says and decides to spare Faust. *Thud!~ Slicssshh!* A straight sword pierces through the back of Faust and comes out piercing his heart in a matter of second. "AUugghh!~, I''m im S-sorry..." Faust collapses to the floor and his eyes roll back into his head and he falls onto the ground. "I spared him from his grief hahhaha!!" Lucifer laughs maniacal with evil like face as he emotionless-ly kills Faust piercing his heart with a pistol sword that was on his waist. Hahah, I''m guessing this is what is called sparing someone''s life, right? He was in such pain too. But not anymore, I saved him from the pain." Lucifer laughs mockingly looking at the lifeless body of Faust. The weapon that Lucifer uses is a pistol sword. A pistol sword is a sword attached with a pistol or a handgun with a straight thin blade. The weapon''s primary objective is to be used as a sword and the pistol is considered secondary to have the advantage of the firearms and also sharp weapons to pierce the flesh. "Well I believe, we still have some work left to discuss Mr.Uriel, let''s head back to my mansion." Lucifer says to Uriel with a smiling face as he withdraws the sword back from the flesh of Faust. "And you guys can head back, the mission is a success. Also, everyone in our house has viewed your heroic acts." Lucifer commands the kids of his house. Roney with his squad heads back to tend to their wounds and Uriel starts heading back with Lucifer. Everybody starts walking back with their heads held high and bright smiles to their locations leaving the body of Faust to be devoured by other souls. Faust''s eyes rolled back inside his head completely, and you can only see whiteness left. He seemed to be really gone from this world and never will be able to come back again. *"This is what he gets, he messed with us and now he''s dead. I wonder what will happen to that bragging little bitch!" Roney furiously thinks in his mind *"I hope she meets the same fate as this guy."* he smirks happily as he walks back along with Lucifer. *"If this is how it is, then this is fate. I did not sense the aura from him in the last 6 months, did I just assume out of my hope for him to return? Maybe, but whatever happened has happened for good."* Uriel wonders to himself about the red aura he sensed when Faust ate the spirit cloud. He has hoped to see it while he trained with Yui. All of a sudden a quick electric current through Uriel''s spine, made him jolt in shock. It caused his animal instincts to awaken, and that''s when his brain instantly tells him death is creeping to his way. The aura Uriel felt just now is so immense, cruel, inhuman, most of all it''s bloodthirsty. *Swoosh!* A huge tornado-like aura formed around Faust and he is standing behind Lucifer and all the people while they are faced away from him. This time Roney, his squad, along with Lucifer, sensed the blood lust coming from behind them. They are frozen in their tracks, unable to even turn back. The pressure of the aura is very immense. The violent winds are raging behind them, as terror is instigated in their very souls. Behind them is Faust standing tall with a hole in his chest. His eyes look like they''re filled with blood and glow like the hungry eyes of a demon. He is grinning like a shark, his demonic smile revealing his sharp pointy teeth, looking forward to devouring the people in front of him. The red aura is swirling around him rapidly. The aura around Faust is being gathered above him and is taking a shape as Uriel is watching from the corner of his eyes. He sees a face and arms of a demon formed from the red mist-like aura connecting to Faust. Everybody is scared to death at the intense pressure the aura is causing them, their bodies feel heavier and heavier, as though their bones are getting crushed with the pressure. It was like they''re 3000 ft below the water level. *Poof!* Faust disappears all of a sudden without a single trace of his enormous energy in the whole spirit world. The strong winds and the pressure also left out of nowhere. *"H-he''s gone?! What the fuck was that?! My body was almost crushed to the ground with such spirit power* Roney instantly collapses on his knees, and relaxes, as if he has been saved from a very dangerous beast. "Wh-what is it? Uriel, did you try to backstab us?" Lucifer asked Uriel without expecting an answer. It is all written on the face of Uriel. *"What the hell? Is he watching that beast that displayed the spirit just now? How terrifying is it that the lord of the spirit world is literally trembling in fear?"* Lucifer thinks to himself while watching Uriel who seems to be at his wits end. Watching Uriel itself looking like a scared baby, Lucifer couldn''t calculate how terrifying the power is. Uriel has currently seen as the most powerful person in all of the earth and seeing such a man tremble in fear made Lucifer even more scared for his life. "What the hell is it? Huh? Where is he?" Lucifer who turned back intending to confirm if the body of Faust is still there is surprised to find nothing all that is left there is a pool of blood and no sign of Faust. "Uriel? What did you see? What happened?" Lucifer asks Uriel for answers to some uncleared questions. "Uriel, I''m talking to you respond to me. Stop being in shock, the disaster has been passed away."Lucifer who is impatient by nature, demands Uriel as to what he saw while they were being terrified. "The boy- a huge beast devoured him and disappeared." Uriel told Lucifer, but he doesn''t seem to be telling the real truth to Lucifer. "I have never heard or seen a beast with such spiritual power, nor have I ever read that such beasts come to prey on your soul." Lucifer says to Uriel in disbelief. "It may be due to the soul whisper, the unbalanced spirit attracted the beast," Uriel tells Lucifer while still looking at the sky. "We never know something like this could happen. But yeah we never tried it in Max range, I will take a look at the soul whisper once I reach a safe location and will inform you." Lucifer tells Uriel and left in a hurry like death was chasing him if he doesn''t get out quickly and solve the mystery. *Back in Mindoro in a shrine* "Wake up Faust! Oi Faust! Wake up, hey Faust!" Faust is sleeping in the spirit gateway, the sky and the clouds are reflecting on the concealed ground like a mirror and he keeps hearing someone trying to wake him up. "Mmmm let me sleep for a little more¡ªhuh?????"Faust fluttered his eyes open to the wake up call, but he was really surprised by what he is seeing in front of him, there was another Faust right in the front sitting beside his head and trying to wake him up. *"Ah his eyes are looking pretty creepy, and red, is this really me? What is happening?"* Faust thinks to himself while watching the Faust with blood red eyes who look beyond scary. "Oi! Wake up, Faust! Hey Faust! Wake uppp!!!" The red eyed Faust is still slapping the cheeks of the Faust and still trying to wake him up. "Woah, hey, Wa-wait, I''m up, stop slapping my face." Faust says to the red eyed while trying to push him away. "Wake uppp Faust! Hey, Faust wakes up!!!" The red eyed still kept shouting at him intensely and his emotions become psychotic and more creepy. *"Wah I''m telling him that I''m awake but he is still persistently grabbing my shoulder and shaking me violently to wake me up what is going on?"* Faust thinks to himself, as it was too creepy for him. "Please, please! let go of me, who are you, stop! I''m awake." Faust keeps saying while trying to let the red eyed Faust to let go of his arm, and closes his eyes in fear. *Wake up!!!!! Faust!!! FAUST!* 145 Red Eyed Faust - 2 This is the first time that the red-eyed Faust has made his presence known to others. The deep melancholy and the pressure of pure blood lust. These feelings kept growing in his life as he met with new obstacles with each passing day. That is when he got hold of his sword. The sword that is known to be smithed by gods. The sword that can cut anything in any dimension and even the heavens and hell if used correctly. On a day, when Faust is blaming himself for being powerless and useless. Blaming himself for not being able to save his friends. The only family in his life, Gus, He left the room without speaking a word and entered the attic. He later came back, holding a white box with golden carvings at the corners of the box, in his hands and placing the box on a table in front of the bed Faust is on. "Faust! I can''t give you any answers for your questions. That is just the nature of humans who are consumed by their desires and feelings. They are selfish, greedy, jealous and only share hatred among each other." Gus sensibly tells Faust about human nature. "What is in the box?" Faust asks in a low voice as if he accepts everything coming in his way. The sword of Ares; the Divine katana, is resting in the box in a bad state. The sword did not accept Gus as its master, nor did Gus find a suitable owner for it, therefore the sword was left alone for many years. The sword became rusty after a while in Gus''s hands. It has lost all of its divine appearance and now looks like a cheap sword that cannot even cut through a piece of paper. Gus bought the sword to motivate Faust and also to test if the sword accepts Faust as it''s master. And the moment Gus enters Faust''s room with the box containing the sword inside, the sword inside the box vibrates a little as to show it''s presence to its suitable owner. "Faust remember you have been asking to see a katana? Well, I bought one today for you. Want to see how it looks? Even though it has become dull and a little rusty it''s still pretty much useful." Gus says in a way to gain Faust''s curiosity. "Uhmm... Sure." Faust says in voice. Gus opens the box and draws the katana in scabbard. Faust''s eyes first goes onto the carvings on the scabbard, they seem to be symbols in some unknown language to Faust. There are carvings on the handle as well. "Well wanna hold it and see?" Gus brings the sword closer to Faust to hand it to him. Faust almost casually grabs the sword and as Faust''s hands come closer to the katana. The rust starts to fall off the swords inside the scabbard like a sediment sands, reinstating half of the beauty of the sword. Faust almost grips his hand around the handle of the sword but suddenly loses his motivation and withdraws his hand back. "It''s ok, I will see it later, it''s not that good-looking anyway." Faust changes his mind after seeing that the sword is not doing good and loses his interest in holding it. He is still taken over by his feelings from the spirit world. "Ehhhh.. Ok if you say so, I''ll put the sword here for you so you can touch it when you like it." Gus says with a hint of disappointment. He thought he could see the sword''s response after a long time leaving it in the attic for so long, but Faust''s dispirited personality left him with acknowledgement of not getting what he wanted. "Oh it looks like Bella is back with the sheep. Let me go tie them up and feed Bella for her hard work." Gus leaves the room to look after his pets. It was barely 10 minutes and Faust got super bored. He first examined his arms and his chest again. *"It doesn''t hurt much, but the red color of tissues scare me"* Faust thought to himself. And as he was getting bored, his eyes lays upon the sword that Gus has left. Faust walks over and picks up the katana holding it in the middle of the scabbard thinking that it is heavier than his master and appreciates the style and carvings on the white scabbard with golden linings. He then draws the sword out of the scabbard and his first thoughts were about how rusty the sword is. It almost looks like it''s eaten by acid because of the rust. He starts swinging the sword gently, as the rust on the sword is falling over, bit by bit. Faust ignores this by thinking, it''s just rust that is falling off. And after playfully swinging the sword more than 10 times, Faust decided to use his unholy sword technique with the katana. Thinking of this, Faust takes a normal stance bending his knees as if riding a horse while holding the grip of the sword with both hands. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and gathers up all of his energy to his hands to deliver a strike in the air. As Faust is involved in his technique with his eyes closed, all the rust on the sword has been completely fallen off and the eaten part of the blade starts growing out as a new blade. *"Unholy sword - The call of unholy blight."* Faust shouts inside his heart and gives the sword a powerful swing in the air. *Whoosh!!!~~~* All around Faust''s room, his bed sheets, books, papers, chairs and clothes are swirling at great speed forming a realistic looking tornado. The sword that Faust is holding is now looking like a brand new katana which has just been smithed, the ridges and edges look sharp and the blade itself is shining and reflecting like a mirror. Faust is mind blown by the sudden change of the sword. *"Dammit this can easily cost billions of pice''s!"*(the currency in Mindoro. However currency in the mainland differs from the currency in Mindoro.) Gus rushes inside the house upon hearing the rumbling sounds from inside the house and is stunned upon seeing the sword in Faust''s hand. "YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN FAUST!!!" Gus shouts at the top of his lungs happily. One could see the twinkles in his eyes, his excitement level rising on seeing Faust''s achievement. "I have seen the swords changing from a dull to a sharp one, but I never thought this sword would resurrect again." Gus lost his hopes for the sword when it got rusty and crumbling into powder. But now he could not believe his eyes that the sword is back to its initial form. "Uhhhh, grandpa, what are you talking about? He-help me, th- the sword is moving in my hands. It is not in my control!!." Faust is dead scared with this new out of the world experience for him. He cannot control the sword as it continuously vibrates in his hands and makes him slash every piece of furniture in the room. "Huhhhh, this has never happened before." Gus is in great shock as Faust is as he never was chosen by the sword before so he didn''t know how to advise Faust. "But calm yourself first, Faust, and try to control it." Gus is watching Faust worryingly as he is being thrown around and slashing even the walls. The sword behaved like it just awoke after a long time of deep sleep, and wanted to go on a rampage. The sword was in an excited state for 30 long minutes and it finally settled down after a while, leaving Faust and Gus exhausted. Their house is also in a devastated state. "Faust you have been chosen by the sword, you have been gifted a power. You need to use it wisely, you will eventually find out about the world. You need to be sane, take better decisions, become an inspirational hero who everyone looks up to and serve in the military. You hear me? You won''t get to hold that sword even if you live nine lives like a cat. So you better use this golden opportunity and try to change the world." Gus was exhausted with chasing after the sword and Faust. But he felt the need to get all the serious words off his chest to Faust, even if the tired Faust didn''t understand anything. He nods his head silently. "But what is this sword? Isn''t this dangerous? It almost cut down our house." Faust asks Gus in disbelief. "This is the sword, that can make you change this world. This gives you the power. You need to choose the path you''re going to take, and that sword right there, can help you achieve it." Gus keeps explaining to Faust about the sword over and over to Faust. Finally the dumbfounded Faust understood Gus''s meaning and the power of the sword. - *present* "So, there is nothing to do other than going into this round with this amateur?" Cameron says in frustration and decides to go with Faust since there are no other available substitutes for the school. The participants from Medellin school are also walking to the arena. Cameron, Mayu, Benjamin, Awarnach and Stone are all walking elegantly with colourful dresses in the colours orange and black. Faust is the only one in the squad that is approaching the stage in normal clothes. "Faust!" On his way to the arena, Faust is stopped by his housemates Fab and Jonathan. "We came to give you your outfit Faust." Fab puts on the hoodie-cloak fused top on his shirt. The cloak takes over Faust as the nanomaterials starts forming his military suit. "B-but is it allowed?" Faust asks in a surprise. He definitely want to wear this on this arena but he is concerned if it is good or a bad thing to wear it in the arena of a school. "The cloak finished forming a body suit with black and red colour on Faust''s body. there are leather gloves that are around the hands of Faust. On the palms of these gloves are small rubber suction tubes that help the wielder to hold a gun or a sword. This also improves with aiming at the right spots. On the top, left chest of the whole cloak is the words written "Ashura Senpou" on them. Faust is entering the arena. Two people are concerned about a major issue. "What if his eyes turn red again? Can we help him come back? Can we subdue him?" Fab and Jonathan keeps thinking about the Red-eyed Faust. - There are some incidents in Faust''s life that changed his eyes red. One of them being the experiment done by adults that left a scar in the chest of Faust and the second one is losing the only family he has left in this entire world. After the tests that happen on the island to recruit young kids to let them study in the mainland and gain experience and knowledge that can be used to serve the house like soldiers. After this test is done in Mindoro. Gus, grandfather of Faust who raised him since Faust was a baby is on board of a ship that belongs to the house of Asuras. They are on their way from Mindoro to Mainland. After gathering a lot of capable kids. Meanwhile, in the mainland. The greed to possess a humanoid that is made out of every elemental stone has increased as the news about the humanoid spread across the mainland. It is said that one humanoid can wipe out an entire country worth soldiers in mere minutes. They were investigating such a case of a humanoid which disappeared from Mainland, eleven years ago. A rumor spread around saying, a doctor took the humanoid which is still a baby and fled the mainland to some other island. And the name of the doctor is Gus, Faust''s grandfather. 146 Red Eyed Faust - 3 "Give me the reports from our house." As soon as he entered the ship, Skiouros, a captain that came to Mindoro to pick up the young talent and headed back to the Mainland with the assistance of Gus. In the journey, he gets the name of the doctor who fled the mainland with the humanoid. He immediately goes into the control room to check the reports. His aura immediately changes from a cheerful elder person you met in the park in evenings to a vile, ruthless murderer hidden beneath the kind smile. "Contact the house and tell them we are coming there with Gus Hughes." Skiouros orders his men with an evil smile taken over his face. One can easily say that he is plotting something big in his head. For the next 10 days, Faust lives on his own, cooks his own food and for Bella. He trains all by himself. He built a training ground all by himself in grass fields after being turned down by Yang to train him. Even though things are hard at school and with any person he makes contact with. As they look at him like a loser. He started to ignore the insults and curses and moved forward with positivity. He knows he won''t be staying long on this island anyway, so he does not bother about the villagers and the kids of his age making fun of him and calling him a loser. "Bella oi! Eat up your food fast! Grandpa will be coming today." Faust says as he pushes a plate of dog food towards Bella with a bright smile on his face. It is the 10th day and he cannot wait to meet Gus. "Yosh! I cooked spinach and fried tofu with spices, I hope they will be sufficient for lunch! Grandpa will be tired all these days so I shouldn''t tire him more by burdening him with work as soon as he arrives." "Mmm and fresh, sweet tangy mangoes as dessert! Nicely done." Faust gives a pat to himself on the shoulder for the work he has done. "Let''s goooo!" He and Bella heads out, he ties a rope around his waist with the other end of the rope tied around the collar of Bella. It is to be cautious while getting down his hill. He could not leave Bella alone on slippery snow. The villagers and the old people that come across him in the path stares at him in an odd way. Finally, as he reaches the tip of a hill a little far from the port, the ship is already here in the port and many people seem to be walking out of the ship. "Ahhhhh! We must be late, Bells, let''s go soon." Faust hurries quickly once he sees the ship, he is not able to hold his emotions back. He laughingly reaches the port and stands in front of a huge ship. It is a cruise ship so Faust is caught off guard with the vastness and beauty of the ship. Faust stays in awe with his mouth open. He walks slowly while his eyes are still fixated on the shining colors and the material of the ship. "Oh! If it isn''t Faust, Fausty! I''m here! It''s your grandpa!" A voice is heard from a distance. The face of Faust instantly lit up with what was before him. Gus is running towards him carrying his bags, "Woahhhh! Grandpaaa!" Faust immediately takes a leap and hugs Gus tightly, his arms are wrapped around Gus'' neck and his body covers his face entirely. "Ow ow ow. I-i''m I''m nowt ab-ble to br-brweathe" Gus suffered with Faust covering his face and choking his neck, he repeatedly taps on Faust''s back to let him go. "Ohh! Grandpa!!! I missed you so much! Look at you, you became chubby in these 10 days. You must be eating lots of new foods and slacking off on bed huh?" Faust lets go of Gus'' face and starts evaluating Gus as tears roll off his eyes. It is just frustrating for Faust that Gus left him and spent a long 10 days on the mainland while he is left alone in his small house. "Anyway, I''m so happy to see you again, so did you make sure my friends are settled well and in a good neighbourhood? In a good school? Is everything good for her?" "Especially Nick! He needs a place with lots of food. So does that place have a lot of food huh?" Faust attacks Gus with a question after question while showing concern towards his friends. "Ah, let''s talk about these things at home, I''m hungry, let''s go eat and talk." Gus replies. "Heh, sureee, let''s go. I have cooked delicious food for you, your mouth will be filled with water instantly as soon as you see the food I prepared heh" Faust climbs the back of Gus and goes for a piggyback ride while boasting about his cooking. "Faust!" As he and Gus are about to go, a voice is heard from behind. Gus stops moving forward and Faust turns his face back to see who called him. Gus however does not move or talk or show any emotion, he hides his face as he looks down without taking a step. There are a bunch of people who seem to be standing in a circle, a person who seems to be lying unconscious in between the circle. "How did he faint suddenly?" "Did you see someone attacking?" "I don''t think so, Yang is here too." "What is happening? He suddenly fainted while standing here." The crowd gathered around and kept talking about the fainted person. *"Huh? Fainted while standing? What kind of pathetic person is he?"* Faust thinks to himself while being a bit annoyed. He wants to go home and eat with Gus but it seems like it is being delayed for him. "Faust!" The voice is heard again. Faust being surprised, he looks either way to see who is calling him. "Let''s place him on the table under the shade of the shelter." The crowd of people decided and carry the fainted person and placed him under a shelter and are trying to wake him up. "Faust! Wake up" the same voice is heard again. Faust slowly opens his eyes. His is in between a crowd and on the table in a shelter. He is confused as to how he ended up here. "Are you ok Faust? You suddenly collapsed." One of the crew members of the ship asks Faust. *"Huh? I? Collapsed? Fainted? How can I?"* Faust holds his head while trying to remember what had happened. Suddenly a stroke of lightning hit him in his head, his eyes widened and his breath became heavy. "Wh-who was the one?" Faust asks in a shock. Wh-who was it? Where is my grandpa?" Faust asks with confusion, he doesn''t know why he is in-between a crowd or when he has fainted. "Faust, I- you just fainted after a crew person spoke to you and left. We have not seen Gus till now." A villager who is kneeling beside Faust tells him. "Faust? Is he the loser kid? Haha who else would faint in broad daylight? Of course this weak kid!" "We all wasted our time with him. Let''s go! Let''s go and do our work." "Aishhh! You really wasted our time kid." The crowd of villagers who had gathered around started to leave while complaining that they have wasted their efforts by coming to aid a kid who has fainted. Faust just sat down with his head lowered, he did not talk back or reply. "You are that crew member." Faust says to the person who is still kneeling beside him. He turns his face towards the person slowly and asks again. "Y-yo-you were the one who spoke to me earlier right?" Faust asks as his voice is trembling. The person beside him lets out a gloomy sigh and places his hand on the shoulder of Faust. "It was me. Do you remember what I told you?" The person asks. Faust starts to tremble, tears roll out of his eyes and he breaks out completely. "We tried to save him. But, it is a heavy storm and he fell inside square waves. We couldn''t do anything than watch him drown. Gus had died in the shipwreck." The person tells Faust. The entire world seemed empty for Faust, these are words that Faust heard when he came into the port at first and fainted after hearing what happened to Gus. While he passed out, he dreamt about Gus coming back from mainland and him spending happy times with Gus. "I''m sorry kid!" The person says and goes away, Bella who is sitting before Faust barks at him suddenly after noticing changes in Faust. "N-no¡­ no¡­ n- he¡­ grandpa is" Faust is trembling and gasping for breathe, the tears are not stopping and he seemed to be lost in despair. "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Faust holds his face as his nails are digging into the skin of his forehead. He screams loudly as his cries resonate all over the village. "Dammit! Dammit! Ahhhhhhhh" His cries are mixed with anger and sorrow. He drags his hands from his forehead to his chin as his nails peeled his skin. Bella is barking at the sudden change in Faust''s behaviour. The poor animal does not understand the human language and does not understand why Faust is crying with a broken heart. "Wh-what happened to that kid?" "Why is he crying like that now? Let''s go have a look." The ship''s crew who are docking by the ship rushes towards Faust, but before they reach him, an old man cuts between them and stops them with a gesture of his hand. "Chief Yang! That kid just fainted a while ago, and now he is crying in pain." One of the crew members tells Yang who is standing in the way between the people and Faust. "Let him cry¡­ he will be relieved later on," Yang says in a cold voice while staring at Faust, he sends all the crew members back to the ship and he too walks away. "Can you guys do me a favor? Once that kid stops crying, carry him to his home and leave him there." On his way back to the village, Yang asks a favor from a group of fishermen who were standing and watching the whole scene from a while. "Definitely chief." The group replies. *"Why you Gus? Why does it have to be you?"* Yang clenches his fists as he walks. Faust is still crying without the care of his surroundings. - "Grandpa! Where is my mom and dad?" Faust remembers the first time when he asked Gus a question at the age of 6. He went to school and saw that every kid was holding the hand of their parents while coming to school. Mother and father of all kids, came and happily took pictures with their kids on the first day of school. Faust have an aunt, uncle and a cousin in the same village. The aunt is like an elder sister to Gus, who grew up with him. Whenever Gus had to visit the mainland with Yang to get the resources and food. Faust was left behind with the aunt to stay for a month or two. He always noticed little.things between him and the cousin. His cousin slept with his parents on a comfy bed while he slept on the ground with just a cloth under him. His cousin however did not like Faust and refused to communicate or to play with him. "Brother Zeref! Let me also play tag with you guys." With a bright smile.on his face and excitement filled eyes and innocent face. Faust asked his cousin who is the same age as him. "Tsk! How many times have I told you? I don''t like you. You can''t play with us." Zeref replied in an annoyed voice. Faust still had his smile on his face, while feeling a little sad in his heart, he lowered his head and stood at a distance as he saw his cousin and his friends played. He did not move an inch from where he was standing, he continued staring at them helplessly. He did not understand why his cousin hated him, nor did he know that hate is a strong word that the other person does not even like your presence. "Zeref! He is your own cousin, why not let him play? He looks sad." A kid from Zeref''s friends spoke up as he questions Zeref words. "I don''t like him, if you feel sad for him then you are welcome to go join him. You don''t need to play with us anymore." Zeref replied his friend and turned towards Faust who was standing in a corner. Zeref picked a small pebble and threw it towards Faust, targeting his leg. Faust immediately trembled with a jolt. "Brother Zeref!" He shouted as he was surprised. 147 Red Eyed Faust - 4 Every one is in a confusion along with Yang and many other sailors and fishers as well. Everyone is hopinng for Faust to say something regarding his behaviour. You are standing there and making me look bad in front of my friends with your disgusting sad acting. Go away from here!" Zeref yelled at Faust with an exasperated look. "B-But I''m just." Faust tried to redeem himself, but ended up walking away, he didn''t want to say anything else to get hit with a pebble again. Even when Faust was eating with the family, Zeref who sat opposite to Faust glared at him with a hint of resentment. Faust would lower his head and he could feel warm tears rushing out from his eyes. "Don''t eat all of our food." Zeref said in an undertone, like a subdued thunder. Faust felt the anger in Zeref''s voice. Faust always ate food in less portions whenever he was eating with Zeref. He was ordered to wake up at 5 every morning to draw water from a well and fill a huge vessel by his aunt, but even though the drawing of water with a small mug that could be pulled up easily, it took him a 100 trip to fill out the vessel. "Aw little Faust! Who assigned you this work? Take it easy, I will draw the water with something big later "His uncle who just came to the farm advised Faust. Faust was relieved to hear the words, his arms and shoulders were already turned hard as a stone and hurt him even more when he lift his arms up straight. "What? He is a boy! He will grow up to be a man. You shouldn''t spoil him like that, let him do it." His aunt intervened and said in an irritated tone. "Faust, my kid! You keep doing it, you will become a good dependable man when you grow up, keep doing it." She alluded with a smile, her voice was sweet as honey to the ears. "Uun! Definitely aunty, I will do it." Faust innocently agreed with his aunt and went back to doing his work, feeling that he should somehow make his aunt proud and appreciate him. "Why don''t you wake up your son too and make him work? He would need to work too if he is going to grow up to be a dependable man." The uncle asked his wife who was so thoughtful about Faust, but not her lazy son. The face of his wife turned ugly and is filled with rage. "He needs to work for what he is eating!" She fumed as she walked away in anger. The words fell into the ears of Faust. He realized how he was being used, but he acknowledged it lightheartedly. . . "Is Faust asleep?" His uncle who was late to home that night asked his wife in a low voice. "He certainly is." His aunt replied while checking on Faust who was sleeping in a fetal position with his legs was curled up, facing the opposite side from them. His uncle then went on to wake Zeref up with an ice cream and dessert in his hands, he made Zeref sit in his lap and feed him the desserts while he fondled his kid''s cheeks and patted their hair. "My little kid, my good boy, go to sleep now, daddy''s here, he will be here when you wake up." Later he put Zeref back to sleep while showing his love cuddling to him. Faust who was still awake all this time pretending to be asleep starts crying as he hugged his knees. "Having a mom and dad is a good thing." He thought as tears kept rolling from the corner of his eye. His pillow turned cold and wet after he cried for a while. They all used to go to a playground to play and his aunt only made Zeref try out every swing, slides and seesaw and many while Faust stood at a distance clapping sadly. His uncle offered to give a swing to Faust but after a few minutes, he was called by his wife and he never came back to Faust. Faust just had to stand and watch everything the whole time, his sorrow increased more as he saw parents hold the hand of their kids and walked in happiness. He stopped all the sorrow in his throat and cried his heart out at nights when everybody was asleep. . . All of these things repeated for a few more days until Gus was back from the mainland. Faust who was sitting alone on a stone outside his aunt''s house was startled as soon as he heard a familiar voice. "Fausty! It''s you grandpa yo! I''m here!" Gus said with a smile and his arms spread wide open. "G-grandpa!" Faust quickly went to hide his face in his grandpa''s chest. "Huh? Huh? Looks like somebody is missed eh?" Gus tried to tease Faust but he still didn''t let go of his hold. Soon, Faust started to cry while holding the shirt of Gus. "Huh? Fausty? Why are you crying? I''m here now hehe, don''t cry my little hero. Who will save me if you cry? hehe." Gus said as he gently patted Faust''s head. The aunt who realized that Gus had come back came out in a rush. "Oh! Gus! My my how many days has it been?" She said with a nervous smile. "I''m good sister! How are you? I just came back and saw Faust is crying for some reason." "Ahh ahh it is nothing! He missed you so much all these days, poor kid heh, he misses you. Say Gus, why don''t you come in and drink something?" The aunt quickly tried to divert Gus'' concern from Faust. "I appreciate your thoughts sister, I need to go back and look at my animals I left in the care of Stella. Bella would be missing Faust too." Gus politely rejected her offer. "Ah Stella huh? Her kid is Nick who is the same age as Faust and Zeref right? It''s a good idea, take Faust there. He will play with the kids and his mood will be okay soon." She said with a frantic smile. Gus took his leave and walks as he carry Faust in his arms who was still resting his head on Gus shoulders while looking sad. "Grandpa!" Faust who was sad and silent all this while spoke up with a sad tone. "Hmm?" Gus answered while wondering what happened to his grandson, who mean the world to him. "It feels very alone¡­ it- it feels like I''m completely different from the society. I feel left out, as though people don''t consider me a human anymore." The only sound that is heard is the sound that Gus''s shoes is making with every step he has taken. The silent hovers above them with neither speaking a word to each other. Faust looked down and tears started filling his eyes but it did not leak out. He cleared his runny nose as the cold breeze ruffled through his hair gently. Gus became stricken instantly by the words of Faust, he stared at Faust speechlessly with a surprised face. "I feel as though I do not have anyone to depend upon grandpa. Everyone have a family that they depend on, b-but i don''t have one and no one considered me as their family. They don''t like me¡­ they are selfish, mean, evil and greedy." Faust''s spills his hurtful words out as he tried to hold back his tears from bursting once again. But once his first droplet of tear broke out, the rest followed in an unbroken stream. "Faust!" Gus feels the heartache of Faust and held him tightly in his arms. His soft shirt and his familiar scent comforted Faust with relief. He poured in all of his feelings he has been holding and cried out like how every little child would. "Did something happened with you?" Gus asked with concerns. "N-no" Faust replied, he did not want to create any conflict or spoil the relation between Gus and his sister. "Faust Listen to what I''m about to say okay?" Gus softly said to Faust. "Life is unfair to everybody, and it is like the waves of the ocean, there are good days and bad days both. No matter how hard things get, never give up. Life will give you something better than you expected." "Build patience and preserve, always learn to give first, what you give comes back to you." "No matter what happens, try to be good. Goodness lasts with you. Be good and kind to everyone, even if you have money, power or excellence, never even think about harming someone." Gus added and settled Faust on a small stone and kneeled before him. He cupped the face of Faust in his palms and wiped the tears with his thumbs. "As for a family." Gus whispered in a low voice and hugged Faust close to his chest. "I am your family Faust, I cook for you, like a mom. I hold your hand and hold you in my chest and protect you like a father. I will be beside you every night and I will read you stories and put you to sleep." Faust hugged Gus back and he sniffed his runny nose. "You will always be with me right?" Faust asked in an innocent yet happy voice, he hugged Gus closer and rubbed his cheeks on Gus''s shirt. Gus chuckled seeing how cute his grandson is acting like a cute little puppy. A few distance beside them, a sound of running noise can be heard. Gus and Faust turn to face the sound and a boy running in the snow can be seen approaching them. Faust curiously wonders why the boy was in a hurry. "G-grandpa! The boy who came running chipped in. Another man came running from behind the boy, "F-faust! Your grandpa drowned and died, we couldn''t save him." The man came running bellowed. "Huh? Grandpa?" Faust and the boy both responded. The boy who came running is 10 years old and present one. He recognized that the little boy Gus is holding is the 6 years old him in the past. The present Faust panicked with the confusing scenario and was helplessly starring at the faces. Gus, who was holding the little Faust suddenly turned blue as he got up on his feet. Present Faust just watch in distress, the child Faust stand up and held the hand of Gus. His hand by now has turned cold, blue and bloated."He is my grandpa." The child Faust with tears welling up in his eyes. "Faust, your grandpa! He is.. dead!" The man yelled repeatedly. The eyes of Gus who is standing had filled back and water was leaking from his mouth and he seemed to be suffocating. Faust instantly reacted and moved forward to hold Gus and to protect him. To his surprise, the kid Faust and the man who came from behind to pass the news of Gus held Faust tightly without letting him go. Faust is surprised that he is not able to push a kid and a man away with all of his strength and training. He helplessly witness Gus fell on the ground breathing his last breath and water swallow the whole body of Gus and disappeared in a flash. - "He cried and passed out again!" The villagers shout out loudly. Apparently Faust has passed out after 4 hours of constantly crying. They carry him to his house on the hill with Bella following behind them, they place Faust near the locked door and carelessly went their way. - After a couple of hours, Faust wakes up at night, to see the dark sky. He saw Bella who is sleeping on him, *"Is she trying keep me warm in this snowfall?"* Faust mumbles in his head and tiredlessly goes inside the house. He lits up a lantern in a corner and gloomily walks towards a cupboard. He takes a huge cardboard out of the cupboard, comes to Bella and dumps a month worth of dog food on Bella''s plate. He then walks over to a wall and settles down with his back resting against the wall. 148 Red Eyed Faust - 5 Everything happened in a jiff, Faust is still not able to process everything that has happened. It still seems like a dream for him. Faust spends the next 5 days just by sitting and looking down while reminiscing Gus'' words. He has been crying without food or sleep, he didn''t even flinch to the barking of Bella or to her bites. Word spread around the village that they haven''t been seeing Faust the past 5 days. His school teachers, and everyone who sees Faust training or walking did not see him and so everybody passed a word to Yang. Yang decided to check up on his friend''s grandson and came to his house. As he opened the door, a foul smell struck him, it''s the smell of stale food Faust prepared for Gus on the day of his arrival. As he took a step inside the dark room, Yang saw Faust and Bella in a corner, Bella is laying on the ground whereas Faust is sitting down with his back against the wall and looking down, seemingly lost in another world. His body has become thinner and weak. He has not eaten or drank something from the past 5 days, his eyes and lips have turned dry, his body dehydrated and he looks like a skeleton with skin, looking like he is going to die soon. Yang collects all the stale food into a cover and throws it outside in a trash can. He stands and watches Faust after his little errand, he leaves loud helpless sigh and says "He is not going to come if you keep crying." Faust does not reply, he does not even seem to respond, he doesn''t even seem to notice than a man broke into his house. "If you were strong, you would have gotten on the ship and Gus might have been alive, or at least you would have gotten to see him in his last moments." Saying that Yang opened the front door widely, left it open and went back the same way he came. "The kid is alive, If he passes out, just take out his body and throw it in the ocean." Yang says with a commanding tone. *"If he has no talent, this village doesn''t need him. Gus was useful all these years, this kid doesn''t even qualify to help. He''s better being dead."* Yang convinces himself. At night, cold winds combined with snow stars to enter inside Faust''s house. The bone chilling cold is freezing and already froze Bella and Faust. Faust doesn''t seem affected but Bella is howling in a very low voice, it breathes quickly trying to keep itself warm. Faust still seems to be lost in his own world, the blood freezing cold increasing after a couple of hours. The nose of Bella has turned cold and frozen into ice, the corners of Faust''s eyes has become frozen. "Faust! How can you leave Bella like this? She did not eat anything, since you have not eaten anything." A voice is heard. "Gra-grandpa?" Faust saw Gus who seem to be in a hurry, he took off his shoes quickly and rushed inside the house, closed the door. Faust is watching with a shocking expression. "Fausty! You do remember the treatment right? Also put some wood into the fireplace. Faust! Move! Don''t just sit there!" Gus yells while he is carrying Bella in his arms and carrying her towards the fireplace. "Bu-but, yo-you" Faust doesn''t have enough strength to even talk, he is still taken by surprise with the sudden entrance of Gus. "Faust!" Gus turns back to face Faust - "You have already abandoned Bella once, are you going to leave her to death again?" Faust snaps out to reality, he observes the room, there is no sign of Gus. And the front door is still open, Bella is still laying beside him. "Ha- hallucinations?" Faust utters in a very tiring voice and falls victim to cough, thrust and hunger within seconds. He quickly realises that Bella is in trouble, he strongly slap his face with both of his hands, gets up on his feet with lots of effort, immediately rushes to close the door, brings rugs and blankets and wraps them around Bella. He arranges some wood in the fireplace and fire them using matches, he goes on to heat water after placing Bella near the fireplace, he brings a huge tub, places Bella inside n slowly pours the hot water onto her while rubbing her fur with his fingertips. He later wrapped her again in the blankets and slept with her in front of the fireplace. He woke up the next day to drink a whole barrel of water, he cooked up some food for himself and Bella. Even though he is walking, eating and cooking. He does not seem to be himself, he does not go to train nor go to school. He sits on top of the hill for hours watching the ocean. He visits the port everyday, waiting for Gus to come back. He did not lose his hope. This went on for days and months. Two months passes by without Gus, no training or school. Faust looks soulless and a robot walking and doing the things to survive and live. "So, I just wanted to check why you were not coming to school." A beautiful woman sits in front of Faust questioning his absence in school. Faust doesn''t reply back anything, in fact it has been 2 months since someone saw Faust talking, he has not spoken a word since the death of Gus. "I know, you have been having tough times since three months." The woman perceives how thin Faust has become, she takes a deep breath before continuing. "You shouldn''t stop your studies no matter what happens in your life, it is a basic necessity for anyone. You won''t be able to live in the world without any knowledge about it." The woman utters while being concerned. The woman is a teacher named Clara (29) from Faust''s school. She wore a long sky blue dress with a long brown handbag which is resting on her legs. Her long black hair is fluttering due to the air blowing from the window behind her, the ends of her hair is also dyed in blue color with a sea shell shaped hair pin. Her face is showing how much she is worrying about Faust but at the same time, hesitating to really cheer him up. She has never communicated with Faust. Nor does she teach him. She heard that a student from her school lost his grandfather and haven''t come to school from two months. She just wanted to tell him ''no matter what happens in life, we need to keep going, keep fighting, to eventually have good days at some point.'' But she feels hesitant since Faust doesn''t talk back or say anything, she grips her hands tight cracking her fingers. "Faust! Come back to school, like will be good once you give it a chance." "Please, come to school, be around lot of people, school teachers you lots of things." Clara says with a helpless pleading face. The eyelids of Faust slowly folds as his eyes roll up to look at the woman in front of him. *"School teaches everything?"* He gets down off the chair that he sat on till now, he goes towards a basket which was placed in the corner of the room. Clara looks with a puzzled face as to what Faust is doing. He picks up the basket and wears it on his back like a backpack and turns towards Clara and stares at her, he then walks towards her with a dead face. *"Di-did he agree to what I say?" The atmosphere around Clara eases up with a smile curving on her lips, as she thinks that Faust agrees with her. *"I wonder¡­ if school teaches about life? Is there a meaning to life?"* Faust casually walks towards her, passes her and walks out of the door which was just beside her. Realizing that Faust is leaving with a basket, Bella joins him on his journey into the forest to collect fruits, bamboo and some meat for their meal. Clara lowers her head in disappointment, she doesn''t understand what Faust really is thinking and leaves on her way. From the next day, Faust starts off by getting ready to school. Bella sleeps near the front door as a guard as usual. Faust walks out of the door, stops in the middle and turns back as he is about to reach outside. He turns around and looks back inside the house with sad and murky face reminiscing how Gus dropped him at school everyday. *Woof woof!* To his surprise Bella comes out running, wagging her tail, she joins Faust. On the way to his school, Faust received many glares from the villagers who looked at him like a trash. To his surprise Bella comes out running, wagging her tail and joins him. On the way to his school, Faust received many glares from the villagers who looked at him like a trash that deserves to be thrown away. Bella heads back it''s way, once Faust enters inside school. Even though Clara is happy to see him back, his classmates and his bullies did not show him any mercy. They made mean comments about how Gus left him because he is a failure. Faust does not say anything back nor does he respond in anyway, he stays as a dead person just taking everything that comes his way, this angered the bullies more. "You won''t say anything back huh, let''s see." The bullies places spikes on his seat, on which Faust sat, the whole day without caring, they also glued a note on his back, which says ''hit me''. As Faust took walks in the corridor, every kid came from behind him to mark their hand prints on the back of Faust. Some kids even compete to see whose slap made big sound. They tore and colored his shirt with curries and sauces in lunch, Faust walked with his torn shirt and spikes at the back of his pants. Clara notices what was happening and comes to remove the note from his back and she punishes the kids who were mean to him, Faust still walked around with the spikes and a half torn shirt. "What is this? You punished our kids for some no namer?" "You are not even a head teacher, who have you the right?" "Why don''t you open a service to save orphan kids, if you like to blame the innocent kids and punish them." After school ended, a group of parents seem to be shouting at Clara at the front gate for the punishment she has given to their kids who bullied Faust. Clara, even while panicking, tries to explain to the parents that their kids are at fault for bullying, but the parents are not ready to buy it. Clara is in a tough situation explaining things to the parents and dealing with her higher-ups. "There, the idiot is coming!" One of the parents says in a despised tone upon seeing Faust coming out of school. One of the mother walks up to Faust, she pulls Faust towards her by hastily grabbing his arm She lowers her upper body to look Faust in his eyes. "How dare you frame our kids for something they did not do?" The mother glared at Faust, her teeth are gritting against each other in a rage and her eyebrows are raised. All the schoolmates and kids of his age are staring at Faust, even some parents and old people who were once nice and kind to Faust are among them. But nobody jumped in to help Faust. *Groan* 149 Red Eyed Faust - 6 It is not a good sight for Faust, all of these feelings are really stirring up his blood and vomitting in his brain. His head is exploding with different kinds of thoughts everyday. Bella jumps forward and groans at the mother who was holding Faust, soon bella starts barking making the woman leave her hold on Faust. The mother goes back to the crowd while eyeing Faust and Bella. *"They don''t care about me."* Faust pulls his shirt up and arranges his backpack before walking away with a murky face. "Really! I wish it was this kid who died in place of Gus." The mother yells as Faust is leaving. "Please! You cannot say that to a kid." Clara tries to intervene but the mother of the bully doesn''t heed her advice "What will happen? He is an orphan anyway, nobody would stand up for him nor take him in. Talentless trash." The mother goes on. "Ahito! Are you okay my kid?" The woman goes back to check on his kid. "Yes Mom! I''m okay!" Ahito says but his eyes are glaring at Bella. *"Damn dog! How can you bark at my mom without respecting her."* He thinks to himself. For the next few weeks, Faust is left alone by the bullies. For things to settle down, before they get back at him. "Do you know that you need to pay the fee? Or you cannot come to school! I know it''s hard on you since your grandpa has died¡­ but we cannot let you study for free, there shouldn''t be any partiality shown among students." The head of the school explains Faust with a rather unpleasant face. She is sitting on a luxurious chair befitting of a Queen. Her face expressed her despise for Faust, not because of any personal grudge, but because of the fact that he has no money. It''s as if she respects people only based on their stature. Every item or the decorated artifacts in her room are worth a fortune. Some are even made of Jade. Faust just bows his head down as he has accepted the norms, his eyes are encircled by dark circles and he has become more skinny! As if he has been Malnutritioned. Without uttering a word, he leaves the room and the school for the day.. "Not on the chair! Sit down." On his way back home, Faust stops at Yang''s house. He wanted to ask Yang who is like the big brother of Gus to help with his issue in school. As he is about to rest on a chair, Yang tells him to sit on the ground instead. As if the people of less strature than him are not allowed to sit on a chair in front of him. ''Belittled'' is the only word that is running in his head. He tells Yang, the reason that he came to seek their help. "I have no obligations to help you, and to give you that huge amount is too risky." Yang replies, he doesn''t even look Faust in the eyes while talking. "I''m not running a charity here! Lending a helping hand to every indigent that come to my house. And you can just give up on studying, you have no spiritual power, you are not cut out for this." Before Faust could say something else, Yang intervenes to let Faust know that he is not going to involve in any issues regarding him. Faust just looked soul-less, he got up on his wobbling feet, worrying that he might lose his footing and collapse. He walks while his eyes are wandering on the ground, trying to comprehend every tile he is walking on. Everything Yang spoke took him by surprise, he no longer know whom to rely upon. Never felt so lonely. He left with all hope lost, feeling helpless, not being able to do anything. Without knowing the reason for being disliked by everyone in his village. Just a month ago, he was the most loving, very talented and considered a genius. His world flipped all of a sudden and his feelings twisted. He reaches home while feeling mild annoyance, hurt. Thinking that he is being hated for the things he never did. "You are here?" To his surprise, Clara is waiting outside his door holding her hands before her thighs. "Do you- Do you have money to pay the fee?" - "I figured, don''t think that I''m doing this with pity but. I will pay the fees." Clara concludes the solution, filling the void of Faust''s silence that manifested his unspoken queries. Faust still looks to be in a puzzle, he could not believe his ears at first. But then-"Of Course not for free. You need to do something in return." She inferred with a smile. "W-what do you want me to do?" "Heh! Come with me" she came closer to hold his hand and took him into the village. Faust is standing in front of a cottage. It is stranding in the outer parts of the village. Looking dull and worn out with cracks appearing on the walls and roof. The cottage is looking pretty old fashioned. Faust is standing outside with an unsure face. Clara went inside the house, asking Faust to wait outside. It''s been fifteen minutes and no sounds of human movements can be heard from inside. "Ahem! I see, leave it to me!" Clara is seeming to walk outside, beside her is an old man, seemingly in his sixties. The old man has a lean looking body with a small grey beard without a single strand of hair on his head. His eyes travelled from top to bottom on Faust, scrutinizing his body. "Eh! He looks too little, are you sure he is 10?" He asks in a surprise. "Yes! Trust me dad! he is. Just give him the work, pleaseeeeeee?" Her eyes suddenly goes round as she lowers her head pouting her lips. "Ah ah! I get it, stop with those puppy eyes already." He arrogantly gestured a stop sign with his hand. "Yay!" Clara bends lower to plant a kiss on the old man''s cheeks. She hurries towards Faust, bending down with her hands resting on her knees she continues. "You can stay here with my dad if you like. You need to just help him in his work and I will pay your school fees." "Not a bad deal huh? I hope you both get along." Clara says with a bright smile, her face is so pure and innocent. *"Is she the same age as that kid or what? Acting like a little kid. Tsk!"* Her father mutters under his breath. "Th-thank you! I will do my best. I will never forget your help." It did not take a second for Faust to lower his head and appreciate the help of Clara. He is almost sure that nobody is going to help him out of this, but Clara appeared out of nowhere to solvel his problem without him even asking her. - After two weeks, Clara visits the house again to check up on Faust. The old man is sitting outside of the house, smoking a cheap cigarette. "Dad! How can you smoke with Faust around? You are going to become a bad example to him." Clara yells at her dad as soon as she sees him fill his lungs with the warm smoke. "I already offered him a Cigarette, he said he doesn''t need it. Anyway what are you doing here?" The old man answers calmly showing his coolness and composure. "Huh??? Dad! Don''t be so harsh with him! He is just a kid! You did these same things with my boyfriend when I brought him to introduce to you. You offered him alcohol and when he did, you kicked him out." "But Faust here is a little kid! Stop testing him. You weirdo!" Clara bursts out of anger. "I don''t care! Men will be men! Even if it''s a 10 year old. So I tested him out, he spends very little time with me though." Her father replies in a strict tone. "What? Why? I thought he was living with you?" "He said he have someone to take care of in his home, so he is only spending little to with me." "What? That can''t be! He doesn''t have anyone anymore. Could he be lying to escape work?" "I don''t think so! That kid!" The old man blows the smoke out of his mouth in an enjoyable manner. His eyebrows touches each other. "He is exceptional!" "Huh? What are you saying now? What are you saying? Did he visit you today?" Clara doesn''t understand what was happening at all, her concerning sides takes over her as she sits beside her father asking about Faust. "Yes of course! Can''t you see him?" The old man points his finger towards the farming fields before him. Clara doesn''t notice anything at first. But after a few moments, she sees a small boy pulling a heavy metal fork like equipment. "H-huh? Huh???? Huhh?" Dad! Have you gone crazy? You are making a small kid cultivate and farm our land? What are you thinking?" Clara gets up on his feet and walks fast towards Faust. In the meanwhile, the old man grabs the hand of Clara pulling her back beside him. "What are you doing? He said he wanted to do that work, so he is working hard everyday. You shouldn''t disturb his focus." He utters. "That kid is not normal, he is not weak like you think. He is filling the ground with that huge metal tied to his back. He is raking the very ground. Shovelling it and picking it and separating the land." "Isn''t he the laughing stock of our village? He is doing this for 5 hours straight. Without a break. He is farming our land." The old man announces with a hint of pride. Clara is lost in her own thoughts as her father is telling her what Faust is doing everyday. And while she is lost, Faust comes from the fields, wiping the dirt off his face, hands and legs. "I have completed today''s work! Let me know if you need help with chopping wood. I can help you with that too." Faust casually walks up to the old man and talks to him as if he has done nothing out of the ordinary. He isn''t even gasping for air, nor withering in pain. "Ah yes yes" the old man gets up to go inside his house, comes out with a vessel. "That is your dinner for you and the person you are taking care of. Come back tomorrow, I will give you your lunch box." The old man hands the vessel to Faust. Faust bows to the old man and also to Clara who is still in shock and leaves to his house. He enters the house, turns on the lights and the chimney and places the food on the table. "Grandpa¡­" 150 Red Eyed Faust - 7 Life for him is getting better everyday with the people that are involved in his life that are helping him. He is getting better at studies but he is focussing on the teachings of his martial arts more than anything else. "Grandpa¨Cplease look over us." Faust prays and goes on to feed Bella, arranges his bed and goes to sleep. However, Bella pulls her bed to where Faust is and lays down on her bed. She stays up until Faust falls asleep. She then goes on to check every corner of the room and goes to sleep. Bella took up the role of Faust''s guardian, protecting him while he is sleeping. She wakes up whenever she hears any movements near the house, she goes on to inspect the area. After Gus passed out. Faust and Bella are protecting each other in their own way. Bella is looking out for Faust, going to school to walk back home with him. While Faust is trying to bring Bella her food without having to hunt like before, he is not letting Bella go out in the wild. Their bond has strengthened as both of them is looking out for each other like.siblings. - "That dog is coming to school everyday, to walk back home with that kid? And it is perfectly alright if it''s a good dog! But this one barks at kids and make everyone stay away from the gate." "This questions the safety of the kids in our school, the parents are also very much worried about this dog barking on their kids." The head of the school is talking to Clara regarding Bella. Clara took the responsibility of Faust by paying his fees. "I-it has been a year since Faust is working for my dad and I had spent a lot of time with his dog too. It is really nice and sweet. The dog is only barking at people who are bullying Faust. I''m pretty¨C" "Enough! There is no such thing as bullying in our school! Everyone is being friendly and nice to each other. I won''t let you distract the issue of a dog towards innocent kids calling them bullies." Before Clara can clarify, she is getting yelled at by the head for being unreasonable. As per the head of the school: Bullying doesn''t exist in their premises. The meeting of Clara with the head is coming to an end by Clara agreeing to solve the issue of Bella. - "I know that for a year that Bella and you are walking home together. But, Miss Audrey doesn''t want Bella to come to school anymore. Because she is barking at the kids and parents and terrorizing them." Clara is trying to explain the situation to Faust while she, Faust and Bella are walking home from school. "Uun~" Faust nods his head in response while looking at Bella who is a huge ball of fur walking alongside him, thinking what threat does it possess to the people who are complaining. "Bells! You need to stop barking at my schoolmates. They will not let you wait for me near the school gate anymore." And i''m going to go to the old man''s house now, you can safely go back home and wait for me." Faust stops in his tracks, turning towards bella, he pats it''s head as he gives instructions and sends it on its way. Bella just replies with a soft moan with its head lowered as she agrees and walks towards their home. "There! She won''t cause us any problem anymore." Faust turns towards Clara to assure her that the problem has been solved. "Okay! It was pretty easy huh? Okay, I will be on my way too now." Clara replies with a smile as she heads her way. ¨C "Heh remember it next time old man." A group of goons lead by a young 25year old male is walking out of the housing premises. The old man is getting up from the ground as his blue pants and maroon tee shirt are glittering sand particles. And a blood decorating his lower lips "Huh? Who is this kid? I will kill this guy too if you don''t tell me your decision by the time I have given you." The male leading the goons shouts as he walks out of the gate. "Ahh! Don''t worry, I''m okay." The old man wiping off his blood says. "I did not ask." Faust replies with innocence, while his eyes are displaying concern for the old man. "He is Clara''s ex-boyfriend. I put him to a test and he failed. So I kicked him out of my daughter''s life. It happened three years ago. Now he is leading those goons, threatening me to give up the farming land, left for me. He got agitated to see that the land is now cultivating crops and he took it out on me." "It''s ok , I will talk to Yang about it. You can go chop the wood behind the house, I will prepare the dinner." He says as he leaves into the house. He must be feeling lonely. He acts tough in front of his daughter Clara. Which is why he cannot tell her these things and make her worry. He must be feeling lonely, so she said all these things without even questioning. Faust understands the old man, he expressed his respect without interrupting the old man in between or by feeling pity for him. He cannot show pity to the old man by saying stupid things like to seek help from others. ¨C For the next few days, Bella is still visiting Faust after school to walk back with him and this gravely hurt the pride of the headmistress. For her, she is always thinking about herself as a Queen who rules upon her empire like school. And anyone who doesn''t follow her commands needs to be punished. . . . One day after school, as Faust walks out of the main gate, his eyes wanders.around searching for Bella. After he takes a couple of steps, he hears cries in a very low voice. It''s the cries of Bella, coming from the opposite side of the road to Faust. Faust instantly runs to the other side of the road. In front of him is Bella. Lying lifeless on the ground, her body is withering, covered in bruises and blood. Her fur seems pulled forcefully at spots with the traces of blood, marks of bites can be seen and she is covered in dirt all over as if she was kicked like a ball in the dirt. Faust panics, lifts his head up while trembling in fear, looking at the parents and people standing in front of him waiting for their kids. And none of them seem to care that a poor soul is badly injured. He wants to shout for help but his mouth doesn''t open. Because of the look in everyone''s eyes. All of the people are just glaring at Faust and Bella without remorse as if they have nothing to do with them. Their faces say that the dog, an animal which cannot talk or hate, which can only smile, wag it''s tail and love endlessly without expecting anything in return deserves to be beaten badly. "Oh oh! Look over there boys! Seems like someone is hurt over there. Why don''t someone call an ambulance haha." Ahito and his group of friends says as they seem to be entering school gate from outside. Their clothes seem untidy and their shoes full of dirt and their faces are smiling brightly. "That dog deserved it for being with a weak owner. How dare it bark at my mom. Now it can''t even groan. Heh." Faust turns his head around for the words from Ahito. "F-F-Faust!" Clara''s old man visits school while running as fast as he can. He keeps gasping for air before he can speak anything. "Faust! Clara is kidnapped by her Ex. I''m not able to locate her. Lets get Bell-" The old man stops in the middle, he sees the horrific shape that Bella has become. Its white fur has turned red and there is no moment from it. The old man turns towards Faust who is basically panicking and having a mental break down. *Slap* "What are you doing you stupid kid! This is not the time to spacec out! I will go look for Clara, you go take Bella to the hospital! Quickly!" The old man yells in the face of Faust. Faust who is having a complete mental breakdown till now regained his senses by the slap of this old man. "I-I''m sorry old man." Faust lowers his upper body a little to show his gratitude. Picks up Bella and runs towards the hospital in the island. "Bells, I have done many wrong doings to you, I have chickned out many times when you are in danger. B-bu-but." Faust reminisces every scene that he failed in protecting of Bella. Even when they were fighting the wolves together. Faust chickened out and ran away, leaving Bella open with the wolves. This time, no matter what. He does not want to give up on Bella no matter what. When Faust is 10 years old and Faust is admiing the beauty of the terrain but as he walked a little further, he sniffed blood, a strong stench of smell gushed inside his nose. He couldn''t help but notice stains and drops of blood on the ground and also blood marks due to dragging traced inside the caves and dens which is as if someone dead was dragged or there''s a bleeding living being inside the den breathing his last. *Chirp~~* Faust heart stopped beating when he heard a chirping sound and breaking of twigs from behind. *"What? There is no one who could followed me, why did I hear the noise? Am I hallucinating due to fear of being alone ?"* Bella suddenly turns back as Faust keep wondering and ebbing, she takes a defensive stand and starts growling in a low voice while her tail is tucked in between her legs - *"huh? Why is Bella growling, is there somebody behind us?"* Faust is petrified and does not want to turn back to see what was behind him *Groan~* Faust felt hot air touching his neck like someone was breathing so close, he becomes terrified. The groan is almost like a warning for Faust. Bella who kept growling for awhile, started to cower and her growl became feeble but one groan from the creature behind Faust was audible enough. Faust regains his strength and turns back slowly, his eyes first landed upon the four limbs. The paw of this freaking creature is almost as big as a newborn human baby. Faust slowly slides his gaze upwards, to see what was in front of him. A well built, tall adult black luna towered almost 6 feet and bigger than most humans was standing with eyes darted on Faust . The Amber like eyes of it are like a burning fire, the stare that the wolf gives is as if almost it is looking into your soul before ripping off skin. Bella started to bark to divert its attention as the luna steps closer to Faust. Faust is trembling and was not able to move a muscle, the wolf however does not care about Bella or it''s surroundings, its gaze is only fixed upon Faust. The way the wolf looks at Faust is so intimidating and dangerous that Faust could not even blink his eyes, afraid the wolf will attack him at anytime if he did any movement . The wolf''s head was lowered to Faust, yet its nose is tilted up to sniff him up and down sensing if faust was alive or dead. It''s canines and tongue are covered with saliva dripping off and it''s jaws are dark red as if it just tore down a chunk of meat before finding another prey. *"Omgg it''s going to freaking eat me, move my stupid body. Moveee!!!"* Faust desperately keeps telling his frozen body to move an inch, because he doesn''t want to become the wolf''s meal at any cost. In the intense pressure, Faust gathers enough courage and decided to either be the wolf''s dinner or try to save his sorry ass with whatever he got on him. Faust hold onto his wooden sword that he had with him from the beginning, firmly and he swings it. His hand moved automatically and landed a hard blow with all his might on the wolf''s face. 151 Red Eyed Faust - 8 The blow didn''t even graze the wolf nor did any harm, the wolf didn''t even shook it''s head. For wolf it was like a fly that just landed on its nose. Deep rumbles came from the throat of the wolf, it''s ears were pulled forward and lips were tucked back. What initially seemed to be a rumble now suddenly turned into growl and the wolf stands on its hind-legs with it''s paw drawn back as if it''s getting ready to pounce on little Faust. "Ah! My arm!" Faust shouts out loudly thinking the wolf had got him. *"What happened, I''m still alive, how?"* Faust thought to himself and looks in the direction of wolf as he thought of just becoming a wolf''s meal. "NO!!!! Bella!!!!" Faust is dumbstruck as he witnesses Bella pinned down under the paw of the big wolf. Bella who realizes that Faust is not moving his legs, jumps in between Faust and the wolf and she pushes Faust back for safety. "No Bellaaa!!!." Faust shouts out with tears and stretches his wooden sword out with both of his hands and rushes forward to the wolf intending to attack and save Bella from the it''s claws. "Let Bella go, or you will die!" Faust says timidly with his wooden sword gripped tight and ready to land a blow in anger. The wolf while it''s head is tilted down, raises it''s vicious and hungry eyes towards Faust, it''s saliva keeps dripping onto Bella. *"No, I don''t want to die, I don''t want to die." Faust realizing how weak he is and considering his critical situation immediately turns his back on Bella and runs out of the woods with his tears running down on cheeks. Bella lying under the claw of the wolf helplessly stops struggling and looks at Faust helplessly. The sight of Faust running back into woods, leaving her behind shatters the huskies heart greatly. Bella whimpers in a feeble growl, she doesn''t want to believe that Faust is leaving her without even glancing back. She whines and cries desperately in a low voice for Faust to feel her desperation. Faust halts after hearing Bella''s cries, but he is such a weak boy that he doesn''t look back and keeps his pace into the woods while wiping his tears away with his palms. This breaks Bella''s heart even more as she sees Faust leaving her to get killed by the wolf. Using the last of her strength Bella tries to move and cries loudly, her eyes becomes small and squinty with water filling the sockets but she keeps struggling to push the claw of the wolf back to slip away. The wolf, however balances all of it''s body weight on its front legs and stands hard even more firmly on Bella without even budging a little bit of his strength leaving no vent for the air to gasp for little husky. *"I''m sorry Bella. I''m a coward, I''m weak, I couldn''t even save you. I''m so sorry Bella."* Faust cries inside while he whines loudly, guilt overcoming for not saving the poor soul. Bella''s barking was echoing in his head. "Faust!!!" Gus who came into the woods to search for Faust suddenly stumbles upon him. "Faust!!! Are you ok? Are you hurt?" Gus asks Faust quickly. He was worried to death as he searches for any sign of injures on his body. Faust''s ears and nose turns red and tears keep rolling down off his face - "grandpa!!! bel- bella- I left Bella back there." Faust holds the waist of Gus and hugs him tightly as he breaks down crying his arms. Gus grits his teeth in disbelief of what Faust has done "Faust, stay here, I will go to bring Bella back." Gus strictly chips to Faust and as he was about to leave, Faust did not have any intention of letting him leave and holds onto him tightly. "Grandpa, stay with me grandpa, I''m scared, don''t leave me please, wahhh." Faust cries while holding the wisp of his shirt, without considering about Bella at all. Gus is really pissed with this behavior of Faust. "LET GO Faust!!" Gus yells. "Bella can''t even talk or cry others for help and you are asking me not to go rescue her?" Gus is furious at Faust, he shook Faust''s hands off him and heads towards the Rocky terrains, but Gus suddenly pauses his step without turning around to face Faust and says to him loudly is disappointed. "Faust you can take care of yourself now, don''t cry this weak." Gus says to Faust with a hint of dismay and he continues forward to rescue Bella. Gus knows that he is the reason that Faust became who he is right now. A coward, because Gus was too soft on his bringing up. Faust knows this was true and he wipes his tears off and musters up his courage to trail behind Gus. Bella was trembling and shaking, but her cry had no strength in it. Her flesh was torn off by the wolf''s powerful claws, her fur is dirty as if she had been kicked like a fur ball. The wolf had lot of fun with it''s prey, and now it held Bella in-between it''s teeth as if it was going to throw Bella in the air for fun game and had no intention of letting her die off so quickly. "How dare you hurt Bella!!" Gus was instantly mad seeing Bella in such a state. He dashed forward in a swift motion, grabs the wooden sword left there by Faust and launches a powerful blow on the neck of the wolf. The wolf did not expect it, the blow was so powerful that the fur of the wolf where the stick made contact with falls down onto the ground like a fluttering feather and a red mark is visible on the wolf, it took some time for the luna to gain her senses back and she land an attack on Gus. Before the wolf could lift her claw, Gus launched another powerful blow on the forehead of the wolf. The wolf bit her tongue in between teeth as she had no control over the blow that just hit her. The wolf''s vision got blurred becoming dizzy. She couldn''t even stand on her four limbs. It was frowning as it''s legs were shaking and the big wolf fell down on the ground hard with a howl that could be heard loudly from miles away. "So strong" Faust who was watching all this from inside the woods is surprised by what Gus did. *"The wolf which is huge and almost 6 foot which could bite even bones was taken down in just 2 blows. How amazing is that?!* Faust thinks to himself as he starts to admire his grandpa even more. *Ahhhhh woooooo!!~~* the wolf lets out another big howl, but this time it last even longer and louder. The proud wolf stops her howling and stares at face reflecting in the eyes, showing her dominance to Gus. She did not intend to let Gus go freely after he lands Lethal blows on her. Gus takes Bella, wraps his shirt around her body so that she doesn''t loose more blood and runs back into the woods hurriedly as he can. "Ahhhhhwwooooo!!!~~~" suddenly several other howls can be heard back. "Dammit they came this fast?" Gus hears a howl of a wolf and turns back to face whatever is behind him. Faust and Gus are beyond belief, there are 7 wolves in front of them beside the wounded wolf and there are 6 wolves on top of the highest cliff behind them and soon the wolf who just got taken down by Gus, gets back up in her feet and join her pack. All of the wolves are big, but except for one wolf that really stood out the most catches the eyes of Gus. It was on the cliff and it stands in the middle of all six wolves like he was the leader, he is at least 8 feet tall with a bushy tail which is almost half a meter long. It''s ivory canine and steel like claws are looking like a deadly weapons. It can bite a head of a human in a snap, yet Gus did not seem like he''s afraid. "Faust, take Bella and run to the village, I will be behind you." Gus gives instruction to Faust and walks towards the pack of wolves calmly. "Huh?" Faust is quizzical , how can Gus walk into the pack of 14 wolves without any protection or a weapon? "Raka! it''s me Gus, do you remember me?" Gus shouts out surprisingly to the 8 feet wolf while he stretches his hand forward as a sign of saying he''s no harm to the wolves. The pack of wolves were all growling lowly but yet, aren''t taking a step forward as the 8 feet wolf is walking down the cliff. It demonstrated it''s dominance among other wolves. The big wolf, walks up in front of all the others and stands right opposite to Gus. "You have become so big huh? Haha you must be leading all the other wolves. Do you remember my voice? I saved you when you were a little cub, look at you all grown up." Gus says with a friendly smiling face. Raka appears to be really calm, it doesn''t lower his head up to Gus as if it was full of pride, but he seems to not be harmful for now and Gus was relieved for that. The big wolf looks at the wounded wolf, who now fell back down to the ground beside him as if this time even her ego couldn''t help her stand the strong blow for long. Gus senses a little tension in the air as to how Raka is growling and seeming unsettled. Raka without a warning swings it''s claw at Gus all of a sudden, piercing the flesh of Gus''s left shoulder. Gus was in disbelief by this sudden deadly blow. "Grandpaaa!!" Faust is scared to his wits while clutching Bella tight and witnessing his grandpa getting slashed right in front of his eyes. "Faust, why are you still here? Just run back to the village. I''m alright!" Gus shouts as he grits his teeth while holding his left shoulder tight, hoping to stop the bleeding while he was down, kneeling on one of his knees. Bella is bigger than Faust, he is not able to carry her and he is worried if Bella''s wounds will tear open more if he dragged her to village. And his grandpa is fighting on the thin thread of life and death with the wolves, Faust doesn''t know what to do at all. His head is spinning and he is in anxiety breakdown. *"Dammit! I was careless, the claw reached deep and cut down my tendons, I can''t use my left arm anymore and there are 13 wolves standing in front of me"* Gus muddled to himself while taking deep breaths to calm himself. *"If only I have any enhancements with me right now aghhhh"* Gus stressfully thinks and gets up on both of his feet, grabs the wooden sword tightly getting ready to fight to death with the wolves. As his chances of slipping were reduced to none. Enhancements that Gus wish he had with him are the elemental stones of different attribute. Each stone here have its own element hidden within them. Humans started using these elemental stones to enhance their physical properties greatly at the time of wars. The elemental stones were used until now are a red stone which looks like a garnet that consists bombarding nature hidden within it. The red stone can help the user to release fire power from small to large merging with the spiritual power the warrior has. And the green stone that looks like a sapphire gem. The green stone contains the air element within it, any user can manipulate the air to their comfort and produce strong winds or gusts. It can also help in enhancing arrows, spears, cross bows and javelins making the tool travel fast with the aid from air. Also, the purple stone, looks like a purple ruby which can call thunders and lighting in a second. In addition there are more stones which no one had learnt about yet. And these elemental stones when equipped to a weapon which was made specially for you is called enhancements. That Gus wished for. On the side of Faust, he seems to be overwhelmed by his emotions. *"Coward, stupid body, coward heart. I''m the most useless thing ever. I let Bella get hurt and now grandpa too. I should have listened to Tim, why did I ever come here in the first place?* *why was I so stupid and scared for my life? Why can''t I just be brave enough to save people?* Faust questions himself repeatedly and cries over how frantic he was. 152 What really Happened *Present* "Why am I such a coward?" Faust curses his weakness as he is running towards a hospital, carrying Bella in his hands. He sends Bella inside an operating theatre with a couple of doctors and nurses. "What the hell Miki? Why do we need to operate a dog? We don''t have enough meds for men and now we need to spend resources on a dog?" One of the doctors is saying from inside the operating theatre. Faust is just sitting outside the door crying when he suddenly hears a doctor talking about Bells. "N-No! Please, doctors, please! Please save Bella! I don''t have any more family members than her! Please help me Please!" He cries while slamming on the doors of the operating theatre. And a number of people gather in front of the door. The door opens and Miki, the head doctor comes out of the room with his gloves on. He comes out and hugs Faust in his arms. "I''m sorry that my sub-ordinate spoke that way. But trust me! I will save your family member. You can count on me." The doctor says with conviction and confidence. He goes back inside the theatre and closes the door. A good amount of three hours creep by and Faust is still sitting in front of the operating theatre. His eyes catches the glimpse of a known-face. Clara''s dad, the old man is sitting on the other end of the corridor. Faust just remembered that Clara is missing, or rather was kidnapped by her Ex. Faust slowly gets up on his feet and walks towards the old man. "O-old man, where is Clara?" Faust asks in a soft and gentle voice. "Ol-" His voice breaks due to his continuous cryings, he takes a moment to clear his throat, catch his breath and asks again. "O-old man! What happened." The old man does not respond, he keeps starring at the empty wall in front of him. "Old man, say something!" Faust grabs his shoulder while asking and shooks his left shoulder gently. As Faust is looking, the old man slowly slides to his right and falls down off the chair. Faust does not understand, a nurse that is standing near them quickly runs to the old man to check on him. She holds the wrist of the old man to check the pulse, she then places her hand on his chest, she opens his eyelids wider and lastly places her index finger in front of his nose. "H-He died." The nurse declares to Faust who was looking at the old man with a puzzled face. Meanwhile, the operating theatre behind him opens and the doctors along with nurses walk out carrying their equipment that is reeking the smell of blood. "I''m sorry Faust, I, we tried our best but Bella lost lots of blood already. We did everything we can but she died." Miki tells him with a hint of guilt and sadness in his face. "I''m sorry." "How did this old man died?" "I do not know, he saw his daughter and suddenly collapsed in the chair and now this." "Her story is also so scary, I have never heard of such a thing that she has gone through." Two nurses talks to each other regarding Clara and her father. Faust is beyond shocked and scared. "What could possibly happen to Clara? I''m sure they are mistaken." Faust tells to himself. A dead body comes their way on a stretcher, The whole body is covered with a white blanket all the way from head to toe. Part of her left hand is showing out but the hand is severely burned. Faust could not see it, he could not imagine Clara underneath that blanket as a dead body. The mortuary staff member stops the stretcher in the middle of the corridor and asks the nurses if the old man is dead as well. "Man, I don''t know how I''m going to carry these bodies at the same time. My job is the worst." Saying that he goes out to bring another stretcher to pick up the old man body. He leaves Clara''s body in the corridor and heads out. He takes out a small alcohol bottle from his pocket and drinks on his way back. Faust is shocked at the man''s behaviour, he left the body and goes out while drinking. He is scared to look at the body on the stretcher again. And more scared to see if it is really Clara. He tries to turn his face away but his eyes are fixated on the body. Meanwhile, the blanket that is covering the dead body flips on the top, revealing the dead body''s face up to the neck. "AHHHHHHHH!" Faust cries and yells out scarily. Its Clara, her face is all burnt and cut with a knife, her face is brutally sliced at many places as if she is a doll and one of her eyeballs is gouging out. the expression of her dead body face is so horrified as if she is scared and terrified before dying. She died while feeling these terrible things that are done to her. "Ah, cover the blanket, take the kid away." A nurse rushes to take care of it before more people see the dead body and get scared. Faust immediately runs out of the hospital while crying and keeps running to his home that is situated on his hill. The burned dead body of Clara and her face she had before dying keeps appearing in his death even though he tries to think about something else. He could not hold it anymore and vomits in the bushes near his house. He keeps running off to the hill after another. He completely forgets where he needs to go and keeps running around the hills and around the island over and over. - "Ares huh? Why are you suddenly asking about him?" Yang is on a phone call with a captain of the House of Ashura''s. He is asked to tell more about Ares and how he managed to defeat an entire platoon of an army. "He is not at all like you all have imagined he is. He is completely different. I can tell you because I have seen everything he did on the battlefield." Yang describes. "It is right before the war." *Past* Ares taught most of what he could, to Gus for four days straight and put him through skin and bone, without a break. At the end of the fourth day, Ares wanted to talk to Gus about the war they were going to tomorrow, on the ''the fifth day'' which was approaching them very quickly as days passed by. "Ares, I improved a lot with your style of fighting didn''t I? Now I''m strong enough to defend myself on my own and I''m all ready for the war tomorrow." Gus asked Ares with a cocky tone. "Gus..." Ares took a long pause and seemed reluctant to speak out, "I-I want you to stay in the village. Do not come to war with me." He told Gus who doesn''t seem to be listening. Ares doesn''t really want Gus to go out to the battlefield. He broke all his military codes and passed down his ancient sword art to Gus in hope that it will be passed down and live on, but now this fool Gus wanted to go to a battle ground and die? A mere four days of practice is nowhere near as mastering the skills. Gus however is so excited to show off his skills. He was like a little kid who gets thrilled when they have new toys to show off in front of their friends. He couldn''t contain his excitement and only kept thinking of showing his sword skills in front of everyone and winning the war all by himself. "You need to stay and protect the village Gus." But Gus was hit by sadness when he heard Ares saying these words. His sorrow turned into anger in an instant. He wanted to be out there and be able to help Ares. He was imagining himself as Ares''s sidekick already, how can he want to stay home when they were in war? "I want you to be in the village and pray for us. For I will definitely win and come back alive" Ares convinced Gus somehow to withdraw from the war even though Gus was still mad about this. Finally the day of the war, the fifth day came by. Mars, the village chief already sent a word out to the Caracus village saying that Mindoro is willing to aid Caracus against the war with outsiders. However, Mars received a word back from Caracus that only a group of his 100 best men were enough to aid them in the battle. The four units of Guards, Archers, medics and supporters along with Ares and his soldiers are sent to the war with the cheering of people, but sadness was hidden behind their smiling faces. They do not know if their fathers, husbands or sons who are heading out will come back alive from this war. Yang dearly held a bangle presented to him by Tisha as his good luck charm, and he set out with everyone else to aid Caracus. As the Mindoro villagers travel for 20km on their horses and animal pulleys. They did not believe their eyes. There were broken and burnt down houses everywhere, smeared blood marks and unnatural landscapes. It was the Caracus village, which was in a very devastating state. As they get closer to the village, Ares and the leader of Mindoro army noticed some armor shining at a distance deeper in the village. A number of 500 soldiers were arming themselves and sharpening their weapons, getting ready for a war. "Ahh there you are, you must be Edward." An old man who seems to be in his mid forties, is walking towards Ares with his greetings as the chief of Caracus village. "You must be honorable Mr.Nero, the chief of Caracus. Pardon me, I''m Edward, acting leader of Mindoro army. We''re here to lend you a hand" Edward (age - 32), a guard and a medic with a sword on his waist introduces himself to the chief of Caracus. "I''m really happy that your village had decided to help us on this matter, even though we have done many awful things to your village in the past. We realized how stupid we are after having a taste of our own medicine. We don''t even have any creative leaders like you all do in your village to rebuild our houses, from the terrible shape they are in right now" Nero (age - 47) asked for forgiveness while kneeling down and bowing his head on the ground in front of all the villagers of Mindoro with a very sad smile on his face. After witnessing how it feels to be plundered, looted and slaughtered by others. The old chief now, knows how it feels to lose everything. Hence they reached out to Mindoro for their aid, betting all of their lives on this battle that they didn''t choose to fight. "Please chief Nero, don''t embarrass us anymore. We both have experienced the loss and pain of having everything taken away. Also we are hoping to find a little benefit for our village in this aid. That is, strengthening the bonds between our villages and holding the enemies here, so they don''t come to Mindoro next to raise hell." Edward speaks. "Thank you for forgiving me, now let me introduce you people to my army and we can have a plan on how to win this war. The sun will be coming out any moment now and we can expect the enemy." Nero says to Edward. Nero introduces General Gideon to Edward and his army. Gideon evaluated Edward''s army strengths and weaknesses, and started assigning them to their positions and squads. 153 Caracus Caracus had a massive amount of 500 soldiers on their sides already, from which 200 will be on the front lines with barricade walls and heavy shields that can defend against heavy fire. Following them will be 50 guards with spears from Mindoro and 100 guards and raiders from Caracus with swords and hammers and axes. Behind them are the archers and mid range fighters. And the rear will be protected by 150 soldiers consisting of again Guards from Caracus and medics from Mindoro and on a completely different unit are 100 soldiers along with the supporters and communicators of Mindoro, will be concealing themselves behind the hills to ambush if the opportunity is created. And the four soldiers along with the general of Caracus will be leading this massive army standing in between the barricades. "Ah by the way, It don''t seem like there is someone from Sable village here, did they not come?" Edward asks with surprise. "Yeah right, they said they would rather try to flee the island if they were attacked, but said they won''t be standing along with us in a fight. It is expected since we have been attacking their village from a long time." General Gideon spoke without a hint of remorse. "But I''m not ashamed of what we have done. Our village suffered harsh climatic conditions and droughts. Our ancestors were kicked out and thrown rocks at by both of your villages when asked for some roof and food after the great calamity. They even had to feed the dead to their kids to keep them alive. It was what shaped us into war freaks. We didn''t want to suffer anymore, which means we have to take from you guys. We did what we had to. Now I look forward to work with you guys to protect my people." Gideon said compassionately and was determined to do anything for the sake of his village. And Edward doesn''t even know what to say at this moment to Gideon and was left in a shock. He cannot completely agree to what Gideon said as it is the ancestors of Mindoro that treated the people of Caracus like animals. Whereas Mindoro now, is a changed village which always gave help to anyone in need. The war siren has been given by Caracus as a message to the warriors to standby in their respective positions. All the soldiers started taking their positions. The rear guards and medics equipped with basic armor and weapons. The archers have been given the finest of bows made by the best Craftsmen of Caracus village and the four soldiers along with Edward and General Gideon had taken cover inside barricades waiting for the enemy to show up as the first rays of sun hit the shields of the warriors near the sea-shore. *"Why is everyone waiting near the shore? Are they expecting the enemy to show up? Do they know where the enemy is going to come from, or are they expecting them to show up from the same entrance as last time?"* Ares stands in between the barricades wondering as the whole area is silent. Only the sounds of wind blowing can be heard as no man standing is uttering a word. *"As someone who came to the island from outside, I know how hard it is to enter the island through the whirlpools and giant storms that always lurks around the island. Half of your forces will get wiped out before they reach the shore"* Ares started to have a really uneasy feeling about the air around him. It''s been hours since the sun has come out, all the soldiers were still being put in the positions they were offered to. The sun now reached above their heads. Some of the soldiers were getting impatient little by little. They had been standing here for 6 hours already, and the heat of the sun was taking a toll on them. However, the waves of the ocean were very pleasant as there are no visible objects in sight. Nero, the chief provided water to the men at shore with the help of the women of his villages. It was eve already, the sun was setting down. Every villager was too tired to even move their limbs, they were standing on the shore all day. Even the supporters had been searching other places to see if the enemies are coming from other parts of the island. Yet, no signs of enemies were found. Alex, who was looking inside the island on his own for the traces of enemies or enemy camps, could spot nothing. "This is quite a situation isn''t it?" Gideon, the General of Caracus village nervously asked Ares while he repetitively gripped the handle of his spear over. "It is indeed an unexpected situation, we don''t know what to do from here on out either." Ares replied while smiling. "I don''t see one of your friends anywhere" Gideon asks Alex with a hint of suspicion on his face. "Ah, he is actually the youngest of us all. The younger one doesn''t have much endurance so he went back to camps to rest, but be assured we will be the one fighting. He is someone who repairs our weapons and upgrades them to be useful in battles" Ares told Gideon to avoid him from suspecting them. "I see." Gideon said while his eyes scanned around, counting the soldiers and villagers from Mindoro. If anything, Ares and his gang do not want to anger the Caracus village. After all, Mindoro will be the one that would have to take the responsibility for any misdoing done by them, since these four are from Mindoro. Alex comes back from searching all over the island but nothing abnormal came into his sight. Ares realized this with one look from Alex''s disappointed face. The sun had set down and the waves of the ocean became rough as soon as the moon was up and it started showering snow. The cold is biting the bones of the soldiers that are still on the shore. Nero decides to call back the villagers since everyone is tired, sitting on the shore and staring at the ocean will just make the villagers more tired. Meanwhile Ares''s heart is beating fast and he can''t help but feel uneasy. If the enemy showed up as they''re supposed to and get into fight, things would have gone smoothly. They would have a chance to win, but now the enemy is not showing up like they said they would. Are they plotting something elsewhere? Or are they going to attack at night? Or hiding already on the island? or is the enemy near Mindoro as they keep waiting for them here? Ares have been bothered by these doubts in his mind. Meanwhile in Mindoro, Infants'' cries are heard, the air was violent, Gus had a serious look on his face and holding only his wooden sword with a despaired face while he stared at something burning near the shrines on the hill. Are the shrines and villages on fire? . . . . . . . . "Achoo~~ " a villager of Mindoro sat with Gus beside him guarding the shrine on the hill with a campfire. Gus is staring at the campfire while reminiscing Ares''s words. "Gus, knock that look off your face already, brother. Just because Ares didn''t take you to war, you have been staring at the fire for a long time. It''s creeping me out. Anyway, why would we have to guard this shrine at night too? We only have a tent here and it''s too cold." A villager complained while getting impatient. "We can''t help it. The other day when Ares and his friends visited the shrines on each of these hills, they told us that our village will be in grave danger if a foreigner is to find about these shrines. So we need to guard it at night too. We shouldn''t let anyone who is not from our village to approach these shrines." Gus replied to the villagers with a serious look on his face "Ehh, but these shrines are in bad shape, I wonder who would want these stupid shrines. And why are those infants from that house at the foot of this hill crying all night??? I can hear them from here. Gosh, feed them something, stupid parents" The villager mumbles grumpily. "You heard what Ares said, there is some energy flow and oscillation here. I didn''t understand what they said, but it must be important. I have never seen Ares that surprised, so we better do our jobs correctly." Gus told the villagers. Gus had been ordered to guard the village and he was carrying his job out well. *At caracus* The war however, didn''t seem to happen any time soon, no enemy was showing up. All of the barricades and shields had come down. The whole army is in deep sleep, while villagers from Mindoro are guarding the sleeping warriors of Caracus. "Why did you accept to guard these people voluntarily Edward? We could go back to let our chief know." A villager asks Edward. "It can''t be helped. They have been carrying barricades and heavy armor all day. And they''re hurt from defending their village already. Let us be the guards and I have sent 5 messengers back to Mindoro to relay what happened here. If this is how it will be and the enemy doesn''t show up. We can go back to our village and live peacefully."" Edward replies to the villagers. "Oh right, how old are your two daughters now?" The villager asks to bring up Edward''s daughters. "They''re two years old now, they never go to sleep without me and cry a lot if I come home late. Hope they''re not giving trouble to their mother." Edward smiled slightly to himself as he recalled his daughters who would call out to him happily each time he was home from work. In Mindoro, "Ahhh, calm down, daddy will be here by tomorrow. Please calm down the whole village will get mad at us for not letting them sleep" Edward''s wife, placed at the foot of a hill near the shrine, tried her best to calm her crying children, while she herself was crying inside, worried about her husband. "Man, these kids are never going to sleepppp" The villager guarding with Gus, yelled out loudly with frustration. And the next day after acknowledging from the reliable messengers that no enemy had the temerity to show up at Caracus, Gus stormed out towards the war field. "Good Gracious , what do we do with this kid now? I hope he will be ok. You guys can go now and aid Caracus and see if there are any signs of war today or tomorrow. If not; we will withdraw from Caracus in a week." Mars narrates the message of whole planning to the five messengers and sends them away on their way. *In Caracus* "General Gideon, a young boy has arrived claiming he is from Mindoro and wants to meet the villagers." One of the warriors of Caracus informed Gideon about the unusual arrival of Gus. "Take him wherever he wants to go. We''re not confiscating anyone here. Moreover tell him to find his people, himself." Gideon roared agitated while Gus is standing near the door listening to all and at the same time despising him and Caracus. 154 Mutiny Even though the villagers of Caracus changed. It doesn''t mean anything for Gus, even if Caracus repents or mourn for the blood of the people they killed, his parents won''t come back to life. So he will keep hating them more and more, gradually bubbling the poison within him. "Ares! I''m here. How have you guys been doing?" Gus casually strides up towards Ares and his friends and tries to initiate a talk with them like it is just another normal day in his village. "Yo Gus! Did you sleep we.... You BASTARD! what the hell are you doing here?" Ares growled with half surprise and suppressed anger. "Gus you stalker, pervert, pedo. I''m older to you why did you come all the way for me?" Tanya says with a grossed out expression. "What? Why would I come for you? Wait and Eh how am I the pedo here? I''m the younger one among all of us. And no- I actually came for Ares." Gus replies explaining and defending himself gulping the insulting words. "Ahhhh! I see forbidden love!" Alex chips giving a smirk. "Ohhhhh Ares, how can you? Is this the reason you are not accepting my love all these years? Are you into boys, perhaps? That too younger ones?" Tanya questions Ares while her face becomes hot red as her imagination ran wild about boy love (her secret fantasy). Gus and Ares are both astonished. "Knock it off guys, I''m not in a mood to laugh at your jokes."Ares says with an angry irritated tone. "Hai hai let''s leave them both for a while guys, they got mad that we''re between them and disturbing them" Albert adds fuel to fire while him and Alex try hard to control their giggles. This is their chance of getting back at Ares who is ridiculously popular among girls. "Ah Gus, did Tisha ask about me? Did she tell you anything to pass onto me? Did she give you anything for me?" Yang inquired breathlessly to Gus ,curiously while leaning forward. "Umm.." Gus doesn''t know what to say since he ran out of his village, without even informing anyone. And everyone around Yang gives him an odd more likely grossed look. *Spit* "We''re going, thu thu blehhh." Albert spits on the ground before leaving. He used to look up to Yang with the way he deals with other girls. Yang is the known cold blooded soldier, who rejects every girl that comes to talk to him, but now, the cold hearted Yang is whipped and madly in love with a girl? *"All this time he acted like a tough rigid guy and that was just a bluff after all"* Albert convinces himself and walks away. "Umm.. it''s ok to love another man.. I also love men. If you guys have free time you can come to have a drink with me." Among all the chaos with everyone, thinking whatever comes to their minds, an old man from Caracus with a white tank top and pot belly offers to Ares and Gus while blushing. *Ares and Gus dies internally* "Ares, train me more in the way of unholy sword. I want to learn more and more. I''m still no good in sword arts." "Isn''t that the real reason why I was left behind in the village? If I had learned everything and if I was good at the art of sword, I would have been by your side in the war field. So- teach me more Ares. I want to learn -everything." Gus sounded like a warrior hungry for power. Ares leaves a sigh in delightfulness seeing Gus with full energy, he also at the same time knows that lust for power sometimes leads you to a wrong path. So Ares wanted to lead Gus in the right direction and make him strong."Ok let''s go, I will train you more." Ares tells Gus and they both walks along the shore a little far from people, heading towards terrains. Ares teaches Gus about the rule of strike and the basics. Getting inside of the defence against the opponent is the most important thing. The unholy sword got the name from it''s free style manner, the techniques are not fixed of any particular forms and stances. It''s all freestyle and hitting an opponent at the same time while defending a blow. The most important thing however, is having the sword closer to your body and feel the sword as if it''s an extension of your hand, that has merged with you. The sword that doesn''t follow any sacred methods or forms, hence called unholy sword arts. "My sword, Fukitsuna is a rare blade passed down to me by my elders. This sword has a soul of its own and chooses its masters. You need to keep training hard to be worthy and make the sword choose you."Ares says with a commanding voice. "And.." He pauses for a while, sits on a large stone nearby to continue. "If this sword doesn''t choose you, as it''s master. Then it''s going to get rusty and old, eventually fading away." "This is because the sword needs to be wielded by a master when swinging it. So try and make up to the desired level on your guts and hard work." Ares advice Gus telling him the rules and the importance of the sword, making him aware of the long path he needed to travel in order to achieve his desired power. "I was still unable to summon the divine power within it and couldn''t get it to accept me. Another failure like previous times. It used to shine bright, glittering divinely with golden colors along with radiating celestial energy, it''s incomparable power -while it is in the strong hands of Ares, but all the enchantment faded away and slowly lost it''s charm and power. It was no more than a normally wielded , cheap and dull sword in my hands. I wanted to gain that power of sword no matter what, it can make me strong I''m quite positive."* "Got it. " Gus replies while he kept reminding himself that he needs to become stronger in order to be get chosen by the sword. Ares and Gus continued the exhausting training for another five days. And after that specific time of strenuous bodily exercise Ares as a token of appreciation handed a book over to Gus which consisted of the teachings of Unholy Sword and inquired him about- to leave the warfield. "It''s been five days already, if the enemies won''t show up until tomorrow we will head back to the village. So you go ahead of us now and forward the message to Mars." Ares assigned a task to Gus who nodded at first. "Ok. I will be waiting for you to teach me more Ares." Gus took off with a smile yet with a hint of disappointment that Ares still doesn''t want him on the Warfield even when there is no enemy to fight, probably . [Yawn] "Guarding Caracus while they''re sleeping for five days straight is taking toll on all of us, isn''t it Ares? If it isn''t for you and your friends, we wouldn''t have gotten those 2-3 hrs of sleep." Edward appreciates the work Ares and his soldiers did as to guard Caracus and letting the Villagers of Mindoro to take naps as well. People from Mindoro slept for 2-3 hours while Ares and his party watched over them, to oogle for any peril. This shows the amount of hard work they had gone through to stay awake by going without sleep for days and be cautious at the same time rather than drowsy. But If there is any chance for enemy to show up while they''re in this bad situation, the enemy might get an upperhand on the two villages effortlessly. "Yes it is, I really want to go back to the village and sleep for a week straight ,haha." Ares replies to Edward with a hint of playfulness half laughing and yawning. "I really thank your village for not only guarding us but also for help rebuilding our village, Edward. And I see you guys will leave after tomorrow. If no enemy shows up until that time, let''s have a toast tomorrow then. Again I really want to thank you warmly for coming here to our help." Nero chips with grateful eyes. "No no let''s not do a toast ,haha. We agreed to help you so we are not going to accept anything in return. Let us all get along together for tonight. We will be leaving tomorrow evening anyway. " Edward declines his frank offer with a smile. "Ahh I see. Too bad... but It''s ok." Nero replies crestfallen with a disappointed face and heads back. [At night] "Looks like some dark clouds are heading our way, we will get soaked haha. Let''s search for a hill to take shelter for tonight." Edward''s looks up above the skies while commanding his units. Predicting a fierce storm at hand. As Edward keeps watching, the sky seems to be lighting up slowly. He is confused as to why the sky seems to be burning up with anger. As he realises gradually he could see huge fire balls falling from the sky highly aimed. And they were bigger in size too as much as the size of a two combined cannon balls. "Fuck it''s ENEMIES! Bring the barricades. We''re gonna get hit by Mortars!" Ares yelled loudly panicking for everyone to wake up from their slumber. Suddenly the ground that everyone was sleeping began rumbling and shaking vigorously as soon as the cannon balls hit the shore of Caracus. The shockwave shook everyone who was deep into slumber. The cannon balls were leaving huge trenches wherever they made contact. Every warrior rushes to the scene with their barricades, shields and their weapons. No one is following the formation that they did on the first day. Every one was horrified and is standing at whatever location they found to stay rooted , they are standing together ready for a huge battle that is about to take place. Two huge battle ships can be seen from the mist, slowly approaching towards Ares and the villagers. There will be at least five hundred soldiers in those both ships combined. Numbers wise, Caracus and Mindoro are a hundred more but the people in the battleships are elite soldiers, deadly trained with highly weaponry compared to normal villagers who were braced with ordinary ones. Out of nowhere all of Mindoro villagers and Ares party is standing inside surrounded by Caracus warriors that rushes and positioned outside with the barricades and shields seeming to protect them from the enemies. *"What is this uneasy feeling? Something is not right"* Ares keeps hesitating while trying to process what was happening in front of him. Suddenly the barricades and shields which are supposed to protect them from the enemy attacks are turned inside. It''s like Caracus is not holding barricades to stop enemy, but holding it inside surrounding every villager of Mindoro as if they have made a cage of barricades with Mindoro inside. What is this new turn of events when everything is already in chaos? 500 warriors of Caracus surrounded the puny 100 Mindoro villagers. As everyone from Mindoro is perplexed. An old guy with an evil smile walks towards this mob while his hands are crossed behind him as if he is pulling something. And literally behind him are the corpses of supporters and messengers who belonged to Mindoro Village being dragged down by Nero and the rest of the Caracus villagers. Every villager standing inside the cage of barricades realised they were tricked!.They were betrayed and trapped "simply blinded by trust" and everyone lost hopes on their lives. "WHAT THE F*CK ARE YOU DOING NEROO!" Ares shouts on the top of his lungs while watching the villagers who helped him, came to fight for him were now lying lifeless while Nero is laughing like a maniac- a madman. 155 Ambush of the Animals The battleships were docked at the shore and a whole battalion of 500 soldiers are walking towards Ares and the handful of people, the sound of the movements of the cluster echoed like a thump of giant causing the ground to shake while reaching the party who was supposed to fight against them. The looks on the faces of the enemies filtered the arrogant smirks as if they had already won this battle, as though they had anticipated this would happen from the very beginning. . . . "Oh Ares ! We''re supposed to do this on the very first day you lot has arrived. If it isn''t for you to make us aware of your overwhelming strength when my warriors visited Mindoro asking for aid in battle." "And if Mindoro didn''t show us that they are training villagers to wield weapons to fight us, this would have happened long before on the first day itself, heh." Nero chuckles with cocky voice and groans at Ares and Mindoro like an eccentric. Ares belong to the nation called Aztec, Aztec''s foe is Agartha. Both the Nations have been at war for more than a decade. The war being fought was not for resources or food. But for the war for power struggle, supremacy, democracy and religious feelings. The soldiers from the battleships of Agartha have stationed at the shore and the captain of the two ships walks up to Nero with 10 soldiers following his lead, trailing behind like loyalists . "We are almost done cleaning them here. It''s just like you said hahaha! They are weak when we make them guard us at nights for five days straight." Nero narrates how he tricked them in order to pave way , to captain Zoilas who just arrived there with his jury . It was all the plan of Zoilas from the start to send Caracus to Mindoro asking for help and drawing out wounded Ares to war along with the villagers of Mindoro sleeplessly guard Caracus at nights. "The captain of their''s, is it Ares? I have been told by my higher ups to not take him lightly. But seeing him in this shape, we are ashamed that we brought an entire battalion of 500 soldiers and battleships to wipe him out." Captain Zoilas chips while mocking at Ares''s current condition. And sarcastically eyeing him. "Nero, please spare me. I have two daughters waiting for me at home, I will run away with my family. I won''t ever show up in front of you, please let me go." Edward pleads Nero for mercy half yelling with a crying face, fear settling in heart while on his knees-begging. "Hm, kids huh ? I can understand if you have a family but everyone here have a family of their own. Everyone would ask me to forgive them won''t they? Hah! hah! hah!. However, you are the best fighter in your village and I wanted to have you in my army since I first saw you. So let''s say, if you swear loyalty to me and help me slaughter Mindoro then I will consider letting you go. How''s it ?" Nero challenges to Edward testing his loyalty which was perhaps already lost somewhere. Edward became confused as he rapidly have many thoughts crossing through his mind, many colors coming and fading on his face. He was being asked to kill his friends and family and burn the village he grew up in, but for him his life was also important. He wanted to see his daughters grow up, he wanted to provide them with a good living rather than leaving them alone for the rest of their lives in misery. So he made a very selfish decision to survive. "I pledge you my loyalty, please let me fight with your soldiers and spare my life for that." Edward surrenders lowering his head with eyes full of regrets. He shamelessly switched. "Then prove it to me" Nero smiled evilly. "cut both of your thumbs from your hands, so you won''t be able to swing the sword you are known for and become an errand boy in my army for the rest of your life." Nero orders Edward with the most psychotic look on his face as eyes bulge out in hunger for blood. Edward is rained with insult one after another and he was treated like the most useless human and now he is asked to cut off his thumbs which means he can never hold the sword in his hands which he loved, growing up with. "Edward don''t do it, you wanted to become a swordsman from your childhood. It was your ambition and dream to serve the village and protect it as it''s guard." "Please don''t do it Edward, it is better dying a honorable death than living such a plight." "Don''t give up your talent for such a life Edward." All the villagers of Mindoro started shouting to stop Edward and to make him realize what was right, in desperation. For Edward however, watching over his two daughters growing up happily was more important than his dreams, he cuts off his thumbs wincing in pain while people continued telling him what was better. He shut their concerns and looks up at Nero with determination. "Eehahaha, awesome Edward, you really wanna live badly don''t you hahaha. Ok you are free now. Let him out of those barricades." Nero says with excitement as if this is the best entertainment he ever saw. A narrow way opens up for Edward to walk out from the soldiers and Edward starts walking his way out slightly feeling happy that he is going to see his daughters from here on out. His thumbs are bleeding. It''s as if his heart had been crushed completely yet he felt happy because he was doing this for his family. Nor does Ares say or do anything. Until last week, he hasn''t been able to move his limbs freely if it''s not for nanoresucts. Yet he kept pushing himself for the village. And now he is in even worse state with no sleep and high fever. He just keeps looking down helplessly and keeps breathing heavily. A spear suddenly struck and pierces Edward''s Adams apple from the side and out of nowhere. Edward falls down to his knees hard on the ground going limbless. He couldn''t even prepare himself to die in this horrible way, but he seems to be still alive while his body whispers with all the blood gushing out "The blood from your decapitated thumb has dirtied my shoes, so this is your punishment! DIE! you worthless piece of shit." Gideon yells happily to the lifeless Edward on the ground. Gideon''s face clearly grimaced with disgust and everyone of Caracus and Agartha starts laughing loudly. The old man Nero never intended to let Edward go free, he just want to see him struggle like a fish without water and strangle while his heart was filled with hope to live. "My wif....e and daughters.." Edward leaves his last breath while tears rolling off his eyes regretfully. "Hahaha you deserve it you worthless scum!. I hate your village to the core of my body!. And don''t you worry about your wife. We will rape her over n over until she dies." Nero yells with a most evil pedophile face as he licks his lips like some pervert was ready to catch their prey and at same time his eye balls are gauging out and his crooked teeth show up as he laugh insanely like a crazy person. All the villagers are triggered instantly and rushes to the soldiers with their weapons. Albert and the rest also runs forward with rage filled faces. All the barricades are closed and the soldiers started to Pierce the flesh of villagers with the spears through the gaps between barricades. Mindoro people were getting slaughtered mercilessly. One of the spear was shove into the gut of Ares, multiple spears pierces through Alex''s body as he tries to save Ares shielding him, and the same happens with every villager that are trapped in the barricades. The ground is soaked wet with blood like a sacrificial ritual is being taken place. "Ahhhh! this is so fun to watch!. Now let''s go slaughter all of Mindoro and erase them from the island now!". Nero orders his motive out loudly as his eyes glint dangerously flickering with hunger. Yes.These five are our responsibility." "We will rebuild our village as many times as we can than letting these five go." "Please soldiers, help us fight for our lands and our lives." The words pleaded by the villagers echoed in the ears of Alex, his subconscious mind could hear people screaming, woman crying, children wailing. His eyes are closing slowly but yet glaring upon a body lying lifeless in front of him. Alex with the last strength gathered in his body reaches out to his bag on the hips in desperation, extracts an injection and injects It into Ares who was lying unconscious in front of him, not dead yet. "Ares, I''ve always wanted to ask you for your help to train me and make me stronger. But I felt like I don''t deserve to ask you of a favor, hehe." Alex chuckles gently as saying his last words. "Ares, can you do me one last favor of keeping the villagers alive? I want to pay them back somehow for being very kind to us." Alex muttered while he holds the hand of Ares with little strength left in his. The face of Alex displayed a sign of relief and hope as he realised that Ares is gaining his consciousness and feels that the villagers will be in good hands now and they will be protected. He smiled as his eyes were closing slowly into a deep silent never-awakening slumber. Ares thought he was in a dream and is shocked by what Alex is asking from him. And he struggles to open his eyes and feels like his body has been put through lot of scissors as if he was hit by the thunderous rain of arrows and spears right through himself. He slowly gets up on his knees, without having a single clue of what has happened. The sight in front of him is unrealistic to him but undeniable . The whole ground is red in color as he looks around him recognizing the faces of his companions and friends. "Alexxx!!! What ha...." Ares halts while uttering and roots frozen in thoughts, he gets the glimpses of everything that happened that he forgot for a moment, the massacre that happened when he was passed out came back into his memory like a cloudy mist. Ares forgot previously the tale of bloodshed that has happened while he was passed out due to the stress on his head and injuries. He bursts into tears and wails loudly as he sees the dead bodies in front of him. His friends and villagers all dead -gone . The cries of Ares pricked the ears of one of the Caracus warrior, who then called out for his chief and captain Zoilas and informed them of this situation. "He was up and unscratched? It must be the nano resucts." Captain Zoilas tells to a soldier who came to report to him, predicting the possibility. *"But we were informed that they doesn''t have any more nanoresucts left with them by our person from Mindoro. How can they possess one? Anyway it''s just one weak captain. We can take him down easily."* Zoilas thinks to himself as he joins hands with Nero without letting one mere soldier stop him from showing off his own pride moment which could earn him medals and promotion for what he has done for today. Ares is still looking at the ground while on his knees and sobbing frantically. 156 Ares is a Devil "Uwahaha this is quite a surprise Ares, I was a little sad all this while that I couldn''t torment you the way I did to Edward hahaha." Nero says arrogantly to Ares reminding him the insult as he stands behind with 30 of his warriors, 20 feet away. Ares stops sobbing recalling about what he heard and saw. What has happened with Edward right in front of his eyes. He is scared of remembering those moments yet his memory flows back in-in a worse way. Tears keep falling off his sockets, he keeps trembling and grasping for air, in a panicking state. "That greedy bastard asked us to spare his life for his wife and daughters hahaha, but no worries we will send them to where he is now." Nero keeps adding salt to the injury and wounds. The memories keeps flashing back in Ares''s head like images one after another of Edward and how he told Ares about his two daughters, the way he smiled, the way he was proud to see his daughters grow up, the way he cut his thumbs for them, the way he was laughed upon by the Caracus villagers and Zoilas and the reason he was killed for gets imprinted on his mind. It was all traumatic to Ares as he mourns louder with the helplessness his eyes which starts turning dark all of a sudden as his anger rises like an erupting volcano, about to burst with fire of hell. "We will kill all of Mindoro, we will kill the children and infants! After killing the men in the village the women becomes our public property, uwhaha!" Nero laughs insanely as he kept shouting out his atrocious plans. While Ares remains rooted listening to him standing still as if he is about to unleash like a beast set free. "We will ra*e them with different number of our men and make them bear our children! And later the child will grow up and kill their dirty mothers! Yesss! Yes this is a perfect plan to have our revenge..." Before he can finish his sentence, Nero gets interrupted while he was screaming out the sadistic ways of wiping out Mindoro with such a pleasing and pleasuring face. Suddenly, a sword is in the face of Nero out of nowhere. His face is cut into half from his nose to the back of his head as if someone split half of his face with a slash of the sword. "Ahhh~ such nice words from your mouth, but you''re not supposed to act psychotic in front of a real one ! " Ares murmured with a really creepy smile while he kneels down on the badly butchered body of Nero. "Such a nice person like you isn''t allowed to live in this world at all Nero." Ares utters sarcastically with an evil grin and slowly shoves the tip of his sword down into Nero''s heart. "Huh? Oh you miss your villagers and warriors? And who? Oh also the soldiers from battle ships? Aww~ it''s ok Nero I will send them... RIGHT BACK TO YOU!" An aggressive Ares with a rage filled expression on his face adds, his voice too changed completely more like the sound of a psychotic demon looking down upon this mere useless toys like people. His blood vessels are bulging from temples in rage as he keeps gritting his teeth, swaying the sword playfully. All of the villagers and soldiers are in shock to see the abnormal behaviour of an average person like Ares, and nobody understood how he killed Nero who was 20ft away in between the thick cluster of soldiers in an instant. Ares attached a red and a green stone onto one side of his sword handle calmly and he attaches another black stone on the other side of the handle and grips his katana tightly. His katana seems to be vibrating vigorously. Only one person knew how big threat Ares became the very moment. Zoilas clearly had fear engulfing his heart as black aura starts to radiate from Ares like a combination of Yin and Yang. "No fucking person told me that he is the only black element user in the entire FUCKING WORLD ." Zoilas utters in disbelief as he stands there completely in shock. "Warriors from Caracus, hurry and move away from him." Zoilas yells at the small cluster of Caracus villagers on a small slope who surrounded Ares for killing their own chief. "Move away? He will not be able to fight back if all of us attack him at once." A warrior amongst them speaks "He will pay for his wrong doings." In a proud and arrogant tone. Ares calmly starts walking forward as the warriors around him aims their weapons at Ares yet hesitating to attack. "Sword arts - Iaido of the demon" Ares flicks his sword guard making the sword to draw out from the scabbard but immediately replacing it back in his scabbard before the blade of his sword is exposed. Nobody understood what sort of technique it is, his sword didn''t even come out of his scabbard. Yet Ares seemed filled with air of confidence and with a smile curling from the corner of his mouth. "Teleport." As Ares mumbles and it looks like he is about to take off, light and gentle cuts starts to appear above the bodies of the warriors around him. Cuts on this arms, chest, across the face... Nobody seems to swinging any sword. Yet more cuts were appearing on their bodies. Even though the cuts don''t seem deep the blood is creeping out enough to evoke panic in the warriors. Ares teleports from warriors to the foot of the slopes and walks towards Zoilas and his army completely ignoring the cluster of warriors around . The cuts which seem not deep suddenly starts digging into their flesh and bones. As if the attack of Ares has an delayed effect. Within seconds all the warriors are cut down and becomes meat sack. Maybe Zoilas knew this would happen hence he warned the warriors who were arrogant and did not heed his advice. "It''s definitely the black elemental stone. How are we going to deal with him? No captain can maintain more than two elemental stones of different attributes in one device and yet - He used three of them in one go !? That is a general class feat. He is a mere 20 year old captain of a naval ship.. how can he..."Zoilas muddled nervously while witnessing Ares striding towards his direction and the soldiers. All the 1000 people soldiers of Zoilas and warriors from Caracus takes their positions in an order in front of Ares, aiming for his head. "It is 1000 Vs 1. You better give your self up and surrender. I will make sure you will walk out of here alive." Zoilas utters words of a cowardice to Ares. "Uwahh!" Right after uttering big words Zoilas gets startled by the sudden start of his ship''s siren. "So you think 1000 of you can stop me?" Ares is still walking towards the 1000 people with the same arrogant smile as his armour clacks against the wind. Ares starts to cut down one soldier after another repeatedly in a really close combat, he cuts their necks, Pierces their hearts and decapitates their heads off their bodies without any emotion of mercy visible on his stone face. It is too graphic to even watch him and the gruesome bloodshed. He just seems to be moving at a very fast speed, he does not even seem to be swinging his sword against his enemies and yet the soldiers on either side of him are getting cut down by blades. Their limbs and their body parts flying above him like a blood shower as it rains down on him. 200 soldiers are down in a snap of 5 mins. Ares hands have been adorned with blisters yet he seems not to feel any pain. "Give me my weapon! get our elites to back the Caracus villagers. Bring the snipers and push with the best fraggers we have. We are going to take him down!" Zoilas gives orders to his soldiers in desperation as snake of fear crawls into his heart. The elite snipers comes to the front, there are two types of sniper rifles, one is emitting purple color and the other is emitting green color, resulting of the purple and green elemental stones that are placed in their rifles. The sniper rifle have two small turbo fans, one at the handle that they hold onto and other one at the middle near the stones. "I got him locked in the scope, ready to fire at anytime!." A soldier holding a purple colored rifle shouts out. "Take the shot." Zoilas says to the soldier. "HURRY!" Suddenly the dark clouds from the sky starts to gather above the land sheltering Ares as he keeps moving in a flash. "Zap!!~" an astonishingly lightning with thunder bolt from the cloud emerges and hits Ares in a blink of an eye and hitting all the region which becomes misty with dust and turned black like charcoal carpet spread throughout. The purple colored sniper rifle locks on to a target, when the trigger is pulled the purple stone forms a small cloud in the atmosphere through which a thunder bolt gets launched onto the person the gun is locked on to. And the green colored rifles manipulates air by compressing and gives air bullets that are invisible and at a long range making them perfect guns for stealth kills. The assault rifles on the other hand emits red color which packs a lot of destructive force, the size of the bullet to be fired is up to the wielder. You can shoot something of the size of a small magnet ball to the size of a cannon ball. "It''s a hit!" The soldier shouts out proudly. "Great... We got him for good" Zoilas starts to celebrate happily and his fears starts to settled down. The dust clears out and everyone is ready to have a look at the burnt body of Ares. While is on his knees, though the attack was incomparably violent, the lightning didn''t just strike on his body but the electricity entered his flesh and bones burning his skin and evoking acute sharp pain to his bones. The burns leaves visible marks on Ares along with smoke. "He is down! Fast! The archers finish him!"Zoilas face is lighted up, he rub his eyes in disbelief. The man who was going around like a crazy monster , slashing everything that comes in his way was down because of one lightning sniper? Great, this is his moment now for Zoilas. The archers takes their positions and release arrows enhanced with green stones on the head of the arrow. These arrows are faster , the spin and trajectory is less compared to the real ones. "Gasp~" Ares swings his sword powerfully when the arrows are close into his zone. All the arrows that were heading his way in a fast pace suddenly stopped in the mid air, they lost the momentum and their flight and just dropped down as if they lost their force. The strong gust release from the swing of Ares with his sword cancelled the momentum of the arrows. *Clack~. * An arrow Pierces the flesh of Ares. "How do you like it? Don''t underestimate me kid, I''m a captain myself." There is a bow in the hand of Zoilas with three green stones. A captain can handle stones of same attributes which boosts the power to greater lengths but stones of different attributes is not a feat that a captain class can pull off. The bow Zoilas holding itself is shiney green in color and long with a steel like bow string and the green stones are situated at the front of the bow. Ares eyes gets wider in surprise as Zoilas draws the empty bow string as if he is about to release an arrow, small winds twirls like a very small cyclone forming near the bow and the bow''s string of Zoilas. The air takes the form of a solid arrow, an arrow of compressed and pressured air pierces Ares again and this time strongly. 157 Wrath of a Demon God The weapons of soldiers and Captains are in different league. That is what differentiates a captain from his squadron, Ares bleeds as his chest is pierced with two arrows, he breathes heavily and stands still without moving a muscle in his body. The dark clouds in the sky started to rumble in thunder as if the gods were angry, right on cue the rain begin to fall from the sky, small bands of rain drops felt warm to Ares as he gets drenched, it''s as if he is being hugged by the warmth of the heavens. Zoilas draws his bow string back to shoot another one of his arrow. *"Please hear my wish Ares, protect the village"* *"My daughters can''t live a day without me, I will go back to them soon and there will be no further raids from Caracus, my daughters can have a peaceful life unlike me"* *"You guys are our responsibility, we will go to war with you"* Ares remembers the words of Alex and Edward and the villagers rushing back inside his ears as he is exhausted. Zoilas shoots his arrow which pierced the rain drops in its way creating a path to itself into Ares. "AARGH!!!" Ares''s whole body is filled with rage, his eyes turns red and he lets out a cry as he swings his sword that is emitting green colored light. The power released from that one swing of Ares''s sword nullified the arrow that Zoilas shot, let alone the arrow the rain itself is delayed for a moment with a very strong wind released from the spot Ares is standing. "Sni... Snipers fast!" Zoilas shouts without wasting any moment. Another shot of lightning sniper is fired at Ares. This time the lightning traveled from cloud to cloud gathering more electricity all concentrated at one spot, above Ares. The sniper and Zoilas instantly knew that this lightning from the steel dark clouds is 10 times more ,powerful than the previous one and they are assured this will be an overkill. Ares removes the stones from his sword''s handgrip, which is covered in white cloth, the whole sword shines divinely as though the soul of sword is visible. "God arts - Heaven''s Arsenal" Ares utters the words calmly as the lightning drops on him. "God Arts - Heaven''s Arsenal." Ares says with a calm and cocky voice. "~~~!" Without a warning a spear shaped thunderbolt as if it was made of a soul appears beside Ares and goes upwards piercing through the lightning made from sniper rifle, right above Ares in an instant. The huge lightning fired by the sniper is scattered throughtout the sky which was in wrath, to fragments and even the dark smoke like clouds in the sky were scoured like dust dispersion . It was an unimaginable power, the spear is as powerful as the lightning bolt of Zeus, with enough energy to split up the earth. Zoilas is more than scared at his wit end. His pants are wet like he peed himself as he witnessed the power that resembled the Gods. -*"Wh- whaa- what i-i-n-in the world is this? Are all those weapons made of his spiritual power, all alone?"* Zoilas stuttered terrified as his mind tried to process out what he just saw. "NOT EVEN THE FIVE STAR GENERAL WHO IS HAILED AS THE ONLY MORTAL THAT CAN RIVAL GODS, POSSESSED SUCH POWER!" Zoilas shouts loudly as he trembles and whimpers in fear acknowledging his end. *Swoosh~~* all the weapons around Ares out of nowhere are released and are shot toward the soldiers at a very fast pace. The weapons travelled piercing the air at an enormous speed like a huge storm of light sweeping away an entire city. Before Zoilas could grab a hold of the situation , all the soldiers along with rest of Caracus villagers have been cut down, thrashed and decapitated like something invisible slaughtered them all. Zoilas is the only person now standing alive in the entirely vast stretched cemetery along with Ares. Zoilas immediately runs towards Ares like a coward, without any pride he kneel and begs Ares to spare his life. The arrogant man ran for his life, turning from a lion into a mouse. "Ares, Ares please I have a family. I never wanted to do this from the first. I was forced by the higher up''s I''m from Aztec not Agartha, really. I''m one of the ground support regiment. Please let me live Ares... please" Zoilas keep blabbering Ares all sort of excuses that came into his mind repeatedly, to make Ares take mercy on him, but Ares whose heart had completely turned into a blood pumping machine devoid of emotions, gazes down upon Zoilas with a grin- dark expression and no emotion can be sense from him at that moment. "Cut your neck off by yourself, it will be an easy death." Ares mocks Zoilas as he did with Edward, without any trace of softness. "You won''t get away with just this! you will know how big of a mistake you are doing! You don''t even know who is involved in this." Zoilas threatens angrily once he was so sure of dying a horrible death, setting a symbol of terror for generations. A spears runs down on the head of Zoilas from his temple and comes out splitting his body into two. while he is on ground with a thump. "GoodBye" Ares says as he looks up at the sky, thinking about all the villagers and his friends that died here. And also the thought of soldiers crossed his mind that he killed mercilessly. He looked sad as if he didn''t wanted to kill anybody, as they too had their own families. *Meanwhile in Mindoro a couple of hours earlier* "Mars! the skies rumbling and I definitely heard something big, I doubt a huge bomb is dropped at the shore in the direction of Edward and our men, the place they were camping at." A guard from Mindoro wakes up Mars by jerking him ranting with a rather surprising news. "Chiefff!!! Chieffff!!!!! I saw a blast , heavy smoke and I saw the trees and woods withering after the huge blast. Something wrong is definitely going down there. Let me go chief!" Gus who has run here worrisome requests to the already surprised Mars in paniced state. "Guards! prepare for us to leave, gather all the men in the village, we''re gonna head out to our brothers and lend them a hand!" Mars commands his men of what they should be doing immediately. It''s a panic in village. Every family of the warrior that went to assist Caracus along with Ares are in desperation to hear any news from them or to go along with Mars to see what had happened to their loved ones. Mars and the guards had to delay their departure to calm the villagers down. The wife of Edward stares at the crimson moon while worrying about her husband while the two daughters laid sleeping in her arms soundly. The crimson moon is naturally defined as a sign of massacre in some places, a very bad omen. This makes her even more worried about the well-being of her husband. "Chief I will be heading out first, I will be fast with my pulleys." Gus says the words and heads out without stopping to listen to what Mars had to suggest . "This kid, never listen to us! He is heading out in the dark without worrying about his own safety!" Mars shakes his head in frustration and yells at Gus and sets out to the shore of the battle following the lead of Gus. *"I''m sure of it, Ares will win, he will be standing and protecting my villagers. Tanya, Albert and Alex used to make fun of me for worrying about Ares. And Yang would keep his grumpy face on and ask me about Tisha. Alrightyyy!! Ares, here I come.* Gus murmurs to himself , unsure of what was ahead of him while he is set on the way to the battle scene. *"It''s now or never, it''s finally time for us to end our fued with Caracus. We will become brother in arms now, everything will be peaceful once tonight passes by."* Mars thinks about the well being of his villagers and bonds with other villages while on his way not knowing what lies ahead of him. *Coming back to the shore of battle in the present* A group of 5 whips with sharp spearheads tied to their tails suddenly pierces the flesh of Ares from the backside. The whips sprouted from his chest. Ares couldn''t help but notice how familiar the whips are to his eyes, It''s as if he knew the familiar weapon used many times before by someone who fought alongside him since he became the captain. "I- I see, so that''s how it is Tanya. You were a member from Zoilas squad? Ha ha" Ares chuckled and coughs blood as he turns around to face her. Tanya stands with a different attire than her soldier dress and is giving a really cold look towards Ares as her hand grips on the whip sword in her hand. She pulls the whip sword back slashing the flesh of Ares from inside. She looks very dominating and no traces of emotion can be seen from her cold aura. "Don''t hold a grudge on me in your afterlife Ares, I''m not a spy of other nation. What Zoilas uttered in pure fear is true. He is from Aztec I''m his messenger, I was ordered to do this." Tanya says to Ares without any hint of remorse or sadness in her tone. "I see, so it''s our own generals that wants me dead? I see. Anyway, I''m happy that atleast you are alive of our squad Tanya... *Coughh!!* I''m happy, but don''t go after the village." Ares says with relief as his body falls to the ground. Tanya was not ready for the words, she just cut this man''s flesh and yet he still was treating her as his friend and forgave her? Is the reliever expression on his face denotes that he is happy to die in her hands so that he won''t kill more people in his future as he rank up in the military? "We agreed to wipe out Mindoro as a part of our deal with the Caracus village. The deal happened when the Caracus saw our power, when we wiped out Sable as our first target. Caracus after witnessing our powers begged to be spared and that they will help us in killing you and in return we burn Mindoro to ashes. But, now that the caracus is wiped out, I don''t care about Mindoro anymore. Still I didn''t think it would come down to me to kill you, you are too powerful." Tanya tells to Ares with a tear falling from the side of her eyes and she turns her face away from Ares to not let him see her tears dropping. Sable was wiped out at first to see the weapons and the powers the people use on this island. And for the good of the soldiers the Islanders only use natural weapons without any strategies. However Caracus witnessed the power of Zoilas and his army and they beg Zoilas to spare them in exchange, they need to help Zoilas kill Ares. Both of the parties agreed to it and sent an official and guards to Mindoro to lure them by asking them for their help, but after witnessing the power of Ares in Mindoro against the guard with the blade who was about to kill Gus, the soldiers and villagers of caracus came up with a plan of Making the Mindoro and Ares wait for days and nights without any sleep. They try to gain Mindoro''s trust, make them weak and make them drop their guards against them and then they would begin the slaughtering of Mindoro as per their plan, taking advantage of sleepless soldiers who has lost their ability to think and fight due to dizziness and attacking at the most unexpected time. Ares lays on the ground lifeless, Tanya walks up to him, sits on her knees, grabs and places the head of Ares on her lap and brushes his hair while her tears keep rolling down on the face of Ares. "It was hard on me Ares, forgive me.. forgive me.. forgive me." Tanya begs for a few minutes and she then wipe away any traces of her tears from her face and then leaves the island to report the successful plan of wiping out Ares with the whole island. 158 The strange connection to Faust and Animals "He was a monster! An-and I saw the same in this child." Yang told the captain on the phone. "We are not able to hear you, hello? Yang?" "Huh? Hello? What are you saying young captain? Hello?" The phone call got disconnected. None of them knew what the reason was. No one was able to realize that they are going to get hit by a storm that is never seen before. *"I have seen a kid that is exactly like Ares. Because I have seen him doing it."* Yang thinks to himself. - A huge loss could have happened that day that would have brought the family of Gus to their graves. Gus is fighting with the evolved wolves to protect Faust and Bella from being eaten. He has already suffered an injury that made his left hand totally paralyzed. But, the villagers were shocked at the sight of wolves which were torn apart and dissected, they walk up to Gus who has become unconscious and takes him in. One of the villagers hears a rumble from the foot of the cliff, as he and the villagers saw what is below them, they were scared and dazzled. A pride of lions which were guarding Faust are starring up at the cliff towards the villagers, the lions stayed with Faust without harming him and left him like a gift to the villagers and they make their way back into the forest. *"This truly seem like a work of God, which lion who eats humans, protects the kid from the wolves and has been doing that until help arrives?"* The villagers thought to themselves and takes Faust, Gus and Bella back to the village to treat them. Before they realised that the lions protected them. Only Gus saw what had happened and he told to Yang about it. "Grandpa!" Faust who suddenly wakes up with a fright, tries to open his eyes slowly to see if he is alive or in a dream. He feels as though he is flying in the air, his body hasn''t touched the ground like he thought he would when he fell down the cliff from the push of Gus. He can feel the cold breeze grazing his cheeks and so he thought he must be dead and his spirit is floating in the air- *"ah I must have died due to the hard fall and I''m in afterlife"* Faust thinks to himself and he once again closes his eyes believing his once happy life is over. *Chirp chirp~~* *"Huh? It somehow feel so good, the smell of damped earth combined with old fallen leaves and the sings of bird, is this heaven? It is so calming and comfortable here."* Faust muddles and opens his eyes to hear for the beautiful sound of chirping birds. He wasn''t expecting the sight he saw once he open his eyes, he was hanging from the vines of trees. The vines coiled around his limbs making him feel like he was floating in the air, his eyes watched the green leaves rustling in the bright sky swiftly. *Awhoooooo!! awhoooooo!!* *"What is it? What is happening?"* Faust comes back to his senses panicking and watches in the direction of the sound, his eyes seem lifeless as he sees two wolves running down the cliff and howling as if it''s a signal to the pack of wolves on the rocky mountain that they have discovered the location of Faust. *"I see, it''s basically useless trying to run away now, I was so stupid and useless today. I don''t want to create anymore chaos. I''m tired of running."* Faust thinks to himself and closes his eyes as he accepted his fate with the wolves without intending to even fight again for his life. Being an introverted kid Faust never stood up for himself, he always put below everyone and belittles his own self. No matter the situation he still apologizes to whoever he is talking to and takes the blame onto himself rather than blaming other. He accept what comes his way as his own fault and hence he closes his eyes waiting for death, letting the wolves do what they want with him since he is too tired to try and run and change his destiny. *Thud~~* *Thud~~* The body of Faust seems to resonate all of a sudden as if someone is thumping him to wake up. The wolves who were happily charging towards Faust were stopped in their trace suddenly as they faintly sense a weird aura forming around Faust. The wolves cower right away as though they have come across something they shouldn''t have. *swisshhhh!!~* The vines around the the limbs of Faust were sliced into tiny bits and Faust lands on the ground facing towards the wolves while his eyes are still closed. "Why won''t you creatures just won''t leave me alone?" Faust says in an innocent naive voice as his head tilted to the side. The atmosphere around Faust gets uneasy, the winds are increasing. The birds in the vicinity flies away leaving their nests and all the other small animals and deers run away from the presence of Faust as if a calamity is heading their way. Even the rest of the wolves and Raka on the cliff were stopped in their traces of toying with Gus and watches towards the direction of Faust and the two wolves. *Grrrrr* The wolves groans quietly and tries to come forward to Faust moving slowly. "Fuck with me and you will never be pardoned" Faust opens his eyes fiercely like the wolves have just irritated him even more. His eyes are sharper than before when the wolves saw him on the cliff. The look in his eyes showed despise and anger, but what really stands out is the corner of his eyes, the white part(sclera) of his eyes in the corners are painted in blood red, he''s like a completely different person. This pair of eyes was different from when the moment Gus was narrating him the story of Ares and his eyes reacted strongly, but this time it''s different. Because at that time the whole white part of Faust''s eyes were bright red, where as now only the corners are glittering red with green Iris which is shining like a jade glass. "There''s no letting go of this now, I didn''t want to kill animals, but you are an exception" Faust says while being really calm even when the two big wolves was standing in front of him. This is a very different Faust from a while ago where he cried like a baby at the sight of just one wolf. "Prepare to get purged." Faust says with a carefree look on his face. His face shows displeasure as if the wolves never stood a chance with him ever. "A-wooooo Awo- ooooo" the wolves communicates with the rest of it''s pack with continuous anxiety howls, their howls are not even completed like usual as they are greatly intimated with the Aura that keeps building around Faust. *Rumble~~* The earth starts to shake and the small stones near Faust and the wolves seems to be vibrating violently as if a great disaster is approaching them at a great speed. The wolves senses a pack of 5 lions to be charging towards Faust at great speed as they stare behind Faust. The lions which live in the caves on the other side of terrains divided by a small valley charges towards Faust as if they are panicked or just charging forward because of the fear of Faust like most animals which tend to attack when they''re feared. The wolves are a bit relieved as they see the lions too sensed the aura of Faust and came to attack him and kill him. The wolves are waiting for the lions to land a blow first and then they can steal the lifeless body of Faust from the lions. The lions come more closer to the Faust, one of them which was thrice the size of Raka, bared it''s fangs right behind the head of Faust. The wolves decided that Faust is going to die and are waiting patiently to grab Faust. "RAWRRRR!!!....." The lion suddenly jumps over Faust while roaring from it''s lungs. The roar was so loud that it resonated over 5 miles and paralyzed the wolves. The sound of it''s roar up close is as loud as the sound of a mountain falling down. The lion then grabbed one of the wolf by it''s spine, lifted the wolf up with his jaws and slams the wolf onto the stone to death. Immediately the other three lions approaches the second wolf. One grabs the neck, one grabs the limbs and other dogs it''s teeth on its chest and tears apart the body and limbs of the wolf in a brutal way. It was like they were tearing a soft toy apart through its fiber without considering the blood spilling from each of the wolves. Faust is just standing all this while while the air is blowing through his hair and his cold eyes looking down on the wolves. The fifth lion stands behind Faust as though it was protecting him. The eyes of Faust comes back to normal and his bright mist like aura around him disappears and Faust falls down like a worn out vessel, which has used its power too much and beyond it''s capacity. The thoughts of his Grandpa flows in his mind and the lions respond as though they understand Faust''s intentions. Four of the lions goes up the cliff while the last lion keeps the unconscious body of Faust in between it''s front and hind limbs and watches it''s surroundings as if it''s protecting Faust. Faust can hear the whimpers and cries of the wolf while his eyes are closed, he still thinks he is dreaming. *"Why did the lions help Faust?"*Gus who was badly injured from the attack of the wolves, but was still able to survive, was watching what has happen for the whole time. He was having all fuzzy thoughts about what just happened and trying to process the information he has just gathered, when one of the lion suddenly roars at him standing at the edge of the cliff. Gus being badly wounded gets carried over to the edge of the cliff by another lion, he sees Faust safe and sound in the protection of a lion and he drops his guard down and lays down on the ground while holding onto his wounds. Gus and his family are rescued and are protected by Faust. No one including Yang knew why or how the lions helped Faust. And the next day. Faust wakes up after staying days in the hospital surrounded by his friends. "Huh lions? They were protecting me?" Faust asks Tim as if he doesn''t remember anything that took place. "Yes, you even have the favor of many animals, they won''t attack you or behave badly with you while we go to hunt together with my dad, even though they do all the things with us. But this time lions too? Mehhh, you must be lucky or something." Tim says to Faust with mocking tone, but a hint of relief can be seen on his face. Faust vaguely remembers what happened, his memory is foggy and uncertain but he remembers lions killing the wolves in front of him. Everybody thinks that falling off the cliff might have made his memory a bit sloppy and he himself think that might be the case too. "Manh ! you are lucky, you would have become meal for wolves if the lions didn''t come, but how cool is that Faust, being saved and protected by lions. I''m so jealous of you." Says the excited Nick who visited Faust in the hospital along with Tim and Roy. "Yes Fausty, everyone''s calling you a gifted kid. You have been blessed with a miracle of God, though I''m happy you didn''t get hurt." Roy says while he make gestures to cheer up Faust who looks rather sad and heart broken. 159 The Art Of Vital Points Faust did not know what to tell to his brothers. "Um... Tim, I''m really sorry for going towards the dens, even after you told me not to." Faust tells Tim with a hint of guilt in his tone as he lowered his head not daring to look at Tim in the eyes. "It''s ok, we know you won''t be able to hold your excitement anyway haha. That''s why I came to play with you, knowing you will be either feeling sad or bored because I told you not to go there, but who would have imagined your little butt would go there already, hmphhhh." Tim pout and says to Faust as a big brother who is scolding his small brother, but also showing love and caring side at the same time. "Ah, how is my grandpa? How is Bella? Let me get up and walk now." Faust deeply reflect on his action and that''s when he remember something and ask his friends and as he tries to get up from the hospital bed. "No! It''s ok, you need more rest Faust. And your grandpa is ok you know...." Nick holds back Faust not letting him get out of the bed and looks a bit gloomy, same with the rest of the friends. It seems they are all sad and hesitant to tell Faust about the well being of his only family, that is his grandpa and Bella. "Well your.. .. " Nick hesitates, " Well..they said that grandpa Gus needs to take a 7 month bed rest, his muscles have been cut- slashed and many broken bones, but it''s not life threatening. Where as Bella...." Nick who is talking about Gus suddenly stops talking when it comes to Bella. "We don''t know if Bella can make it, she is getting operated now and lost lot of blood. Chances of her making out alive are less." Roy continues for Nick and breaks it down to Faust, being a noble he knows how to control his emotions and feelings very well unlike Nick. "I see, thanks for letting me know. I want to sleep now. I will come meet you guys later when I''m recovered." Faust immediately lays back and covers himself in the blanket as his tears roll down. Tim and others leaves the room knowing what Faust is going through and they sadly leave even when they don''t want to. *"I need to become strong, I need to figure a lot of things out first"* Faust keeps saying to himself while he digs his thumb nail into his point finger trying to suppress his hate and anger towards his own self as a way to punish himself. A few days later, Faust is recovered and he go to meet up with Gus who is still on the hospital bed "How are you doing grandpa?." Faust says with a low voice standing at the door as he tries to control his tear from rolling down from his cheek. "Oh Faust," Gus mumbles as he could barely say anything as he sees Faust. Faust looks tired and black shade can be seen under his eyes. Gus realizes that Faust is not sleeping at all. "Faust, I''m doing really good now, I hope you take better care of yourself, don''t spoil your health because your grandpa is not there to feed you forcefully and take care of you, I will be up and running in no time." Gus says to Faust to try to ease his worries. "Ok grandpa, I will be going home without you and take care of the animals and keep our house clean and do the works for you." Faust says with calm tone, but you can see he''s trying his best to not sound sad and want to make up to Gus. "You don''t need to do that Fausty, I asked Tim''s mom to take care of our house while we''re here, so don''t go doing adults work kiddo just sleep with me here. Me, you and Bella can go home in 6 weeks." Gus says to Faust with a smiley and goofy face to make Faust feel like everything is back to normal and that he don''t need to be hard on himself with his feeling of guilts. "Ok grandpa." That''s all Faust says and heads back to his room without mumbling another word. Faust collects his belongings and greets the doctors that helped him and leaves out to his house not listening to what his grandpa told him before. For the next 6 weeks Faust stays at his house. Everyday Faust does every work needed in his house before Tim''s mom visits to do her works and eventually she stops coming after realizing that Faust wants to do it himself. He goes into the forest and eats fruits and whatever he finds since he doesn''t know how to cook. Most of Faust''s daily routine included him waking up before sun rise, running around the village which is daily exercise for guards to circle the village for 10 times. Faust too decided to join the guards and run around the village for three complete times as best as he could. He then comes home, cleans the whole house, takes the sheep''s and other animals to the area of good forage. He keeps an eye on the animals while he himself punches a tree over and over harder each time as he keep blaming himself for what happen to his grandpa and Bella and also as a way to make himself strong. Until the animals are done grazing. He brings them back safely to home and works on his body for hours. Faust also is practicing moves that looks similar to hand combat martial arts used long time ago. He collected some sand, heated the sand in a pot and collected all the heated sand in a bag and started training his wrists, forearms, shin and foot by hitting the sand bag. He put the sand bag on the ground and threw few punches and tied the bag to a pillar to kick and make his feet and shin strong. The martial art that Faust is practicing is "The Art Of Vital Points" it is an ancient martial arts which has its origins in "Hodu", one of the most ancient country with rich tradition and history, also known to be the birth place of "Buddha" a human who reached higher state of all beings and was even worshipped as a religion and God in ancient times. How did Faust got his hands on "kyusyozyutu" ( The art of vital points) which is depicted as a secret art of body knowledge and vital points. It has no concern of an opponent''s well being, the sole purpose of this style is to inflict as much pain as quickly as possible, which often includes deliberately ending a life with no remorse. *One year ago before the wolf incident* In the past, Faust came across the sight of Yang teaching something to Tim which seemed to be some kind of move that involved in Tim charging at Yang and trying to land a hit on Yang in close combat. Faust is very much impressed by the style and the way Tim moves in this martial arts. "Grandpa Yang! I also want to learn with Tim. Will you please teach me along with him?" Faust storms into the training place and asks Yang eagerly while he is training Tim. Yang is struck with displeasure, the face of the grumpy old village chief turned really ugly. "Faust this art only passes down in my family, I would never even in my dreams think to pass the art of kyusyozyutu to an outsider. Don''t ask me again." Yang scolds Faust sternly and asks him to leave from the door that he came from. Faust despite being rejected by Yang, peeks into the training and the movements that Tim is practicing, and that day later he goes home to practice the moves he saw from Tim. Yang who is aware that Faust is peeking on the training of Tim everyday, doesn''t seem bothered as he knew that the art is extremely tough to learn on one''s own without a proper guidance under a well versed master. Without the knowledge of vital points, pressure points and meridians of one''s body, this martial art is just like throwing random punches in air and so later on Faust lost the interest in practicing and training alone and stopped going to the training grounds of Yang and Tim. *Present* After the incident with the wolves, Gus, who is still recovering in hospital reveals to Yang that Faust is somehow special in his own way. Gus mainly tells Yang about Faust landing a hit on the wolf as if he teleported, it also piqued the interest of Yang however, he is still not convinced as to teaching his martial arts to Faust. Yang wanted to test Faust himself and take him in if he feels like if Faust could be a good successor to the martial arts he is trying to pass down to Tim, maybe Faust could be a better one than Tim as Yang thought to himself carefully. And so Yang and Tim visit Faust after he was out of hospital. "Faust, Gus want me to teach you the martial arts form that you were fascinated with a year ago." Yang told Faust. "I see." Faust sadly thought to himself *"even after all this, I''m still being defended by grandpa."* He looks down to the ground and tries to stop himself from crying in front of Tim and Yang. "But I''m not convinced with what Gus told me, I need to see your talent with my own eyes or I cannot train you." Yang coldly states the bitter truth and doubt. "So after six weeks from now, you and Tim will have a spar against each other while me and Gus will watch your fights and give you our results. A martial art using hand combat is equal to an eternal treasure. It is not something you can learn easily. So to gift you such powerful skill, I''m going to make sure that you have what it takes." Yang says to Faust and Tim. This leaves Faust with lots of doubts in his head as to why he have to spar with his own friend,Tim? Him and Tim are good friends and he doesn''t want them both to fight and end up with either of them getting hurt. The feeling is mutual for Tim as well. "So for basic, train your body and harden your wrists, knuckles, legs and shin." Yang continues telling Faust about his deal and he ignore the feelings of the two boys as their eyes appear with doubts and sadness. "Uh, huh? Ahh grandpa Yang! Oh I have a question to ask you" Faust pauses for a few minutes and he wonders how to exactly ask the questions he just said he need to ask. *"How the hell am I supposed to train my body and make it strong?"* Is the question that Faust have in his mind for Yang. Yang realizing what was in Faust''s head says "You can try punching a sand bag filled with heated sand which makes your skin harden and your arms stronger." Yang gives him an advice. "Thank you both." Faust says while he bows his head low and heads back to home to start the training as soon as possible once Yang told him what to do. And so Faust has been training his body for 6 weeks straight to make himself stronger and each day his determination grow as he continues to thrives. After 6 weeks, Gus is finally discharged from the hospital, but is not able to walk without the two clutches and people from the hospital assist him and Bella to their house. Both Gus and Bella are covered in bandages in the areas they received fatal wounds in. Faust with enthusiasm comes running out of the house after he realizes who the old man and the dog are as they continues toward his house. And he rushes to hug Bella and Gus whom he met after the first time in 6 weeks. But Gus is in loss of words as he is shocked to see Faust looking so different then he last saw him. Faust has become so thin than he normally is. His eyes are decorated with dark circles around them and you can also see the puffiness under each of his eyes causing his eye bags to swell . It is as though Faust has not eaten or slept from these past 6 weeks and his bones are clearly visible through his fragile body. "What have you done to yourself Faust!?" Gus asks Faust with disbelief and grief. Gus is not taking this well as his only grandson, who he had nursed ever since be was a tiny little baby, is looking so bad like he hasn''t been taking care of him as a good grandpa should. He was bitterly heartbroken. 160 The Ability to learn humans "Nothing grandpa, I''m fine" Faust says with a smile on his face trying to cheer up his grandpa with the best smile he got. Faust comes over to Bella and try to hold her, to which Bella doesn''t agree. She just licks Faust''s hand and goes inside the house slowly. As if it''s her way of saying she lost her trust in him and just licks his hands so Faust doesn''t completely gets heartbroken. Its as if a way of saying we are not siblings anymore but just friends who care about one another''s feelings and happiness. Gus realizing the way Bella acted, comes and holds Faust in his chest. " let''s go inside, grandpa." Faust calmly tells Gus as if he is avoiding any hugs or love from Gus as he still feels he is responsible for everything that happened and he thinks he is being hated by his family too now. As soon as Gus enters inside the house, he sees his house has changed drastically. The wall paper on the pillar comes off at some spots as the result of countless kicks Faust have done and the floor too seems to has multiple places that have been broken and renewed with pieces of planks placed on top of the broken floor. Gus really saw through the amount of hard work Faust has put in and so did the people from hospital, who came to accompany Gus to his house. "Is the spar with Tim tomorrow grandpa? I''m all ready for it " Faust says to Gus as Gus is observing the shape the house is in thoughtfully. "Faust, let''s not do any sparring, you barely look alive to me. Let''s not do this for a while." Gus worriedly tells Faust as he couldn''t bear watching his skinny grandson take another beating from Tim as Faust clearly looks like a malnourished boy and he seemed to be lacking sleep and Gus can definitely tell that Faust has been completely taken over by depression. "if I cannot prove myself now, I will never be able to return to my normal self anymore." Faust replies with determination, ignoring the despair in his grandfather''s look. He wanted to really take this as an opportunity to vent out all his anger and sadness that he has been locking up inside and he is all set for the spar no matter what. *On the day of sparring* Faust seems to be searching the wardrobe restlessly for something. "Grandpa! Where is my cape I used to play superhero with? I''m not able to find it." Faust asks Gus while his head ducked into the wardrobe. "Huh? Why do you need the cape Fausty? We are going to a spar with Tim not to play heroes." Gus seems to be puzzled, this kid just said yesterday that he is serious about getting strong and moving on. So what took over his head to be searching for a cape now? "Oh I found it... Heh heh heh. I did not use this cape all these days while training... If only I did I would have been more strong, heh heh heh." Faust says to himself while laughing with an evil laugh. Gus is jaw dropped listening to Faust... Is this kid really grown up? What''s he talking about? Gus is blown out of his worries. Maybe Faust is Faust after all by thought and continued. Faust did not stop there, while leaving the house with Gus, he took the thread with two small bells from the neck of Bella and wears it around his neck. Like it was a charm or maybe he was preparing himself for a sacrificial activity ! Bella is giving a rather displeased look while pouts and looks away but Faust just smiled and moved on. "Faust! That is Bella''s collar replacement... What are you doing?" Gus is getting tired of how Faust is behaving. He really wanted to give Faust a good beat up and put some seriousness in his head. "This is good luck charm grandpa, just watch. I will beat Tim with the lucky cape and lucky bells." Gus gave up on Faust at this time when he wears a cope around his neck and wears the thread with bells that made sound for every step he took . Yang invites Gus and Faust to the place to test the capabilities of him after he is immersed in training for 6 weeks. The training grounds of Yang are below the ground level in Yang''s place, the floor is made up of concrete and tiles which seemed to be spread out to four corners to form a rectangle ground totally for the purpose of practicing hard blows and free falls with a one feet small Dias with two chairs in the middle for Yang and Gus to sit and observe the spar. "Oh hello.. Fa-Faust!" Yang is caught off guard seeing Faust. First his in natural way of dressing and then his very gloomy face, his body muscles looks like they''re twitching and his knuckles are painted in red. "Faust!! What is wrong with you Bo...." Tim says while he runs towards Faust to treat his wounds, but was interrupted by Yang who asked Tim to go back to his position. Yang realizes that Faust wants to change himself and his coward heart by working hard and so he did not pity Faust or show him mercy, rather than that Yang showed his respect to Faust. "Hello grandpa Yang, hello Tim" Faust greets them both. His face doesn''t show the signs of any happiness or cheerfulness even though he was invited to spar and train and have a big chance to learn from Yang . "Faust, try to land at least three hits on Tim. If you succeed, I will let you train with Tim." Yang tells Faust. Faust seems a little interested in this, as his face glow up a little because of what Yang says. But Tim seems to be concerned about Faust. "Grandpa, you said our style doesn''t have defense only moves, if I were to defend myself I would land blows on Faust. I don''t wanna hurt him." Tim says as he is concerned with the present condition of Faust. "Did I say you are supposed to show mercy to your opponent''s? When I say fight you both need to show me what you got." Yang says with cold eyes. A master needs to be strict at times in order to make their disciples succeed. And so the time to spar each other comes by "Start!!! "Yang starts the fight with commanding voice as both Tim and Faust gets ready in place for their spar. *Swoosh!!!~~~* Faust starts off by dashing towards Tim at great speed. *"Woah fast!!"* Tim compliments Faust in his heart, but smirks from the corner of his mouth as if he is confident enough to counter Faust''s speed. *"Hmm.. decent speed but charging forward naively, this shows the lack of combat experience."* Yang and Gus thought to themselves. Tim is buckled up anticipating Faust''s move which is straight on punch. *Whiff!!~* *"Huh? What happened? What is this?* Tim is confused by what he is seeing. The cape of Faust is right in his face. Faust did not just recklessly charge towards Tim. He removed his Cape in the way and flung it over onto Tim as soon as he approaches Tim. Tim''s vision is totally blocked off as of now. He puts his hands up and takes his guard. He knows Faust is going to kick him from outside the cape while blinding Tim using the cape. *"So this is why he was carrying the cape? Did he calculate all of this already?"* Yang and Gus feels as though Faust is not a kid anymore. *Cling clang!* Tim heard Faust running towards him from his left side. *"Hmm my eyes sight may have been blocked but my ears are still working."* Tim focuses smirking to himself and dashes towards his left but suddenly lost his balance and falls down. "One hit" Yang yells loudly. Tim was confused and petrified, he did not even know what happened. As soon as the cape falls off from his face. To his surprise to his left are two bells and Faust is actually in front of him. As soon as Tim was blinded by the cape. Faust threw the bells which he had taken out along with the cape and throws to the left side of Tim. Tim turns left trusting the sound blindly while Faust lands a hit on Tim''s feet making him loose balance and fall down. With this Faust already earned his first hit on Tim. Before Tim snaps back from the shock he sees Faust again trying to land a kick on him from below. Time rolls back and gets back on his feet before Faust''s kick can reach him. "Hehe, that was good Faust. I never expected you would be doing your comical trickery fights. But ok I will respond back with the same passion." Tim says while taking his stance. "But you won''t be able to reach me anymore." Tim is finally serious. His stance itself is pretty impressive. His left legs was behind him and slightly bended while his right foot is in front. He was focusing his balance on his left foot, his right feet slightly float in air easy to move around or attack. In addition to his two upper limbs which can already attack and block. His right arm also acted like his hand in defending moves or punches from below. Faust again, dashes forward and throws punches which Tim blocks easily using his wrists and elbows, deflecting Faust''s punches. The martial art moves of Tim looked very well crafted than Faust''s, whose standing stance itself is unbalanced and there is no change of power from his lower body to upper body when landing a punch. Yet Yang''s eyes are wide open and are glittering with admiration for Faust. *"Is it a coincidence or did he really just aimed for the heart meridian of Tim?"* Yang quietly whisper to himself. Every punch from Faust is not a clean hit, but he is aiming his punches in the central line of point that is on nose, on throat and on heart. Only central focused punches. If one punch if made a contact, it would definitely close the heart meridian of Tim. Yang seemed more focused on Faust to see if Faust just is just throwing punches or is he targeting the meridian. *"Is it just a coincidence luck or did he figure out the martial arts."* Yang is getting excited to see Faust''s moves, expecting him to do some uniqueness. Faust tries to land more blows on Tim who is just evading all the punches with ease without having a need to fight back. And Faust tire fully falls forward while stretching his legs trying to reach Tim. "Heh, I thought you said you want to prove yourself and get rid of the guilt, but guess you were all talking and no work huh?" Yang mocks Faust with his words intentionally *"Dammit!!!!"* The words really hurt Faust to his core. He balls his fist in fury and gets back up on his feet to try and land a hit again. Faust keeps failing to land a blow and Yang keeps mocking Faust. Faust looses his focus and foot on every insult Yang throws at Faust. 161 Tenacious In the end, Faust just lays on the ground with his face covered with dust and his head buried in the ground and cries. "Faust! The fear you feel makes you brave if you can overcome it and the pain you feel will make you stronger if you endure it. Learn to fail, make new mistakes and learn from them" Gus shouts to Faust in a cheering tone. Faust gets up on his feet slowly while wiping his tears. Those tears were not tears of cowardice or helplessness, this time they were the tears of not being able to do anything and feeling worthless. *"My element of surprise has been used up already in my first attack. I don''t have any more aces up in my sleeves. Nor am I as fast as Tim to evade. But I have seen most of the moves now. I might be able to do this."*Faust muddles to himself determinedly. Faust carefully recalls the foot movements of Tim. The way he was moving fast, the spins, the body balance and the defence and strike at the same time. *"This time, I''m going to do it"* Faust thinks to himself and charges forward towards Tim once again. Blocking and evading Faust is easy until now for Tim, but this time somewhere in his head Tim is having a feeling that Faust is catching up to him. The round house kicks, hand movements, blocking every move of Tim''s with his wrists and blocking and guiding away the punches of Tim with the back of his fists and with every move, Faust is looking as if he is imitating Tim. It''s is almost Tim is fighting himself in the mirror, perplexed. *"What is this? Is this really someone who doesn''t know the martial arts? His moves are suddenly sharp and matching Tim''s. Did he just learned those moves while watching Tim move on the ground just now? This is Impossible yet miraculous!" Yang thinks in his head loudly as he keep getting more surprised by Faust''s abilities. *Bam!!~~* It''s a hit on Tim. "This is bad, Tim has got hit on a particular meridian of the heart, his meridian will be closed and it is life threatening! His all working meridians will be closed now!" Yang''s face becomes creased with a sense of tense and danger in his voice. He''s worried for Tim, but then at the same time he still want to know what Faust got with his skills. "Huh? Hahaha You got me Faust." Tim laugh and smiles at Faust naturally. Faust did not hit the meridian, he just tapped Tim after getting close to Tim. This is what his intentions were all this while. To just touch Tim as a tap after getting close to Tim. "I don''t want to hurt those that I meant to protect." Faust says and withdraws with a sense of relief and happiness. He doesn''t wanna continue spar anymore, he reached his goal and that was more than enough for Faust to prove himself. A satisfactory smile graced his lips as he accomplished his goal. "Gus! Did you notice it too? The level of understanding and grasping everything after witnessing it for just his first time is amazing and he implemented them in a minute. Your grandson turned out a genius!" Yang makes an excited statement in astonishment. "Faust, please become a student of mine and let me teach you." Yang walks up to Faust and requests him politely as if he could never get a student like Faust and teaching this style to Faust. "Please take care of me master." Faust agrees and willingly nods with a bright smile. Gus, Tim and Yang are more than delighted to see Faust smile for the first time in a while. Faust is smiling all the way while going back to home. As soon as Gus and Faust reaches home. Faust sleeps beside Bella in her little bed "Bella, I swear I will never abandon you again and will protect you with my life." Faust quietly whispers to Bella eventually falling asleep with a smile still on his face. The next day, Gus calls for Faust who just finished his rounds around the village. "Faust, I want you to help me with finding a book for me." Gus says to Faust. "Sure grandpa, where did you keep it?" Faust is all ready to help his grandpa and make himself useful. "It''s in the attic, in a black wooden box. Take this key to open the box and bring the book down here." Gus tells Faust as to how to do his little errand. Faust goes ahead to find the box and unlocks it, he is caught off unguarded with what he saw, a book with a drawing of a long katana on it. "I''ve got it grandpa, please take it." Faust was curious but brings the book that seems to be some kind of manuscript to his grandpa, but Gus didn''t take the book, instead he told Faust to read and study the first ten pages. "Read what it says on the book cover" Gus told Faust. "Hmmm... Unholy sword arts? That''s what it says." Faust reads carelessly while looks up at his grandpa with a questioning expression appearing on his face. "I''m going to teach you how to use a sword" the words said by his grandpa echos in Faust''s ears, while he is mopping the floor with a long broomstick but in place of the brush and stiff fibers, this broom stick has braids of cloth as brush. And when it''s soaked in water it gets wet and makes it hard to move the broomstick even on the ground because of the massive amount of weight on the braids and for a kid like Faust it''s like tons of weight to move. "In a zig zag motion Faust." Gus tells faust while resting on the couch behind and watching Faust mop the floor. "I know grandpa. I know." Faust says while pouting, fully exhausted. *"He said he is going to teach me sword techniques but I am mopping the floor for 2 hours already like an idiot. I''m pretty sure grandpa tricked me tsk, how did I fall for this?"* Faust thinks as he mops the floor with disappointment. *Moments ago* "Sword arts? What is that grandpa?" Faust asks Gus as he holds and read the book that he brought from the attic. "It''s about the art of swords Faust, I''m going to teach you how to wield a sword. And this book is the manuscript of a powerful technique that your grandpa is going to teach you." Gus says proudly as he crosses his arms and his nose seemed to grow long like a Pinocchio. Faust''s face is sparkling brightly upon hearing what Gus said. Poor Faust had forgotten that one time when Gus said he doesn''t even know how to hold a sword, but now, he was saying something about teaching a sword art to Faust? "Ohhhh grandpa, you''re the best! I will put my body and soul, my muscle and bone to learn this and will master it." Faust shouted loudly while he holds both of his hands together in gratitude as happy tears roll off his face. "Wahhhhh I know my grandson, no one is suitable than you to inherit my legacy of unholy sword." Gus says while holding Faust close to his face and both of their faces sparkle brightly like little kids all over again. *Groan~~~* Bella groans as a way of sigh watching Gus and Faust as if they''re a couple of idiots who is disturbing her sleeping time and closes her eyes to go back to sleep. "Here Fausty, take this." Gus places a broom stick in Faust''s hand. "Huh?" The happy tears and sparkling face of Faust disappears in an instant at the sight of a broom stick. "Now mop the floor for 4 hours a day, after your daily exercises. Also I will add one or two more routines to your exercises which will help build your forearms and the strength of your calves." Gus mischievously says with that goofy idiotic smile of his as he closed eyes at the same time for a nap. *Present* *Rawrrr... Arghhhh..... Grrrr.....~~* Faust makes all kinds of sounds while mopping the floor to vent out his anger. "Yes. Fausty yesss, you got it." Gus says while throwing his arms in front of his face and giving thumbs up to Faust. "Stop it, grandpa." Faust is getting more annoyed with his Grandpa''s gestures. "gomu gomu noooooo-Thunder bolt... Fire bolt... arghhh~~~" Faust yells out annoyingly louder as he mops the floor harder and his anger increases towards Gus more each time. Bella watches all of this peeking with one of her eye open. *Grrrrr* she grabs her small bed with her teeth and goes outside to sleep peacefully while staring at Faust and Gus with the corner of her eyes with all the fuss they are making. "How are your arms feeling Faust?" Gus questions after 3 hours of continuous mopping. He is sitting on the chair with his legs crossing each other as he holds up his chin with his hand. "They''re hard as a rock and pains like hell, I can''t even move them freely anymore." Faust replies to Gus while struggling. "Good, now hold the handle of the stick with both of your hands and soak the dreads of cloth more." Gus says with a smile on his face as if he know exactly what he is doing. Gus makes Faust hold the handle like a swordsman would hold their swords with two hands. "Now mop again in zig zag way until the dreads looses all the water and becomes dry." Gus says to Faust. "Grandpa, I will definitely die. This is hard to move when I hold the broom stick in the middle but not the handle? the weight distribution on the dreads makes the stick heavier like a ton. Your grandson will be dead before even learning your sword arts" Faust says desperately as he seems to almost break down in tears from the endless pangs of pain. "Oh heh heh I thought you were determined to get stronger, so this is the only lengths you are willing to go?" Gus tries to mock Faust with his words. "I will do it!" Faust says willingly with determination after he thoughts for a few second about what Gus says to him. "Heh, use your right hand to push the broom left while balancing the handle with your left hand and use your left hand to push the broom right while balancing with right hand, move your legs apart, bend your knees a little forward and balance ur feet. It helps with the weight distribution and gives your arms strength." Gus says to Faust knowing exactly what to do. Faust mops while standing In a stance which seems as if he is riding an invisible horse, his arms and shoulders still hurt more and more as he constantly move while making the horse stance every time he move to different location and mop in a zig zag way as Gus has instructed him to do. "Ok you can stop and take some rest for today. We will train the same way tomorrow." Gus told Faust as he seems to be satisfied with the work. 162 Training The words Gus uttered sounded like the words of God that is saving his disciple from dangerous work, to Faust, because Gus reduced and stopped the training in only 3 and half hours this is a huge relief to Faust who is experiencing hell. *Knock knock* Gus and Faust hears someone knocking on the door. "I will go get it" Faust heads towards the door and opens it. "You little, how dare you do this to us on your first day?" The mysterious person standing near the door yells to Faust with cold eyes, tilting his head backwards and looking down on Faust with a deadly glare. "Ehhhhh~~~ Tim? what are you talking about?" Faust says while panicking. "My grandpa told you that he is gonna teach you martial arts and you dare not show up on time huh!" Tim shouts while gritting his teeth and sounding like one of the high school delinquent. And this makes Faust even imagines Tim with a mohawk and leather jacket as he talks. "Uh-uh- anooo I was so tired today Mr. delinquent p-please forgive me?" Faust says while stuttering and not knowing how he can ask for forgiveness to Tim. "Huhhhh? Who are you calling a delinquent, huhhhhh?" Tim bring his face so close to Faust''s face as he was asking the question that it seems like Faust can''t even breathe any longer. "I''m taking him grandpa Gus!" Tim grabs the collar of Faust and drags him out towards his home in a rush. "N-n-nooooo! Tim my arms are sore, let me rest for today. Grandpaa, help me" Faust says while grabbing onto the door tightly, but Gus is only smiling and waving his hand as he send Faust off. "I had to come all the way up this stupid hill because you didn''t show up on time, come you little....!" Tim pulls Faust forcefully out and starts dragging him with anger. "Ahh Bella, Bella help me!" Faust cries as a last resort when he see Bella sleeping outside the house in her small bed. Bella opens her eyes to see the fuss again, turns her face away from Faust, closes her eyes and goes back to sleep again as if she doesn''t know him and have anything to do with Faust. "Ahhh Bella, even you...!" Faust gives up as his people have turned their backs against him and so he goes along with Tim without a choice of revolting. Tim brings Faust to the training room. It''s dark all around and there seems to be a throne like chair on a small stage and someone is sitting on it. "Did you bring the ungrateful pupil of mine who didn''t show up to training." Yang says while his eyes are glowing red burning like fire. "Ehhhh Im- I''m sorry grandpa Yang, but I''m here now we can solve this with words." Faust says as he feels the chill going up to his spine from Yang''s voice and falls to the ground and tries to crawl backward. Both Tim and Yang seems like thugs at this point to Faust and he will do anything to keep himself safe from then right now. "You are going to get punished if you come late, but I will forgive you since it''s your first day. Come by 5 from tomorrow. And as you are here now. Let''s start the training of the art of vital points." Yang told Faust in a epic threatening tone. "You need to train hard so you would be selected in a handful of people that goes out to mainland for their schooling. And when you go out to mainland to study, you will become stronger and learn about the world soon becoming a member of a noble family one day." Yang proudly tells the whole future tale to Faust while training him. "Mainland? For what? I don''t wanna leave Mindoro and my friends are here." Faust said without even understanding what Yang foretold. His ears only pricked like of rabbit''s to the part where he just need to leave Gus and his friends and go to mainland to get strong, that''s all he understood he did not catch the rest. "Haha of course Tim, Roy and Nick have all enlisted in the program. By the time you guys join middle school you will be in the mainland and be studying in the best schools on this world. You just need to get stronger to be selected. I will recommend you to the people who evaluates so you two can go to the mainland with the rest of your friends." Yang chuckles and smiles, because of how innocent and naive Faust is without having a proper planning or strategies. "Tim, Roy and Nick are going too?" Faust ask as he got lost in thoughts and he''s getting more confused. After his training and daily routines, Faust visits Nick and calls Roy and Tim to gather at Nick''s place before hand for the four of them to meet and talk to each other. "So what is this about middle school in the Mainland?" Faust asks his 3 friends. "We thought you knew Faust, Grandpa Yang always select some extraordinary people which will be evaluated by the Noble''s and if you are worth it, you will be taken to mainland and assigned to military and you will get a higher position in the society. We are working hard towards it." Nick narrates casually to Faust. "What about you Tim? Are you gonna go there next year itself since you are in higher class than us?" Faust questions to Tim who was silent all this time. "Oh ye Tim, are you gonna go next year?" Nick too asks Tim with curiosity. "I was supposed to go last year if I were good, but unfortunately I need to delay one year. They will only take a bunch of kids from our island once every 2-3 years as they have already chosen half a dozen kids last year. I need to wait for two more years, because I couldn''t make the cut last time. I think I will go with you guys. And I''m happy about it too." Tim replies with a sense of agony in his tone and grief on his face. "Is it that hard to get qualified?" Faust takes interest and again places a question before Tim as he tilts his head innocently. "Not at all, it''s just how they evaluate you is different. You will know when you take the evaluation." Tim told Faust as he himself doesn''t seem too sure of what will happen. Faust becomes more enthusiastic with what all his friends had decided. "Let''s go to mainland together, live in a huge mansion together, lets work blood and sweat and finally reach our goals to be the best in whatever we do." Roy leaves everyone with goosebumps with his words. Faust is delighted with what Roy said, he was already looking forward to work together with everyone, spend time with them more people and reach their destinations together. This was exactly like a fairy tale for Faust which he had been dreaming from a long time. And just with trainings and making his body rigid with all the hard work while learning martial arts. *Two years passes by real fast with time* Faust, now 10 years old has been training hard with his grandpa and Yang to become strong everyday without a break. He himself do feel like he was getting stronger and stronger. Faust thought he had grown quite sturdy physically and strong in the skills he was being taught with. *"One more year until I get taken in by Noble''s and be treated like a prince because of my power and reach the highest rank in the military and will enjoy my life yaaa"* Faust fantasies to himself while holding a wooden sword with both of his hands not seeming to pay attention to anything else. *Bam!!~* "I told you not to space out while in a battle Faust." Gus yells irritated after landing a hard blow on Faust''s head with a wooden sword. "I told you, your body should awoke the animalistic instincts in order to excel in this art. Until you awoke those I will keep smacking you all the time whenever you seem vulnerable." Gus told Faust seriously while teaching him. "Geez Gramps, can''t you teach me in other way, it hurts so much when you hit me with that wooden sword." Faust complains while rubbing his head on the spot Gus hit him on. "By the way I forgot to ask grandpa, don''t we have real swords in our island or brought in from outside? I have been practicing with a wooden sword for too long now." Faust whines to Gus while pointing at his worn out wooden sword innocently, who was no longer pristine. "We don''t have swords in this world Faust, I told you. Swordsman are somehow viewed as a big criminal and swordsmanship is viewed as a curse in the outer world. It''s better for you if you don''t expose yourself with a sword outside." Gus clarified Faust, but the expression on his face also said something else. *"I don''t want you to get depressed like me if the sword doesn''t choose you Faust. I need to make you more stronger to make you wield that sword by yourself.*Gus thoughts to himself sadly, not to hurt that poor kid''s feelings yet he was determined to make him accomplish enough himself. The sword that Gus was talking about is the unholy sword which was left behind in the great battle by Ares and Gus preserved that shiny sword. But it just doesn''t accept Gus for some reason which made Gus to keep holding on to the sword until he can pass it on to someone worthy, that the sword chooses it''s successor itself. "Ehhh whatever, it''s just some people outside" Faust annoyingly said and doesn''t pay the heed to Gus. "Ok go bring some wood from the forest now. You know how to chop it?" Gus asks Faust not wanting to hear his whining any longer. "Yes grandpa, like I''m swinging a sword. I get it geez, you and your training methods grandpa." Faust unwillingly goes into the woods with an axe while complaining. *"Hm I should also increase his speed and stamina. Because the faster the reflexes the better it is. Also his muscle mass shouldn''t increase, he need to be toned and slender but the strength should be increased. I need to do all these things and improve him even more to help him succeed with his goals."* Gus murmurs to himself while thinking that he needed to do whatever he could to renovate Faust and mould him into a warrior not to forget to keep the smile on the face of his dear, Faust. Faust goes deep inside the woods in search of an infected tree which is better to cut down other than healthy trees. This way he won''t be cutting down all the trees. Also, he will be able to stop the spreading of infected trees as a part of protecting the Flora. *"Hmmm, I need to carefully choose the trees like grandpa taught me. I need to be careful not to disturb the wild life as well."* Faust keeps thinking thoughtfully as he goes deep inside the woods. *Grrrr* A growl is heard all of a sudden from behind the back of Faust. "Hmm?" Faust turns back to see what the noise was and to his surprise, a huge grey wolf appears right before him. "Huh a wolfy? Heh" Faust says with a cocky voice, his fears of wolves from two years ago had now completely disappeared. "Remember Faust, you should not use these fighting arts for your own benefits or on innocent beings unless and until you absolutely have to. Promise us that you won''t ever use these martial arts to hurt the innocent." Faust recalls the words of Yang and Gus and his promise to them of not using these fighting arts. "Well, I can''t play with you here. See ya later." Faust takes off after saying that to the wolf. The wolf seems to still Chase Faust for a distance, but later gives up when Faust becomes too fast for the him. *"Heh, of course you need to remember I''m your daddy hehe"* Faust giggles to himself while running away and realizing the wolf has stopped trailing him. After cutting the trees from afternoon to evening, Faust goes to practice martial arts with Yang and Tim for two more hours and continues to practice more until the sun began to set. "Ahhhhhh my body feels good now, all of my muscles are warm and tight. These trainings are making me strong for sure. I''m definitely going to make the cut." Faust clacks to himself happily. 163 The changes "Faust excelled at everything from a young age itself! Which is why I believe he is very close to the person I hate the most." Yang tells to himself as to how similar both Ares and Faust are really are. "Y-Yang! You need to come watch this, Miki is lying lifeless on the hill that is far away." Meanwhile, a guard comes running towards Yang to report what he saw. "Miki? Isn''t it the doctor? What is he doing on the hill and how did he die?" Yang asks him back. "I don''t know sir, his body is tied to a rock and then by the time i got there, the hawks and crows are feasting on his flesh." The guard replies. "You mean to tell me that someone killed him?" Yang got chills sent down his spine. Who wants to kill a doctor? And in such a horrible way? Yang is lost in his thoughts. Faust wearing a slightly dirty cream colored hoodie, comes to school, His hair i all messed up and covering his face. He is not carrying any bagpack or lunch. "Huh? What happened? Come on talk to me you little shit. I told you not to touch me with your dirty hands. You do not brush or take a bath. Your face is always overflowing with oils. How dare you bump into me huh?" Ahito is picking up another kid in the school. After his brother is selected to go to mainland, Ahito is bullying more people as they fear that Ahito is next in line to go to mainland. They are scared that his martial arts and reflexes are too powerful. Ahito opens the door of his locker and tries to shove the kid inside the locker as a punishment for touching him. "You will be in the locker until I come and open it myself." Ahito is rejoicing while smiling brightly and pushing the kid inside the locker. "BAM" All of a sudden, Faust kicks the door of the locker and closes it and pulls the kid from the grip of Ahito and throws him away. "Huh? If it isn''t the clown Faust. Do you know who I am?" Ahito groans in anger. "I did not forget the things that you did to me." Faust says in a low voice. "Who is the shorty of our school? It''s the amazing Faust! Hahaha." "Creepy! hey creepy! We''re calling you, why do you run away?" *You are thin and short Faust! You have diseases, prone to them." "He is going to be a dwarf even when he grows up." "Where are your parents? Did they die? You should have just died too." Each kid from the group takes turns to pass mean commentary about Faust. Even the kids in the corridor bursts out in mocking laughter when they saw a kid of their age getting bullied. "H-hey you guys, why don''t you give it a rest? Let him be." Finally a kid in specs from another class stands up to the bullies yet hesitatingly. Faust notices that someone stood up for him, his steps become smaller and he tries to see who it is from the corner of his eye. He tries not to turn his head all the way back. His eyes gets widened at the sight before him. He immediately turns his head back and scrunched his eyes shut tightly. Standing there, was an average-looking girl, definitely not some overbearing delinquent to ''protect'' him. Her fair complexion made her silky, long, chestnut coloured hair stand out, those strands were dancing around her back, the cold breeze slightly messing them up. Her floral scent was alluring, a whiff enough to make anyone sigh in love. If she were to be described in one word, it would be ''refreshing''. Faust instantly felt ashamed of himself. *"A girl raised her voice in a corridor filled with thirty kids to defend someone. Why can''t I, stand up for myself?"* Faust is annoyed with the thought and tries to keep walking in despair, with an inner battle going on. "Hey look who it is! the inhibited girl of the school. Hahaha, what are you going to do? Go on a rampage? Go home and take your anti-depressants, if you don''t want the whole school to bully you too." A kid leading the group of bullies answers back to the girl, threatening her. Faust stops again in his traces. But before he could open his mouth. "Hey isn''t it the rude girl Caitlyn who cusses? She even goes crazy fighting with teachers." "Yes! It''s that crazy girl, she''s even selected with the top kids of our village to take the test and go to the mainland. Why is she standing up to that diseased kid? Eww! I Can''t even look at that guy." "Oh! oh! what is happening? The Noble''s daughter is going to make a scene again here? Are we going to see another rage moment from that crazy girl?" All the other kids in the corridor mutters mean things in a low voice about Caitlyn. But it is loud enough to reach both Faust''s and the girl''s ears. She immediately clench her fists and bends her head low not being able to control her anger any longer and takes a long breathe. She turns back away from the group of bullies and starts walking fast. "I''m not crazy, you people made me crazy." She whispers under her breath as she walked. Faust''s ears caught the painful words of the girl, he understood that she is lonely in her own world, isolated by everyone. "Yes yes! Keep walking without looking back before we call the asylum. Crazy chick!" Another kid mocks at her while she keeps walking. Her momentary breathing becomes faster with every step she takes. *"It''s all his fault! His fault that I am like this! I do not want to shout or yell and make everyone listen to my voice. I do not want to be enraged and slap my self later for the stupid things I say. It is all your fault dad. This is my destiny, my life that I hate so much."* She crosses her arms by placing her hands on her elbows while feeling lonely, the poor soul was insecure, afraid and scared of her fellow human beings. "She''s is not crazy! Take it back." Faust finally yells out loud, his voice resonates around the corridor loud and crystal clear. He turns back to face the bullies. His face does not show any kind of fear, eyes doesn''t even flinch for a millisecond. He stares right into the eyes of the kid that mocked Caitlyn as his eyebrows meet together. Caitlyn is surprised and frozen in her steps. She turns back instantly without wasting anytime to see if it''s really the voice of Faust that she heard. *Two years ago in the school* Eight year old Caitlyn is focussing on what her teacher is teaching. It is the math class, her least favourite subject. But she is still trying to focus her every brain cell in learning the lesson. As her teacher enters into subtraction of two big numbers. Ears of Caitlyn perks up upon hearing noises from the ground which is on her left. She is sitting next to a window on her left, so she casually lifts her head up stretching her neck, to have a look at the noises appearing from outside. It is Physical Development class (PD in short), for the kids from other classes. Her gaze first lands on a couple of kids playing tag with chuckles and laughter. The faces of those kids are lighting up with excitement and happiness . Shifting her gaze she finds two people running quickly from point A to point B to see which one of them is first to reach point B starting from A. "Ahh! how lucky right Kay? They get to play in PD class. And we are stuck in Math and this is a hell of a boring class." Another girl sitting behind Caitlyn talks to her while sulking on their current situation. "Hehe, yes. I wonder who discovered this math, I want to go back in time to kill them so we won''t have this math class." Caitlyn replies back with a mischievous smirk towards her friend. "Hahaha yes girl! You read my mind. Ahh I know you all are playing, why are you all so loud." Saying, the girl looks at the same couple of guys that Caitlyn is watching. "Well? Are you crushing over those big guys? One of them is a noble like you too." She says. "Ah no! The game they are playing is nice! Competing to see who wins in a running race. I like competitive games. I''m cheering for the noble though, since he is smaller than the other one." Caitlyn replies while pointing to Roy. "Ah! That is Roy, you don''t know his name? I thought being Nobles, you guys know each other." "What? No, I just saw him a couple of times. When I visited my dad''s work." "Ahhhh the other one''s name is Nicholas by the way, he is the son of the chief guard.* "Oh! No wonder he is bigger than all the kids in his class haha." Both Caitlyn and her friend laughs together. "Oh! Wait! There are three of them!" Her friend says in a surprise. "What? Oh yes! How come I never noticed him all the time we were watching?" Caitlyn asks while looking at little Faust. "Oh probably cause he is too little and thin to be noticed right?" Her friend laughs while saying. "Hmm.. you must be right." Caitlyn stares at Faust, kind of being impressed by him. "I changed! I''m rooting for that little guy now!" Caitlyn says in an excited tone. "Oh you always cheer the weak looking ones. Weirdo!" "No! I like it when weaker ones, try their best and win. Strong guys already have an advantage, so I root for weaker ones." "I think his name is Faust." "Faust, huh¡­?" "Ahhh ahhhh ahhhh I-I will win this time for sureeeee." Faust yells at Nick and Roy while trying to catch up to them. *"He is trying hard."* Caitlyn muddles in her head, concluding from his expressions and efforts. 164 The Region Of God He is trying hard." Caitlyn muddles in her head, concluding from his expressions and efforts. *Present* "Take back what you said. Or I will make you eat those words." The look on Faust''s face was pissed and grimaced with pain, of everything he heard till now. Every kid in the corridor looks shocked, and faces of the group of kids who bullied Faust showcased mixed emotions. All of them gritting their teeth and balled their fists. "Ahito! You need to do something. Teach him a lesson! How dare he say something against us." "Yes Ahito, We need to teach him a lesson!" "Why aren''t you doing anything Ahito! Let''s go gang up on him." The kids around Ahito, leader of the group burst out, as he was still calm, telling him to do something while grabbing his arm. All of the kids are only strong when it comes to hitting with words. When someone talks back to them, it is always Ahito they all look towards to. "Look Ahito! How dare he look at us with those repulsive eyes, why don''t you do something? Don''t you feel anger? Come one Ahito! Let us beat him up!" A bald kid beside Ahito says furiously. As the kids beside Ahito raise their voice trying to rile up Ahito to start a fight. All of their faces goes into shock assisted with fear in their eyes. Faust starts walking towards them as soon as the bald kid runs his mouth, and they get more scared as Faust walks closer to them. Faust stands in the face of Ahito, looking into his eyes without a hint of fear or discomfort shown. "Y-you wanna have a taste of my punch Faust?" Ahito swings his right arm aiming for Faust''s face. He has to make a move to keep his head up in front of all the kids watching him. But his blow was all in vain as it completely fail to even graze Faust. Faust elegantly leans back, lifting his chin up. The punch travelled from under his chin without even grazing. He then leans forward staring down at Ahito he says. "Take the words back! Or none of you will be in good shape." His eyes turned cold and dead and his voice becomes more confident as if he entered his battle mode, completely transforming. Ahito in the class barely scratched the surface of kung-fu from his father. His elder brother in higher class is selected to take the test as well. So the group of bullies look up to Ahito as someone who could beat up everyone. Seeing that Faust dodged his punch without even trying much, the group of bullies got more scared as chill settled into their backs on the sight. "W-we will get back at you for sure some day, you creep! Remember this!" Ahito and the group of bullies runs after saying it. The scene left all the kids in the corner silent and dumbfounded. Faust glares at all the kids in the corridor giving them a cold stare as if he is questioning and mocking them, if they got something to say. And nobody dared to speak any word or tilt any inch. He sighs and turns back, and to his surprise Nick, Tim and Roy were present just in front of him. "Huh?'' his jaw dropped in surprise. "What are you guys doing here? Since when were you here?" Faust asks while being surprised. "We saw a commotion here and took a peek, and to our surprise, it was you staring at that group. So we decided to come check up on you." Nick replies with a majestic tone with his hands resting on his hips. "Well, my little junior did not train his arms in the past six months. So we came to see if you need assistance. But you scared them off yourself all alone!" Nick wraps one of his arms around the neck of Faust and rubs his elbow on Faust''s head playfully while the four laughs loudly. Caitlyn''s face calms down watching the four laughing together. She was happy that Faust stood up for her when no one else did and she keeps staring at the face of Faust. His bright laughter warms her heart with an unknown and new feeling creeping in. "Haha stop it Nevada poop! My arms still burn, let go of me! Have you guys eaten anything? Let''s go to the canteen!" Saying that Faust remembers Caitlyn and looks back in the corridor for her. He scans through every face that is standing and walking in the huge place but doesn''t seem to find her. He thinks that she might have been hurt and walked away and lets out a sigh. "Sigh! Anyway let''s go!" Faust and the other three says with a cheerful voice with their hands punching the ceiling, they head to the canteen. Caitlyn hides behind a wall in the turning of the corridor. She wore a small smile on her face as her cheeks turn slightly pink, as a baby pink colored rose petals, thinking about Faust. After lunch the group of kids that bullied Faust were silent in all the classes. Faust too did not even take a glance at them, he was focussed on the board and his books. After school Gus and Bella both came to pick up Faust. Faust is more than delighted to see Bella too. She was not hyper upon seeing him but Faust was merry to see she is wagging her tail upon seeing him. - *Present* "Mr Yang, some of the school kids are also murdered and some are missing." Another guard gives the news to Yang. "W-What is happening here?" Yang thinks to himself. And after two weeks, Faust traveled to Mainland in a ship. And by coincidence or luck, Faust landed in the city of Medellin. - In the ''Palace of God'' that is in between the two nations governing the mortals. Inside a golden hall, where everything except the white floor is pure gold. Walls and pillars made of gold, decorated with jewels, chains and gems of red and blue colours. The ceiling all coated in gold and dressed in small diamonds that sparkle like stars. A blind man is guided by a royal guard in the middle of the hall on a black carpet with gold embroidered flowers. He walks up to a throne adorned with gems and diamonds on an eight-foot stage. Both, the blind man and the royal guard bent on one of his knees, lowering their heads out of respect for the supreme being seated on the Throne in royal clothes. "Your majesty!" The old blind man carefully addresses the person on the throne while telling himself not to make any blunders in addressing the person and at the same time fearing not to anger him by any kind of news that makes the person on throne unpleasant. Immediately, that person gestures his hand to stop and the royal guard who guided the blind man holds his arm from beside while tightly squeezing to make the blind man understands that the ''God'' the strongest man on earth does not want him to speak. The God then moves his hand facing the royal guard who guided the blind man and jerks his hand up gesturing him to speak first. "Y-your majesty! News from the House Of Asuras, The purge that has happened last week gave them a rather strong soldier who impressed many nobles. And Hades speculated that the soldier might be the defective humanoid that our palace tried to get rid of years ago." The guard informs the news that is thought to be confidential in the house of Asura''s. The God then again placing his hand in front of the guard flicks his hand out as he is trying to shake off, gesturing the guard to leave the hall. The person stands up with his head lowered down, takes two steps back while still bowing down to the God, turns back and walks away. "Ahem" After the guard has left the hall, God signals the blind man that he can speak now. "Forgive me, your majesty! It is about the defective humanoid that we brought back after all these years. He is making good progress.!" The blind man informs about the same humanoid that is known to go out of the main country with the help of a doctor years ago. "Forgive me, your majesty! It is about the imperfect humanoid that we brought back after all these years. He is making good progress.!" The blind man notifies about the same humanoid that is known to escape out of the main country with the help of a doctor years ago. The mortal that is continuing to receive praisings as a God in the realm of mortals. Elohim sits on the throne with his right hand supporting his chin while the other hand on the hand rest. He is wearing a long gown of gold, a spirally spun gold strip, adorned with coronation robes which is also woven the same way with gold. On both his shoulders are chains from one end to another that hold his robe together. "Well, well if it isn''t for the best of my lord. Let the houses think that the soldier is that humanoid with an infinite amount of energy while we train the real one inside the palace in secret and make him our dog." "He will be decisive to plunder the thirteenth dimension! And once we succeed, all the stones we will enough stones in our hands to keep our earth running for the next ten centuries wagagagaga." Ivor the royal advisor for Elohim comes forth from behind the throne with happy smiles he expresses his feelings freely. Ivor turns back to Elohim to accept the words of praise from the god for his exceptional plans. But surprisingly he receives stares from Elohim who looks pissed. *"Huh? What is wrong? Did I say anything wrong? Why does my lord looks like he is ready to execute a royal advisor."* Ivor turns pale upon catching Elohim''s piercing glares. With a heavy sigh, Elohim settles himself in the throne adjusting his robe without getting it in between his legs. He looks a little old for a God as he hits mid-thirties a day ago. Thirty-six and the strongest mortal alive. "Be it earth or any other dimension you are in, be it gold, wood or paper. The walls always have ears, Ivor. " Elohim explains to Ivor. *"Dammit! I should have known better, I''m a useless adviser if I''m not even aware of my surroundings."* Ivor dramatically hides his face to show everyone how guilty he is. to may have leaked some important plans of his lord. "Anyway, His name is Markos, Abraham. Stop calling him it or this. Even though he is a humanoid, he is like us." Elohim only shows his kind side to the people very close to him. One is his blind teacher who taught him life and the other is his close friend. "And we are dealing with generals Ivor! They are considered as the most powerful in the world. We need better plans to keep Markos a secret. You are my friend so I have you as my adviser, Ivor. But please don''t come up with any plans. Let me plan out everything accordingly." Elohim states out everything to Abraham, the old blind man from the retirement house and his friend/advisor Ivor. "And I have heard about the fourteen-year-old soldier who defeated a general class. It is not an easy feat to pull off, nor is the general a pushover. And also he uses a sword, a real one. So I want you to keep an eye on him as well." Elohim is the kind of person who keeps friends close and enemies closer. The network that the people of God''s Palace is so vast that they can keep an eye on each and every person of the world. 165 Tsumugi And Faus On the other side of the palace, A kid of Faust''s age seems to be training with a sword, but the way he is holding the sword is different as he is holding the sword upside down in his hands. "This world is cursed! I will get stronger and purge this world filled with evil." Markos says as he practices. Someone else is training to become stronger than everyone in the world. Same goal as Faust, but where will their ideals lead them to? Markos is naturally a good kid with a mom and sister. *past* Medellin is one among the cities of Aztecc. The rainbow-coloured housings were settled on the mountain plains, each connected to others with their roofs joining. The whole city held upright houses close to each other that may even have terraces, to serve as a passage between two. An aerial view would present a bright glittering rainbow painted on the whole hill. Elders and kids always seem to interact with each other in the very streets. There is one huge escalator in between the city which goes up the hill. There were malls, schools, markets and entertainment stops on either side of the escalator. Here, some school kids and elders are gathered around to watch a show of someone entertaining them in between the crowd. "Wahaha, who is this kid? How did you find him? He is so funny!" One of the school girl who is 10yrs old, talks to her friend beside her while laughing at the person in front of them. "Ehh, this is the kid I told you about who does things for us when we give him money. He is either autistic or his brain stopped growing. He has no father. His mother is sick. But this fool comes to entertain people for money and he buys food and chocolates for himself haha." Her friend responds mockingly at him. "Eh, too bad for him. He is blind on top of it? Hah, I''m glad he was alive till now." The girl replies back. The guy who is entertaining them indeed is Autistic. He cannot interpret what is happening in the world. All he knows is food and snacks. And for that needs money. He entertains people, by doing what they ask. "Roll like a dog" "scratch your head like a monkey" "flip around" "get dirty in the sand". The things people ask from him and he does, in return they give him 1kani a person. Kani is the global currency of 5062. A small coin made of a mysterious black metal only made in the land of Nobles and royals. The people laugh in joy while clapping hands, making the autistic kid do whatever they want, without a hint of humanity or concern providing him necessities let alone quality life. After the boy is done with gathering money, He walks away with a goofy smile on his face. His shirt and shorts are torn in some places and his hair is messy. He delightfully went to a small shop, packed some food and snacks with chocolates and went home. "It''s Big brother! He''s back." A small 6yr/o girl comes to receive her blind brother. She takes the food and snacks from his hands. He walks while touching and sensing his surroundings and slowly reaches his mother who is sick on a bed and sits beside her. "Why are you doing this Mark! Why are you acting like you have an Autism? Why are you letting people make a mockery of you? You shouldn''t deceive anybody. Nor should you worry about your mother anymore. She will no longer live." His mom says with a crying voice and wet eyes while holding his hand in between hers. "Don''t ever say that mom. I will protect you! I will save you! I will take care of you and little Shizuka myself. And people like calling me autistic. They like to make me dance on their wishes. They like the mask I wear." Mark explains to his mom. His faces show how much he despises people because of the life he is living. "People like masks, not the person. I will wear a perfect one for everybody. Let them think I''m playing on their will. In reality, I will be laughing behind my mask, making them play as I will." Mark says with pure contempt as he dwells deeper into the darkness. He views this world with his hooded blind eyes. *Back in Medellin in the dark streets* "Haha yes! Get him! Beat him up!" "Don''t waste this opportunity guys, let all your anger vent out." "You blind piece of shit! How dare you not visit us the past week, you know we need to let out our frustration every week don''t you? Why! Why the fuck!" A blind kid is on the ground in the middle of a very narrow and dark street. And teens of 16 yr old are stomping on his head. His hair is dirtied by their shoes and clothes are not able to hold the hard blows. His eyebrow is cut and swollen, a guy is stomping on his face hard, the kid can feel the hardness of the guy''s shoe heel on his left cheek. It is crushing his skull deep into the dirt. It is getting harder to even breathe. Storm-like punches and stomps are raining over him. *Heavy breaths~* "You better be here on time next week. Or we are going to expose your little truth that you are not autistic to the people of this city and we will rape your mom and little sis you got it? You blind fuck!" "Haha well said Akhito! you better remember that blind kid! You are going to spread your blindness to us and make us foolish blind people too if we let you loose on the streets." A teen with curly hair shouts in the face of Markos who is barely breathing on the ground. The 7 teens walk away after peeing on Mark and kicking his gut once and twice as a parting gift. They''re not satisfied with this but wanted to save their punching bag for next week. Mark searches for his bags of food and snacks for his mom and sis. He realises it is spilled all over the place. Stream of warm tears crawl down his cheeks instantly, breaking his strong emotional fencing. The punches, insults and kicks did not break him internally but the thought of having no food to feed his mom and sister tore his heart and the sadness he held in his throat. The money he earned by acting like an Autistic, killing his pride and doing what people made him do has gone to waste. He left the rice but tried to pick up the snacks. He gently wiped off the dirt and started putting them in his bag. His whole body is hot and his legs are quivering and jittering like the legs of a newborn, making him unable to stand. He tries to stand up twice and fails to do so. His frustration and tears increase with the fail of his 3 more attempts. He finally gives up and sits in the dust to catch a breath. Footsteps are heard coming from behind him but Mark is lost in his own thoughts to notice any sound. Suddenly two hands grabbed him from behind and started applying a medicinal gel gently to his bruises. Being startled from the touch Markos shouts out loudly "Wh-Who is it?" From his lungs. "It''s me Markos! Don''t be scared, I will carry you home." A warm and soothing voice of an old man is heard. It was the old blind man from the retirement house that Mark sits with all the time. "G-grandpa! Why can''t people just be nice? I just wish I could die and be released from this pain." Markos asks with a pain filled voice. The words from the kid breaks the heart of the old man. It is beyond his imagination that a kid has spoken these words. God knows what he is going through in his life to have said it. "I will purge this world." Markos keeps working on his techniques and physical strength. - "What are you thinking about madam Tsumugi." The head butler of the branch of Tsumugi asks the head of his house. "I was just thinking about how lucky we are to come across Faust in the lower city, that not only saved our house from the purge but also made us one of the top five houses to look out for. I''m just so happy." Tsumugi says with a bright smile on her face. "But Madam, We still do not know the story of how Faust met with you guys." The head butler replies and the maids come sit around Tsumugi asking her to tell the story of how they met faust. *past* Exactly a year ago. In the colorful city of medellin. The gentle breeze of wind carrying the delicate perfumes of humid on concrete roads. Peaceful clear skies with few clouds passing by, without a care for the world. Sweet fragrance of fruits and flowers being docked in their respective outlets. Heavy sounds of rustling metal as the escalators are getting ready with purple glow from beneath them. His black hair is at moderate length at sides but the front hovers above his right eye stretching to his right ear, with a small ponytail behind. He is a little tall at 5''10" with a slim yet strong body. He got on the same bus that Tsumugi is travelling in disguised as a commoner. "Aion! Are you here?" He utters in his usual tone as he scans through every single seat hoping for Aion''s reply. Instead, he caught the attention of every single person in the bus turning back towards him, staring at him as if he has committed some sin. It is turning out to be more awkward for Faust. he is thinking if these people don''t have any other work rather than just keep staring at him. "Ummm¡­ Aion is my friend,I thought he got into this bus as well! Please don''t mind me." Faust tries to explain to the passengers in a shy tone. When Faust is thinking, nothing could go wrong. The doors of the bus closed tightly and the bus started to move. He just lowers his head, as the bus has picked up it''s pace. The truth however is, Aion ditched Faust to go out with a girl. Faust is from a remote village, he used to speak whatever that comes to his head. Which made many girls feel weird and left in the middle from a double date, which also ruined Aion''s date. Which made Aion abandon Faust this time. Seeing that there is nothing he can do anymore. Faust walks up and stands a few feet away from the driver and looks all around facing the passengers head on. All the people in the bus are busy talking to each other or looking somewhere else, but whenever Faust is scanning through every seat to see if Aion got in. The passengers catches Faust looking at them and gives him glares at the same time he looks towards the seat. It gets more embarrassing and uneasy to the point that Faust feels guilty for even looking at them. "Kid I don''t know about your friend but are you going to pay for your trip or stand there and leave without paying? Tsch I know the tricks you kids play these days." The driver says to Faust with an annoyed tone. Faust''s face shrunk all the way inside. First it was passengers who glared at him as a weirdo, now the driver called him a scammer. He did not say anything than feel embarrassed to his core. He is thinking how he even ended up in this situation. "Hai, I will pay you mister, don''t worry about money, I''m not a scammer or something" Faust says with a low voice as he suppresses his anger. On the inside, he want to beast up this cocky driver and Aion to a plump. "Haha if you don''t have money I can pay for you kid!" a middle aged woman joins her voice smiling brightly while watching Faust. 166 Tsumugi And Faus "I-its ok! I can buy my ticket." Faust hurriedly slips his hand inside his pocket to take out some money with his face lowered, covering his blushing cheeks. "Enough! we don''t need to pay for some strange kid that we don''t even know." A middle-aged man, who seems to be the husband of the fair women sits right beside her and speaks in a very strict tone. For which the woman just gives a faint smile elegantly covering her lips with her fingers. Her skin looked so smooth and soft, her fore fingers looked milky white with a gold ring on her index finger that perfectly matches her hand. The woman and her husband have been married for 10 years and have not yet been blessed with a child, but she loves kids very much! Which is why she stares at Faust, thinking: *"if I had a son, he would be as cute and innocent as he is"* Faust pays the driver and stands in front of the door, getting ready to get down at the next stop. The bus slows down as the result of a huge crowd to either sides of the road, as if everyone is getting ready for a festival. "Ahh it''s them again? They are being seen too often nowadays and the cops just doesn''t care huh?" The driver speaks out loud. Faust doesn''t seem to care, he''s only worryingly thinking of Aion, when he sees the stop he''s supposed to get down, but the bus continued to drive away not seeming to stop. The fair middle-aged woman gets up from her seat and stands behind Faust in line holding onto a pole that is beside him. Faust need to push a button that is on the pole in order to indicate the driver to stop the bus, but the woman''s hand is on the pole and closer to the button as if she doesn''t want Faust to press the button. It seems she doesn''t want him to get down yet. Faust however tries to push the button ignoring the woman''s hand, but Faust didn''t pay attention to what the woman is doing and he accidentally poked her hand. *"S-so soft!"* He withdraws his hand in a surprise and his body becomes stiff. His face turns red and he looks back from the corner of his eye. The lady is looking at him, wearing a smile on her face. "Oh! our stop is here, dear hurry up or we will miss our stop." She tells her husband who is still sitting in his seat, seemingly bored. There are 10 more people behind the lady, waiting in a line to get down at the same stop and so her husband stood behind all the people while she stood at the front, just behind Faust. The lady then goes on to push the button and the bus stops at their destination. Faust getting down first, realizes his stop already passed and that he need to walk back about a mile. He casually sighs and started walking, but in a glint something bizarre caught his eye. On the other side of the road, the vehicles are stopped due to the signal and there is a body of a middle aged man with no legs or arms, most importantly with no head. Just a torso sitting at the back of a bike tied to the driver. The body looks inflated or fat and seemed to be having a white colored tank top on. Faust couldn''t process the scene he saw at first sight. He kept looking at it, feeling sick to his stomach. *"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!"* The signal changed and the guy took off with the bike. Faust can even see chunks of flesh dropping on the road from the decapitated body as the bike took off. "What the hell? How is this common in this city?" Faust is grossed out and starts walking with his head lowered and his sights set on the road, no matter how hard he tries not to think about it. He keeps seeing glimpses of that horrific sight. "AHHHH!!!!!!" A scream came from the same side of his road. Faust immediately looks up, he notices people a few meters away in front of him are running inside the the small shops situated at the roadside. *"What is this, why are they running"* Faust can see the people that are right in front of him are rushing to cross to the other side of the road. Faust can see 10- 20 people walking towards him but something is wrong with the people approaching him. They are inflated and their skin have deep holes like a sponge as if someone spooned their flesh. Faust is frozen on the road looking at them. Some of their limbs are cut and the nerves are hanging out, some are holding their gut as blood seems to be flowing out along with intestines hanging outside and people are running away from them. These people are not going into a crowd nor following the running people.They seem to be waiting for a moment where a person or two is separated from the crowd. In this moment one of the guys from the group sets his eyes on Faust. Faust instantly knew that the guy is looking at him and rushing towards him with all the 20 of them following him. Faust knew that he needed to move now. He needs to cross the road and reach to the crowd that is on the other side, but his feet are not moving. It''s as if they are buried deep inside the earth. Faust is not able to move an inch. He knows that if he gets caught, he is going to die instantly. He can see blood all over the mouths of the people coming towards him. They seemed to eat raw flesh of humans on their way before reaching their current destination. Faust knows he will be decapitated and worse eaten alive if he gets caught by them, but his witless feet are still frozen stuck on the ground. It is their ideal moment for the group to attack since the kid who cannot move his feet is also separated from the crowd. They know they won''t get another moments like these often and so the gutless and limpless crowd starts pacing up quickly to rush towards Faust. *"Fuck!"* Faust is overwhelmed by the fear of the Bizarre sight. He badly wanted his frozen body to move. *"Is this the end for me?"* "It looks like there''s a fight taking place in lower land." In-between a twenty-five monitor room, a person wearing khakis is talking on the phone, watching the half dead people causing chaos. "Half deads again?" The person on the other side of the phone asks. His voice is filled with arrogance and pride of a noble. "Yes sir!" the person monitoring Medellin through the drones replies. "Which city?" "Medellin!" "Copy! Do not interfere, we can let them do some grocery shopping first. Poor ones don''t even get enough food." The other person declares like he is doing people a favor. "Roger that! Will reach back to you later if I have anything to update." "Good! Keep up your hard work." The conversation of the two went oblique among each other without any concern for the people, who are becoming victims to the enormities of the ones with ferocious weapons. - Faust suddenly realises that his feet are moving, he can see a hand pulling him. It''s the same lady who travelled with Faust in the same bus. She grabs him by his wrist and starts running towards the crowd on the other side. "What are you doing? Keep running, don''t just stand there!" Faust hears her saying even when she''s struggling to run. Faust snaps back from his break down situation. He runs along with the lady that saved him and both of them reaches to the other side of the road safely. Faust rests his hands on both of his knees and gasps for air as he turns towards the lady to thank her. "Ahhhhhhhh!" Before he could thank her, he sees her frightened face as she screams in panic. Tears roll off her face as her hands are shivering looking at the other side of the road. Faust turns to the direction that she is looking. "*So they''re not eyeing at me from the start? Are they planning to run to him from the start??"* Faust watches the husband of this lady, surrounded by 10 of the inflated people. They are carrying butcher knives and machetes. One of them already bite the shoulder of the husband and tore the flesh with his mouth. All of their faces is filled with happiness as if a prey fell into their trap, they are ready to devour him alive. *"What the hell happened with me? Fuck! I normally won''t go helping others, but I don''t want this lady to regret helping me."* Faust instantly leaps forward in one jump across the road Among the half dead that are going towards the husband, there is an old one. He is different from the rest with very thin body and crooked teeth. He is carrying a katana sheathed inside a green scabbard. Faust catches up to the old one who is running on his left. Faust folds his right hand, from under his left shoulder he grabs the handle of the katana. "Huh?" Before the old man realizes that someone is gripping his katana, Faust pulls the katana out in one move while approaching the half dead in front of him and also the ones surrounding the woman''s husband. "Sword Arts - Unholy Demon Scythe" *Swirl~~* *swoosh* Faust holds the katana closer to his body and swirls in a zigzag way from within the ones that are running. His blade leaves an after image of silver lining around him as he swirls. It makes it seem as though Faust is holding a curved scythe that is circled around his body. He slows down approaching the 10 half deads who surrounded the husband. He places the katana on his waist and slowly walking inside the middle of the circle made by the half dead. With the sound of a ''swoosh'', the shoulders, limbs, and fingers of the half dead falls apart from their bodies in a split second. People from the other side stand in confusion at the ghastly sight. Faust suddenly stands in front, blocking the half dead from attacking the husband by standing in front of him. "Come closer if you want to die." Faust utters as he shields him. "Look kid! Stay out of our way or we will-" one of the half dead comes closer while speaking in snarky tone and was about to place his right hand on Faust''s shoulder to threaten him, but in a mere second, his huge arm is chopped at four places and his limbs fall onto the ground like a chunk of wood. Faust just stood there without even moving a single muscle and yet the half dead lose his arm. *"This will make them fear and they will run away "* Faust thinks to himself but is left in shock as he sees the face of the half dead that he just sliced. He looks fearless, unimpressed and most of all. There is no signs of fear in his face. "Ok! He got some skills. What are we going to do now?" He lazily turns his head around asking the mob behind him. "You fool! Did we ever let go of our food! Eeeeehaaaaa. Let''s just killll!!!." A half dead from behind exclaims. He has his kitchen knife on the side of his face and cuts his face from the side of his eye and cut into his jaw while laughing like a maniac. This unexpected outcome left Faust in a shock. None of the half dead faces show any sign of pain. The person before him just cut his face deeper without flinching. "We don''t feel any pain!" The half dead who lost his arm speaks up. "It''s not because we are fat though hahaha." All the half dead around him starts laughing like this is all too normal for them. "Kid! The only way to stop us is by killing all of us, you got no choice now kid. Get ready to become our meal!" Faust is dumbstruck with what he just heard. He was told by Neith to never get into any kind of fight or cause harm to people. He tried to solve this by scaring the half dead, but who knows that they cannot feel any pain towards their body. "Unless their brain is detached from their body,they will keep coming for you." The husband of the woman utters to Faust. "Have you ever killed a person in your life? Ehaha" the half dead asks Faust. *"They are not humans, as long as they are not human! If I do this to save a person anything works I guess."* The breathing of Faust increases rapidly. "It''s ok kid! Run away and protect yourself! The woman''s husband suddenly yells at him. He knows a child shouldn''t get his hands dirty at a young age, so he tries to convince Faust to leave. "Whatever! If they just wants me to go crazy! I will give it to them." Faust knows he didn''t want to regret even if the husband of the woman try to make him leave. He closes his eyes and take a deep breath. In a split second his body relaxes and he becomes an entirely different person as though every nerve and every cell had turned cold inside his body. "Farewell." 167 Tsumugi And Faust - 03 Half deads are round inflated or fat beings. Their skin is similar to a sponge with holes hinted with the color of blood inside the holes making it into a reddish color. The half deads does not feel any pain over any injuries they obtained on their body, nor the blood loss or any types of diseases can harm them. They are the creatures which mainly feed on meat, especially the taste of a human''s flesh drives them crazy. The half deads are still able to have the same abilities as humans, but they are more insane creatures that savagely attacks human for their dinner. The only way to stop them is to detach their brain from their body. Only then would their bodies stops functioning. "Farewell!" Faust says, taking a step forward. Lowering his body with the kata on his left side. He goes into the sword drawing technique. And before the half dead in front of him realise. *Sleeek~* A sound made by slicing the head of the half dead before him in a smooth cut. "Shit!" The other half dead surrounding the woman''s husband utters with a fearfully pale face. They were cocky and are so sure that Faust wouldn''t be able to kill them, but unexpected to them, Faust had actually drew blood without any hint of hesitation in his eyes. Faust decided to ignore the fear and arrogance of the half dead and dead serious locked his eyes on their heads. The half dead move their eyes from the decapitated head of their companion to where Faust is currently standing, but he is not present in the same place. All the half dead are confused that he suddenly appeared on the extreme right on one of them like a fluttering breeze. He slashed and separated the head and body of one. All the other half dead starts running towards right to attack him. In the next second, he is on zoomed to the left, slashing another two horizontally. The half dead are slow in speed when it comes to running which is why Faust started from the corners as to outwit them. He acrobatically moves all around with an ''impossible to match in speed'' type in a breeze. *"Dammit! Don''t! Don''t! Don''t lose it."* *"It feels so damn good whenever I''m slicing their bodies! Ahhhh ahhhh fuck! Don''t lose it, keep it together Faust!."* Faust seemingly enjoys the massacre, everytime he sliced off a chunk of meat from the half deads. He feels like he is losing his sanity. All he wants to do is to cut more and more. His speed too is increasing with the spike in his lust to kill. He instantly finishes all the 20 half dead including the old one. The lady and her husband, including everyone on the road are dumbstruck and were unable to utter a word. This is a completely one-sided match. The numbers of the half dead did not matter at this point. *"Too fast! I keep wanting more, it''s not enough for me!."* Blisters starts to form on the hands of Faust. The inflated skin of these half dead is very hard especially at their necks and to be able to cut through their hard skin is beyond his capabilities already. His hands almost goes numb from the constantly cutting and slicing. But he is liking the numbness and the pain from blisters. Everyone thought that it was over for the time being and were worrying about the kid staring at the half dead under his sword. Suddenly another angry mob of half deads approaches Faust. Thirty of them distributed in three equal rows with 10 half dead lined up in each row. "Great!" Faust licks his lips and smiles from excitement. He starts walking towards them with greeds filling in his eyes. "I love this sensation of blood filling the air" Faust casually speaks out and his black hair falling over his face, covering his eyes as he lowered his head. His eyes can be seen glowing in blood red shot from under his hair with a creepy smile spreading across his face. "Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! I''ll freaking kill everyone!" Faust laughs like a manic under his breath. He tries his best to suppress his insane side from leaking to the outer world. He looks plain and normal on the outside but inside he is like a crazy psychopath whose real killer instincts are about to unleash! "Sword Arts - Rapier Thrust!" Faust teleports from his spot to the middle row in a second. He stretches his katana¨Cextending his arm to the extreme to the back of his body like a baseball pitcher would, getting ready to throw a pitch. In the next minute he thrusts the tip of his katana into the heart of the half dead. One!...two!.. three!.. the katana pierced through the half dead one after another along the lined up rows. All ten of them were pushed back with a great force and are slammed against a bus in the middle of the road with Faust still thrusting from the front. "Eahhhhhh! Thrust!" He again lands another thrust on the half dead, his whole hand went inside the chest of the first one. The shock wave travelled in great speed through all ten of them, crushing their hearts in a crunch. The force of his thrust still continued, shattering the windows and windshield of the bus before fading into thin air. He pulls his hand out with little blood gushing out of the bodies of the half dead and he turns around to face the two rows of twenty more half deads that are left. He starts walking with a big smile on his face. The half deads behind him are still moving, they did not feel a thing even when their hearts are brutally crushed. They try to attack him from behind, but before they could make any move, the heads of all ten falls apart. A fountain of blood splashed from the torso''s, all at the same time raining upon Faust. The twenty in front of him could not digest the fact that Faust is so strong. They didn''t know what move to choose from their arsenal. While yelling in helplessly a spear like object is shot into the mouth of the last one in a row. He then teleports to the sword instantly gripping his hand around the handle. He twists the sharp edge of the sword upwards in its mouth. The half dead fearfully moved his eyeballs while being frightened, but Faust swiftly swings the sword upwards, slicing the head of it into two equal halves from between his eyes without any pitiness. Before he was about to move on to the next one. A loud siren began to ring in the area! All the half dead clustered into a group, cautiously looking at their surroundings. Two vans with small circular shaped wings at the back come flying from above. The van is hovering with the air gushing out from the empty circular wings which are glimmering in green color. Small regiment of ten soldiers half of them wearing black and the other half in green uniforms and rifles, along with one cop in khakis walks out of the vans. Faust immediately turns back to normal upon seeing the soldiers. He knows he needs to let them handle the situation now. But before he realizes, eight of the soldiers surrounds him, pointing their rifles towards him. "You handle that sword very well don''t you?" The ninth soldier in black asks, walking towards Faust hauntingly. In this modern world, users of martial arts are hunted and killed. After getting information from the monitoring room. A cop sent requests immediately to the power houses in the nation, especially to the ones closer to the crime area, to interfere with Faust. The house of Asura''s and the house of Diamonds responded back by sending 5 soldiers from each house to aid the cops. One mere high school kid with a sword is not seen as a threat by the cops and the families. The soldiers, in a while, gathered at a single point to carry out their mission. And within minutes, they have surrounded Faust with rifles on point blank and suppressed his movements. "Identify yourself!" One of the soldiers wearing black, from the house of Asura''s demanded Faust. Faust doesn''t know what the other person wanted to see. He just stands there in confusion without understanding who these people are or why they surrounded him. They should be going after the half dead that are in the middle of the road, after causing a huge ruckus. "But¨Cthe ones who are causing the trouble are over there!" Faust pointed his hand over to the cluster of half dead that are holding weapons to potentially kill a person. "The cop is taking care of it already." With a heavenward glance he gestured his hand towards the cop that is talking to the half dead. He then walks closer to Faust with a poker face, grips his hand around Faust''s neck. He then proceeds on to turn Faust''s face sideways. Faust does not flinch or move. He doesn''t like a guy walking up to him and ridicule him out of nowhere. The soldier tightens his grip with his thumb on the jaw and tries to turn Faust''s face to sideways again. People in the lower land are considered nothing but a bag of meat that can walk and talk. Protecting them is considered useless and a waste of time. The only purpose of these low land people is to produce babies and enroll them into the military. The soldiers only exist to protect the upper land, to protect the nobles and to fetch the elemental stones, the resources of earth, available in other dimensions. Hence the soldier wanted to show his power and authority over Faust, he wanted to behave however he wants, treating Faust like.trash. But Faust still did not flinch, even from the gruesome power that the soldier is putting on Faust. He is simply too strong than the soldier. He stands still glaring at the soldier from within the strands of his hair covering his face. *"Fuck the cops! If only this is a dark alley, I wouldda fucking teach this shitface a lesson!"* Faust hastily thinks to himself. He really wants to beat up this soldier, if this had happened in a place with little exposure to crowds. "You piece of shit! I will make sure that you live the rest of your life in jail and become a punching bag for the soldiers." Finally after giving up, the soldier goes in a rage. He grabs the collar of Faust''s shirt and yells in his face. "Let''s go!" He orders the soldiers around and everyone starts heading towards the vans while the angry soldier pulls Faust along with him. "Soldier! Identify yourself!" As they are about to get into the vans, a commanding voice came from behind. The soldier holding Faust turns around, he only sees a beautiful lady in front of him. He checks on either side of the road to see where the voice came from. The soldier immediately laughs loudly "Do-don''t tell me it''s you who asked my identity! I think you are talking to the wrong people!" He says in a cocky way while belittling the lady. "Watanabe Tsumugi" "Huh!!" The face of the soldier goes pale after hearing the name from the lady''s mouth. "Princess and the only sister of Queen Uzume of the House of.Asura''s" a hint of royalty fuses into her voice as she stands tall as a majestic being. She pulls out a thin chain out from her dress that is resting on her chest. It is not that chain but a bright red stone that enhanced the chain like a locket strikes fear into the soldiers. A Japanese Kanji word ''Asura'' is engraved on the red stone, which is worn by the top tier family members that rules the house. Faust looks in a puzzle without a clue of what is happening. He understood that the beautiful lady had suddenly become someone important to these soldiers. The four soldiers from the house of Asura immediately gets down on one of their knees with their heads completely lowered. Taking his hands off Faust, the fifth shoulder also bows instantly and gets down on his knees. "I''ll reflect upon my words, Milady. Please forgive the rudeness of this humble servant." "I will reflect upon my words to avoid dire consequences, I request you to forgive my rude remarks." "However, this kid is caught performing a martial arts! I am about to submit him in front of the council." The soldier says in a passive tone. The council is the powerful of all houses who rule by their own law. Everything related to the lower land or upper land is decided by the council which is ruled by a religious leader. "There is no need for you to meddle and do anything unnecessary! He is working directly under me! In Fact, I have something else that I need you to do." The lady commands in a cold voice. Her words are like merciless arrows that aim right for her opponent''s hearts without giving them any excuse to turn her down. "My husband is hurt! Do you guys happen to have any results on you? It''s ok if not! Help me take him to the upper land and get him treated. Quickly!" She yells at the soldiers. All the soldiers come to lift her husband on his feet! They apply pressure on his wound and carries him inside the vans. The lady walks up to Faust "Thank you! We are forever in your debt! We will visit your house tomorrow. Until next time we meet." The lady smilingly tells Faust and leaves with the soldiers. 168 Tsumugi And Faust - 04 Sfter that, I have not really seen Faust for a while, also I took advices from Uncle and Sister as to if it will be okay to take him in since he have no spiritual power at all. "Hi, Faust!" It''s that beautiful lady that he met on the bus "How was your day? Have you been expecting me?" She welcomes Faust with a bright smile, alongside Neith. "Bow down Fausty! It''s a noble from the upper land" Neith just stands beside the lady with a grey coloured hoodie while feeling embarrassed to accompany the lady in bed small house. Faust on the other side is dumbfounded, he didn''t know how to respond. His main concern occurs when he realized that the lady doesn''t know his address. And yet she is in his house talking to his guardian. "H-how did you know my home?" Faust asks in curiosity. Lady Tsumugi''s smiling face suddenly changed to plain. She did not expect these words from his mouth after they finally met. "Well, the cops know the location of everyone in the lower land. The drones always keep a watch on the people.* Tsumugi clarifies in her captivating voice and beautiful hand gestures. "So¨Cwhat do you want?" Faust asks while still being mesmerized by her. "Faust!" Neith berates at Faust for not being considerate and respectful towards Tsumugi. "It''s okay! Let me state my business with you. Please take a seat before that." Tsumugi walks back to sit on a chair and Faust with Neith sits on a couch facing Tsumugi. "I''m from the House of Asuras! A house that my father established. That formed newly after every powerhouse that supports the military has already formed and reached great heights. Which left my family in an unfair position." Tsumugi begins. "Due to some unusual situations, after my father passed away. I was married to the weak branch of the family and I was distanced from the main branch to the far away weak branches." "Additionally, I couldn''t claim any known martial artists due to the extreme low finance that my branch of the family possesses. I did not have any kids either to fill the hole in my branch. My branch of the family is in dire need of a soldier." Tsumugi reflects her memories as words. Of all the three sitting in the room, Neith looks happy at what Tsumugi said. She anticipates the direction the conversation is headed towards. Tsumugi wants to enrol Faust under the house of Asuras and make him represent her branch. But at the same time she hesitates, Tsumugi''s branch is the weakest and financially poor. There are no experienced warriors in her branch that could train/teach Faust in the military arts. This became an obstacle in her heart. "And now," Tsumugi whimpers as she looks down. She takes deep breaths to calm herself before continuing. "Now, the purging of the clan is taking place." Neith widens her eyes upon hearing these words, whereas Faust cluelessly watches. "It is basically kicking out a weak branch from the family!" Both Neith and Faust felt a hint of pain added in Tsumugi''s voice as she speaks. "So Lady Tsumugi want Faust to fight in the purging?." Neith asks in a low voice "Fight?" Faust asks in a surprise, without having a clue of what purging is. "Yes! Purging is basically a war between branches of the family, where the weaker branch is kicked out and replaced with a stronger one." Neith explains to Faust with a concern. "He doesn''t need to fight head-on with everyone! I assure you of his safety. My branch will be kicked out if we don''t even have a soldier representing us. So he just needs to represent us. And he will be safe." Tsumugj assures Neith of Faust''s safety and badly want Faust to represent in the clan purging. "But I don''t need to join if I don''t want to right?" Faust asks Tsumugi surprising both her and Neith. Recovering from the sudden words by Faust, Tsumugi wanted to say something that she has been hiding all this time. "Yo-you have used martial arts in public, which was recorded by cops. And during that time I informed them that you are affiliated with me. So they are expecting to see you in purging. If you don''t, they might come for you again!" Tsumugi speaks in a gentle tone, her voice is kind and pleasant but the way she said it makes it seem like a warning. "Okay! Give me some time to think." Faust asks for a duration of two days to make his decision. Tsumugi jumps out of her chair with a smiling face "Definitely, sure! I will drip you the details about the wars after you decided to join my branch. Also, I will instruct Neith on how to contact me. I hope you guys contact me with good news Tsumugi takes leave after saying. "It is a good opportunity, Faust! This is every high school kid''s dream to enrol into any of the houses." After Tsumugi leaves, Neith starts a conversation with Faust. "But it is the house of Asuras." "Are you worried?" "Not really." "You already is a Captain class!" Neith elucidates. "I don''t like that family!" Faust mumbles under his breath. "But it''s ok I guess, but we did not tell the lady that I cannot use any spiritual power." The words ring an alarm for Neith "Ehhhh I forgot to mention it too! Sh-sh-shall I inform her of it now?" "No, tell her after a couple of days. Also, tell her that I will join her family." Faust declares. Even though he announced that he will join her house, Faust still seemed unpleasant and bothered. ¨C "Faust, I informed to lady Tsumugi everything. Her rule is that she wants you to head over to her house right away and start training." Neith concludes in a passive tone. "Ye, that works! I wanna see what she got in her arsenal as wel-" Faust just gets done completing his cool lines, but suddenly a tight slap lands on his back. "Uwwwaaahhh!" His whole body quivered from the impact and Neith''s all five fingers are imprinted on his skin. "Wh-whyyyy??" Faust yells while trying to hold his emotions together. The area that her fingers marked is burning the skin. 169 Hunters *"I wonder how he is really doing in the festival!"* Tsumugi recalls Faust. She couldn''t help but worry about him. Because the festival his school took part in, is the tournament for power between schools of higher and lower earth. The higher earth is the city of military, nobles, royals and those who work under them. They are provided with new minerals and materials that cannot be found on earth. It can be called as the new version of the earth with new technology and power that rivals heavens. Whereas the lower earth is where the poor and normal people reside, among the rubble of fallen castles and decaying iron! Their only purpose is to send their offspring into the military. Who will then serve the nobles for their entire life. "You don''t need to worry about our captain madam. There are no general class high school students on this entire earth." "And there are only five captain class students in the present festival. Among whom, two of them are from our house." The head butler, Charles reassured Tsumugi to not worry about Faust and his skills. - "Who would have thought that the weak school of Medellin would be facing one of the top schools of the upper city?" Leviathan speaks out to his squad members. "Yes, Master! Not to mention, most students of that school are the members of that Elbaf house." A member of his squad responds. "And they are going with the weakest looking member of this entire arena. He is still a freshman. Man will he get beat up by everyone. This round would be boring to watch." Korona, the member who was asked his opinion about Faust replies in an arrogant tone "It''s that school, huh?" Leviathan contemplates as he speaks. "Ahhhhh, the match ground is bigger than I imagined yo Awarnach!" Faust is standing in front of a small dais. He cannot help but show sarcasm towards the administration. It is in a rectangle shape, the length is broad but the diameter of its broadness is very short. "Faust! We will be teleported to a different area once we all stand on that dais. And the location we will be teleporting is so spacious that you can literally build a huge mansion in it with a golf court and racing track." Awarnach explains. "Oh, it''s like that one I experienced in the House of Ashura''s." Faust recalls the first time he saw a similar stage as the present one. "And Faust! Do you see those three chairs and those people sitting on top of all the audience seats?" Awarnach mumbles in the ears of Faust while pointing his finger towards the three seats that are above all the audience seats and even the noble''s gallery. Faust casually looks at the top and sees the three golden chairs decorated with red and green gems. They look as though they are particularly made for the three-persons sitting in them. "Who are they? I can understand that they are some big shots, but what kind?" Faust asks. "They are the top three members of the hunters!" Awarnach responses to Faust. "Hunters?" Faust asks with a question mark on his face. In this world, the powerful people are those who have powerful general class soldiers. Even though they enlist in the military and serve the country. They are loyal to the family they are under. These powerful generals each possess the power of a thousand soldiers. And these Generals are controlled by the House Captains, and the House Captains are controlled by the Lord''s of the houses. In the end, they are controlled within their family, bound by the rules of that family and not by the military. When a person possesses enormous power, they might use the power for good and bad. When an entire family uses their powers to commit crimes, the military turns a blind eye on them. Hence, both the continents of the earth, including the kingdom of God, came up with a special unit that gives special permissions. They have come up with Hunters, a unit made up of members of the Earth. No matter which continent they are from and which country. An elite group of Ten members have been given Hunter badges. The hunters can hunt any being on the earth. They can kill anyone on the earth. Even if it''s a noble or the king or God. They are permitted to barge into any house, to kill anyone. That is, as long as they have the power to take the enemy down. Getting a Hunter badge is an impossible task itself. It takes five to ten years for a new hunter to be decided. It is based on one''s heart rather than power. The most amusing thing is that Hunters never once killed an innocent soul. Anyone from any country or family can become a hunter if they are approached by them. And while staying with their respective family, they can perform the duties of a Hunter by patrolling and purging of sinister beings. "You basically get a license to kill anyone if you become a hunter. That is what a hunter is. And I heard they opt for ridiculously strong members." Awarnach however, tells a totally different definition of hunters. "The strongest huh, and a license to kill anyone? No question asked? That sounds kind of interesting." Faust breaks his knuckles as he gets ready for his match. "I think I have a reason to fight now in this festival. The strongest shall come out." Faust walks up to the dais along with his squad and the school for giants from the house of Elbaf starts walking towards them. Both of the squads face each other while standing in a line. Cameron is faced with the ugly face of Santner that looks more than just pissed. Awarnach is faced with the goofy face of East, The Asian girl is faced with a handsome guy and Faust is faced with a rather calm looking person with sharp eyes. *Transport* With a buzz, both the squads instantly teleport to a strange place. The battle for flags, The flag game starts now! 170 Powerful? All four of them are teleported into the other dimension to take their positions. There are three lanes of buildings and cottages given for each team while the elemental stone treasures are kept in the farthest lane where the team members will be spawned. The soldiers need to cross the three lanes on their side and another three of the opponent''s side lanes to get to the treasure. The team which is spawned first has the highest probability to win the match, as they cover half of the distance and stay ready in their positions waiting for their opponents to be spawned. That is why the holo tool is given, which makes a shield around the spawned players as soon as they are spawned. After Sana''s squad enters Faust and his squad prepares themselves to go in. "I think it''s about time," Awarnach tells Faust. "Yes!" Faust stretches both of his arms to his sides, portals open in front of all four who are standing in a line. His left eye looks dark with a green eyeball glittering brightly. "The new equipment from the house of Carlos! We haven''t tried them against their own house yet right?" Awarnach pulls out a rotatory barrelled machine gun from the portal, similar to XM214. The left eye of Awarnach is burning like Phoenix fire. "Oh ho! It is heavy, but with me." Awarnach holds the gun firmly with his fingers on the trigger, "The baby is nice." Awarnach lets out a grin holding a monster gun in his hand Each member has given contacts for their left eye, which is going to act like a map in the match. Faust chose black contact while Awarnach chose a red colour. Cameron chose green and Elton went with yellow. Although all of their contacts are normal. Faust''s contacts cover all of his eyeballs. Cameron reaches out to the portal to take out a brand new sniper rifle that is glowing green in colour. There are turbofans present in the handle of the rifle. These fans enhance the air element that Cameron controls and also to cool down the sniper rifle after too many shots. On the other hand, Elton has the coolest weapon, he is gifted a chin whip by Faust, but not just an ordinary chain whip with a knife. The chain is slim and thin but durable, on the other hand of the chain, in place of a knife. A claw made of fibre is resting, the chain is iron, but the claw is made of an alloy with leather and rubber. He can now catch opponents and pull them close to him, to deliver a lethal blow. And lastly, Faust pulls out a purple sword and gets ready to get into the match. "Here! Here mom! Sit here." Tsumugi asks her mom to sit on the throne in her place. As she already quit as the head of their branch. "It''s going to start?" Tsumugi''s mom asks her. While Tsumugi is lost in her world thinking about Faust, who did not do anything in the training. Faust holds his cloak as they are about to be teleported. In mere seconds, a sniper shot is heard from the match and, people can see that Faust upon teleporting, got taken down instantly. The soldiers and their families in the colosseum are yelling and cheering up after hearing the sniper shot in the first five seconds of the game. "Heh! Hit!" The sniper sneers upon looking at Faust getting hit right in between his eyebrows. But as he is watching, Faust is disappearing into thin air. shortly, the cloak that Faist is wearing is falling down onto the floor. The sniper doesn''t understand what has happened, the computer is yet to declare that Faust is eliminated. And the next second. "You have underestimated me." The whole crowd has gone silent and the eyes of Leviathan widened in surprise. The nobles who were sitting leisurely with their backs against their chairs have come forward in disbelief. Faust is wearing a plain white shirt and black jeans. His shirt is tucked inside his pants and sleeves rolled up to elbows. The thing that attracted and surprised all the people watching is his armlet, glowing black in colour as it is releasing energy and everyone started to discuss amongst themselves if Faust just teleported behind the sniped. Faust is behind the sniper on a roof. He has his sword drawn and as he is done saying the words, the guy with glasses turns his head around and a powerful slash on his neck. The sniper is eliminated. Faust before being teleported has removed the cloak, and as soon as he spawned inside the new place, he teleported to a nearby wall. He travelled at lightning speed so that his afterimage is left with a cloak, which is overlooked by the sniper. At the same time, Awarnach, Elton and Cameron have taken their positions in the treasure buildings, Faust, however, is walking freely on the streets, tapping his scabbard to the gates and poles. Indirectly challenging his enemies. "Damn him! Showing off just because he took the sniper down! We want to go, Sana." The other two males ask for the permission of their captain Sana for which she denies it. Asking them to hold their positions for now in the treasure houses. Shortly, Faust starts jumping from one building or another, the two guys could see him clearly through the window, but they are holding themselves back because of their captain''s order. But when Faust decides to stop moving and sits right in front of the building that Sana is protecting the treasure. The two guys have lost it and come out to shoot at Faust. They press the trigger in annoyance, they want to get rid of Faust as soon as possible. Before their bullets came close. Awarnach suddenly appears in front of the two with the shield, carrying his rotatory machine gun. "Ok! Time to go crazy." Awarnach says as his finger is inches away from the trigger of the huge gun. Everyone is shocked to see Awarnach suddenly appearing in front of Faust, it''s as though he has been summoned just now. Is this another power of that guy? The two males fighting with Faust try to speculate as much as possible. The red bullets directed towards Faust have been blocked by the shield of Awarnach, he is waiting for his turn to fire at them both. And as he gets the thought, the two guys move back while shooting to retreat tactically. Awarnach undoes his shield and bullets start raining with thunder-like sounds. The two guys instantly take cover, they don''t want to get hit by that monsters gun! The sound itself made their hearts quiver in fear. But before they realise, they are trapped inside a smoke cloud. Everyone expected the huge rotatory machine gun to demolish everything with its speed and deadly power. But all that came from the gun is smoke balls. Faust is back in his building protecting his treasure box monitoring Awarnach and Elton through monitors. Cameron is on top of his building, scoping on Sana, waiting for her to come out of the building to take a shot. Amidst the smoke that covered the entire lane, one of the guys is pulled to the other side of the smoke to where Awarnach is standing. It felt as though a hand has grabbed and snatched him. "Eliminated!" The computer voice responded. The guy is taken down by Awarnach with the help of Elton. It''s two vs four now, the remaining guy did not understand what it was that snatched away his friend. He is scared to give any moment that will male him a target. "Time is running out! I hope he knows about Sana''s ability." Thorik mutters under his breath. The match has a fifteen-minute time limit. Faust needs to eliminate all four players or plunder all three treasures in order to win. Failure of not being able to do any of it will be a win to the house that entered the match first. This game is solely designed in the favour of houses that are in better ranks. The houses with lower rank will eventually perish with the rules. The guy who is hiding behind a rock is also snatched away by something and is again eliminated. "Isn''t that guy in the treasure house a minute ago?" "How did he join the big guy? " His weapon is also strange." People start discussing how Awarnach and Elton travelled so quickly. Now it is only Sana that is remaining. Awarnach and Elton head to the buildings with treasures to break open the rock. It took quite a few bullets to shatter the rock, exposing the elemental stones. The crowd went nuts watching a no-name family fighting a well-known branch. It is now four vs one. And this is moving some of the audiences to cheer for Faust and his squad. Sana still stays inside the building, Awarnach and Elton smash the treasure rock in the buildings beside her, there is now only one treasure box to be plundered and one player to be taken down. At this rate, they will break the treasure and take down the player at the same time. "Cameron, do you see any moments in the room?" Awarnach and Elton ask Cameron, the sniper with a better scope that has clear views of every window of the room that Sana is in. Awarnach and Elton continue to go towards Sana, they now stand outside the door that Sana is holding. "Nothing! But be careful, I can see smoke in the room, or so I cannot say. It-" Cameron pauses as she scopes at every window of the room. "The room looks strange, be careful!" Cameron replies. "Got it! Faust?" Awarnach asks for Faust. "Go on!'' Both of them break the front door as soon as they get a ''go'' from their captain. The inside of the room is dark and silent. A chilling wind breeze abruptly comes out of the room. Awarnach takes a look inside and the whole room, the walls and floor are covered in Ice. "Are you seeing Faust?" Awarnach asks before going in. "Pre-shoot and go!" Faust advises while watching the darkroom. Somewhere, something feels off to Faust. Awarnach and Elton shoot inside the darkroom, making sure to distance the enemies from ambushing them as they enter the door. "I wouldn''t go inside if I were you." Thorik crosses his arms and says with an evil grin. As both of them enter the room, the doorway of the room instantly closes by thick ice. The whole room is covered by thick ice, the treasure rock is also frozen, the thick ice making it hard to break the rock. The ice is almost impenetrable, Sana and the treasures are inside. Only three minutes are remaining for Faust''s squad to win. It takes ten minutes to break the ice at the door alone. This is what Sana has been planning from the start. The three of her members are just time killers and she is the main player. Daisy and his squad took so much time dealing with the other three and now there is not much time left to break into Sana''s room, to defeat her or to break the rock. During the 53 matches that these two squads faced. Sana never once showed Awarnach and the others of her Ice element. She saved her surprise element. The match is now completely in her hands. Awarnach and Elton are trapped inside the cage of Ice, without being able to do anything. Footsteps are heard coming from the far end of the room. Sana''s eyes have turned completely white, while her lips have turned purple. As she starts walking towards Awarnach and Elton, she lights a fire lantern and the sight before her shocks her to her wits. Faust is standing in front of her with his sword and a smile on his face. "What? What? He went alone?" Awarnach and Elton are in the main building that Faust was, a while ago. "What? Where did he go? He pulled us back and went face to face with that girl." Awarnach, Elton and Cameron start moving back towards Sana''s building. Thorik is taken by surprise, He jumps out of his seat and comes closer to the railing. "What did he do!" He exclaimed he could not believe his own eyes. The persons who walked inside Sana''s ice trap are now running towards her building again. Is it Deja Vu? He thought. The crowd too looks at Awarnach and Elton running in the streets. "Oi! How can it be? Didn''t we see them both entering the room?" "This is crazy! What is happening who is this branch?" Sana immediately puts up a wall of ice, dividing the room into two, she is still an impenetrable fortress. Meanwhile, the cameras inside the room go back to normal and start working. Everyone sees Faust and Sana facing each other. "She put a thick wall of ice! Very good! Only two more minutes, he can not break the wall or the rock." "It''s going to be Carlos'' house that would win." "No! The other branch did really great! I would like to see them win." "I heard that he is a captain at the age of 14!" "He is also a servant class that became a captain." "Really? What''s his name?" "It''s Faust!" The security guard that stopped Faust from entering the oscillatory tower before checking his badge tells the soldier next to him. "Faust! Let''s go, Faust!" "Win it, Faust!'' " Faust! Faust! Faust! Faust!" The audience watches with curiosity, the clock is ticking very quickly. 1 minute and 48 seconds of time remaining. The strategies, the speed and the mystery aspect and the black stone. Attracted the audiences to cheer for their fellow servant class soldier. "I don''t think we can make it in time! Dammit, after doing everything. He may be fast, but Sana is also a captain." Awarnach yells in panic as the three are running quickly with all of their strength. Uzume clenches her fists in excitement, wanting Faust to win and every city that is watching the match on their screens is sure that Sana won. "This is a useful ability huh? Creating an ice fortress." Faust stands behind Sana, leaning forward, he whispers in her ear. 171 New Enemy, Hercules Sana''s eyes widen as she gets chills, she gets frightened by a sudden whisper in her ear. She turns back and releases her ice element but a slash lands onto her body shield on her waist, completely breaking the shield along with Sana''s spirit. "Sana! Eliminated!" A computer voice announces as Sana is teleported back. Faust goes onto cut the ice rock in half. Awarnach and the others stop running, without being able to believe what they heard. All four of them are teleported back to the stage in the middle of the Colosseum. While Awarnach is wondering and looking on either side to see if they had won or ran out of time. His eyes go to Sana who is sitting on the ground in despair, her hair covering all of her face. "YESSSSSSSSSSS!" The crowd cheers and yells loudly for Faust and his squad, the whole Colosseum is celebrating Faust''s win. Watching all that and their names on the big screen under the winners tag, Awarnach breaks down and weeps, the past months have been very hard on him as he tries to carry the whole burden by himself, thinking and worrying about his branch by himself. He was not confident about winning the match even in the morning. His mind has gone through a number of strategies and plans that would make them win at least one match in this round. He cried all of his burden out with this win. "Save those tears for later, we still have matches to win today. And.. let''s win all of them." Faust lets out a smile towards Awarnach. "Ahhh Faustooo! Sorry yoo I thought you were good for nothing all these days. To think that you came up with these weapons and equipment in a month." Awarnach holds Faust in his arms as he cries his heart out. "What? You did not think it was good enough?" Faust questions in anger. "Now now! Who cares Fausto! And you also wore a uniform today! You are different when it comes to real deal huh." Cameron pulls and hugs him in her chest. "Yes yes, me too Cameron! I did well too, give me a hug tooo." Elton says as his face becomes ugly, he dashes forward breathing flames from his nostrils. Cameron takes out her sniper rifle aiming at Elton; she laughs like a maniac while squeezing Faust in her chest with her other hand. "Stop it guys! We still have more matches." Faust gets out of Cameron''s hold and puts back his black cloak on. "You got your cape back?" Elton asks surprisingly. "Everything that is teleported to the match will be teleported back." Faust explains it to Elton. "Wow! You know everything now?" "What do you think I did for one month? Sit in a room and cry?" "Uhhh I saw you reading some books too. I thought of borrowing them from you, but they''re not adult books so I let you read them." "Ye ye." They all leave the stage in between cheerings and blessings from the people sitting in the audience. Faust and the others walk down the stage with pride-filled faces. They are finally acknowledged by the soldiers and their house. "Are those your kids? They did so well in the very first match! That too against Carlos." Tsumugi''s mom praises Faust and his squad for their win against the strongest branch of Carlos. Among the cheering of the crowd and nobles, one of the soldiers is not able to believe his eyes, he is hating on Faist from the core, he is loathing the very existence of Faust. "How can he do it? He is just a loser in the village. He is no more than a loser who lost to me." Barkha, older brother of the bully ahito, among the soldiers, spews anger from his eyes. "Hey look, it''s the Outlander''s family." The audience stands on their feet pointing to another branch. The Outlander''s, as the name suggests is a branch which possesses soldiers who are recruited from different islands. Faust is surprised to see Selena among these four. She''s a noble and is sent with the Outlander''s, she seemed shy and averted looking towards the huge crowd cheering her family. "Can you walk quickly?" The captain of her team urges her to be quick and walks fast. Their house goes inside first. - Shortly, Outlanders came out as winners of the round with all four of their members alive and well. Selena did not do anything than baiting the opponents to attack her. She walks with her head lowered, trying not to stand out too much. "Selena!!!!! You did great!" Faust gets up on his feet and shouts loudly cheering Selena. Fact is that the captain of Selena''s squad is the one who took down all of the opponents. Selena did not do anything productive that adds to the victory, yet Faust is only praising her. The words reached the ears of her Captain Heracles. Even though he did not respond or react, went his way as if he did not care, he grew hatred towards Faust in his heart. *"That punk! Just because he won one game, he got cocky."* Heracles thinks as he walks back to their team tents to get ready for the next match. "Faust, you shouldn''t do that! Congratulate all of them, you shouldn''t just congratulate one person that you know of. The others will feel bad." Cameron, being considerate for Faust, tells him to greet everyone together which would keep a good reputation for Faust as a captain. "Huh? But I don''t know the other guys, Selena is the only person I know." Faust replies with a smile as if he is about to teach Cameron something new today. "Still! You need to wish all of them, that is a nice way to be and that is someone with good manners," Cameron explains and as soon as she is done, Faust moves close towards her to pinch her cheeks gently. While Cameron is in confusion, "Haha! I just don''t want to put on a nice face or say sweet things to strangers to make them have a good opinion of me. First of all, I don''t know them, and when I do not talk or know someone, I wouldn''t bother with them. I only bother with people that I talk to and only when I confirm that they''re good people, I will be nice to them." "I want to be true to myself, when I don''t even know someone, I won''t be nice to them. They have to talk to me and be nice, only then I will treat them accordingly. I know I''m a little twisted, but don''t leave me heh!" Faust explains his complex thinking to Cameron. It sounds cool at first but then it sounds like he is talking like a kid too at the same time. "Well! Didn''t you do too well in your match? I was surprised." Thorik comes to have a talk with Faust, which surprised many people in the audience as Thorik, the general visited to talk to someone. "At first, I thought your spirit would be broken and you wouldn''t do very well, but who knows you can come back hard. I guess having you in the family is useful after all." He talks about the game, where he first underestimated Faust because of him having no spiritual power. "Yes! I have been reading and analysing the game, finding loopholes in the rules and watched the gameplay of most of the houses that are participating today." Faust after the loss with Sana on the first day of training. Went back to study the game and rules. He came up with strategies and methods to win. That is why he wanted the equipment. And for which he got into the house of Carlos. The other half of the day, Faust''s squad faces Selena''s squad led by Heracles. Selena''s squad goes inside first to take their positions waiting for Faust and his squad. Heracles and his squad are experts in close range combat. Heracles himself carries two small pistols that are lighter while moving. He can move really fast, doing acrobats and shooting at his enemies with his sharp aim. But since they saw how Faust appears or jumps a distance in a blink of an eye, they position themselves in mid-range to be safe and the area that Faust and his squad would appear is all covered with wind and dust as a doing of Selena, wind element user. Gradually, the wind turned into a sand storm. The strategies of the Heracles squad are simple. Firstly, Selena goes into the line of sight of the soldiers in a lane and runs upon seeing them, confusing and getting their focus shifted onto her, making the enemies think that she stumbled upon them by mistake and became a free kill. Meanwhile, a sand storm hits them hard making them blind and slowing them down. This is when the others from Selena''s squad are at an inclined angle from the prey that fell inside their trap. Then comes the lightning element sniper with a purple coloured sniper rifle. A black colour cloud forms above the enemy squad, with thunders falling onto them immediately burning them to a crisp, breaking their shields and paralyzing them. That is the moment Heracles jumps in the sand storm with his acrobatic skills, he takes down all of the squad with his pistols. Heracles, a master at this deceiving/luring trap, has hundreds of traps In his mind that he can choose if the opponent starts predicting his previously laid traps. The real match has begun, Faust and the others teleported inside the match. but Faust is instantly inside the main building. While Awarnach and Elton go left of Faust, hiding behind a wall for cover from the sand storm, Cameron goes to the right building and starts trying to spot the enemies. *Bzzzztt~~* Above the sandstorm is a black cloud raging and rumbling as the purple lightning traverses the whole cloud as if it''s collecting the electricity from the cloud. Shortly, all the lightning gathered at one spot, at the middle of the cloud fell onto the sand storm where Awarnach and Elton were taking cover. The lightning is like a roaring dragon descended from the heavens. The concrete walls and roads are ruptured with cracks and fissures, split opening the land, the arcs of lightning destroyed everything they touched. The crowd goes silent, the person they are cheering till now is now in a pinch with four vs two. Everyone starts doubting the capabilities and powers of Faust and his squad. Faust places his hands on the huge monitor that is arranged on a small table before him. "Faust!" Cameron utters, trying to stop the fear that is creeping up to her heart. They did not expect to stumble across a lighting user this soon, especially, a lightning user with strong spiritual energy. "Great! Now, two of them are eliminated." Heracles with an evil grin rejoices watching the aftermath of the lightning strike. *slick* Heracles hears a shot from behind and suddenly jumps into a suddenly from the rood, he sees that his sniper is taken down from behind. "No one crossed us from front and flanked from behind right? We were watching carefully, weren''t we?" Heracles asks his members in a panic. Lack of information on Faust and Cameron is making him confused. Who could possibly be behind him is what is making him panic. "Obviously, there is no way we missed someone sneak from underneath us." Fri, their assaulter replies. "The remaining three went inside the buildings to take cover." Cameron, who is behind Heracles and his squad, relates information to Faust. "What the fuck are his abilities?" Heracles starts to think about what is going wrong. "Selena! Go become a bait and scout the area." He sends Selena out in the open lanes while him and the Fei, takes cover in the buildings and moves along with Selena, waiting for Faust and Cameron to go behind Selena. "Two treasures are plundered!" Computer voice announces again in five minutes. "Fuck!" The announcement made Heracles lost all of his hopes, he is dead inside with the sudden announcement. "They both are in our buildings, let''s go quickly to the main building to stop them." Heracles immediately realises that Faust and Cameron are behind them in their buildings, he turns back and starts running towards the main building. "Too easy." A voice resonated within the darkroom in front of Heracles and his squad. They stopped in their traces. In the dark, they could see two green eyes glimmering brightly, devouring the light in the room. Faust walks out of the room towards Heracles. Selena took steps back seeing Faust walking towards them with a smile on his face and his already drawn sword in his right hand. "N-no way! How are you here so quickly? I don''t think the sniper girl alone can do anything. It is your foolish mistake to come to us." Heracles begins laughing at Faust for his foolish decisions. "Yes! It takes a while to break the rock in the middle building." Faust adds as he agrees with what Heracles said. "Which is why all three of my squad are working on it, while I hold you both here." Faust replies. "All three? That is no-."Heracles pauses to remember something important. "Wait! Is it me or did the computer not announce the elimination of the first two guys?" The assaulter for Heracles asks everyone. The laughing face of Heracles becomes pale, his eyes narrowing as he stares intensely at Faust. Before the lightning fell onto Awarnach and Elton, they were both teleported to the two buildings of Hercules''s squad and Cameron is teleported behind Heracles to take down the lightning element user, so he wouldn''t give them much trouble. After Awarnach and Elton took down both of the small treasure rocks, Faust appeared in front of Heracles to stall them until the treasure rock of the main building was plundered. "You got me good, but you still made a mistake by coming before me." Heracles with a poker face equips two white stones onto his body armour. The white stone which enhances the physical attributes and fastens the moments of one person is already deadly by its immense strength and speed. But using two of them makes Heracles the strongest and fastest in his captain class. "Fei, go to the main building, I will deal with him, Selena! Advance forward!" Heracles orders his subordinates. Fei the assaulter immediately takes off towards the main building and Selena moves forward with her machine gun and Heracles moves while hiding behind Selena, using her as a shield and also to land surprise attacks. Faust however, teleports in front of Fei, Selena starts shooting and Faust as he stands in front of Fei, stopping Fei in his tracks. But to his surprise, Fei shows a smile, Faust looks towards Selena right away realising something is wrong, and all he can see is a cloud of dirt. All those bullets that Selena shot are not directed towards Faust but a wall, making it collapse, using it as a decoy. While Heracles takes off towards the main building with God speed. Faust did not see anything of what happened while Selena was shooting. "Nice move." After he realises what happened and where Heracles went off to, Selena and Fei tackles him head-on shooting with their rifles at Faust. 172 A Good Figh Selena made strong winds again that circled Faust and taking the opportunity, Fei starts shooting at Faust without letting him move, shortly a while after, Selena too joins him wanting to pin down Faust here while their captain would finish the three soldiers who are on the main building of their base. The area that Faust is standing is covered with full of dust from the strong winds and sand. Selena and Fei pauses firing to let the smoke clear to have a look at Faust. They are sure that they had pinned down Faust as they are sure that he cannot use the shield tool. As the smoke starts to clear, they can see a thin blue wall of defence shield in between them and Faust which looks like the shield made by the holo tool. Faust is able to use spiritual power now? He did not just put up a shield but a powerful one to stop the bullets of two rifles? Selena and Fei are as surprised as everyone in the audience and nobles. As all of the smoke is cleared, they can see a wounded right leg which was shot and shredded left shoulder armour which is destroyed by the bullets. "C-Captain? Why the hell are you here?" Fei asks in a subtle voice. Selena watches in a shock. The whole crowd in the audience jumps out in excitement while shouting loudly. No one can believe their freaking minds. Hercules is in front of Faust protecting Faust with his shield. *"I remember I was at the door of the main building! But why am I here?"* Hercules is fretting as he is standing his ground against the rain of bullets from his squad. Hercules clearly remembers that he is almost close to eliminating one of Faust''s squad members by ambushing from behind them but was directly summoned in front of Faust as a shield. A couple of bullets from Fei and Selena hit him before he could put up a shield. *sleeek* Faust landed a slash onto Hercules from behind him, slicing through his body shield. "Hercules! Eliminated." Faust looks at Selena and Fei, He looks normal and like a cool hero on the first look with a smile on his face. But as he slowly starts walking towards them both, his smile appeared to be a creepy one with his eyes wide opened. He looks as though he is not in his right mind, as a villain. Selena and Fei are left in shock by the intimidating appearance of Faust. *"So this is what a Captain class is like."* Fei gives up on shooting at Faust, at this point, Faust pretty much look like an immortal to him. He goes in to quickly shatter the body shield of Fei to eliminate him. Selena, witnessing the elimination of her member. Realizes that she is in danger, her pure animal instincts came into play as she raises and points her gun towards Faust. He disappeared, Faust disappeared from in front of her and appeared close to Selena. He looks into the eyes of Selena who is in shock. Faust, gently with his fingers, move her gun aside. "End me!" Realizing she couldn''t do much, Selena says out of her pride. "All three buildings are plundered and Faust and his squad are the winners." Computer voice announces to the entire Arena. Selena is spared or is it a coincidence? Cheerings have touched the sky and whistles added with claps have resonated as the four of Faust''s squad are returned back. Tsumugi teared up looking at her four soldiers rewriting the history of her house. "Ayeeee, I''m now with the youngest captain in the house with mysterious powers. Faust! can I have a word with you?" The host of the purge approaches Faust with a mic asking how he is able to jump long distances in a blink of an eye. "It''s the teleportation of course!" Faust replies without hesitation that made all of the people in the arena go silent. "H-how?" The host asks, not being able to believe what he heard. "Haha, I''m just kidding guys! The real reason is my black stone." Faust lifts his cloak up to expose the black stone on his armlet. "The black stone." "But the previous black stone user did not do anything of this sort." "What is his case." The people start voicing their own opinions, anything new and mysterious is always seen as something foreign and scary. "But we get it-But! What is the power that the stone gives you? Teleportation? Jumping time or is it time freezing? Or black hole portals? What is really in the black stone? The element!" The host asks on behalf of the nobles which made everyone curious to know the answer. All of them hold their nerves curiously wanting to know the secret. "Well I wonder the same, what could it be? Hehe. it is just that this stone, I don''t know how it makes it possible, but it makes it possible." Faust cleverly dodges the question. They all head to their camp to get ready for the next match. Faust doesn''t talk or respond to anyone during their walk from the stage to their camp. "What happened to Master Faust? He seems to be in a foul mood." Charles, the butler asks Awarnach as they all start equipping their weapons with new elemental stones and getting their equipment check by an engineer. Faust goes to the back of the Arena, breathing heavily, he holds his chest as if his heart is getting crushed. He goes to a female restroom, locks the whole restroom from inside. Goes in front of a huge mirror, takes off his contact lens from his left eye. As he removes the black contact lens, the original.eye of his eye that is exposed is also black in colour with the white part of his eye being black and his eyeball in green. "Ugh! Control it! Why am I crossing the lines?" Faust struggles to subdue his crazy side that is raging with blood lust. He grits his teeth tightly in rage while looking at himself in the mirror. - After a few mins, he walks out of the restroom with both of his eyes looking normal. Meanwhile, a female contender stumbles as Faust is coming out of the female restroom. She instantly stops in her tracks, her eyes widen as she gets stunned by what she saw. "Did you see it?" Faust asks in a low voice, glaring at the female contender. "Well nevermind." Faust rolls his eyes and starts walking out of the corridor. The female keeps looking at Faust, without knowing what to do. Before Faust turn at the end of the corridor, he turns around to the Female, he arranges strands of his hair by putting them behind his ear in a feminine way and performs a hair flip before going on his way. He did it to make the female think of him as a changed gender. He doesn''t want to deal with any sort of problem so he KO''d the female with his act. The female contender just stands being disgusted. The next two matches of Faust''s squad went by in the same manner as the first two, without losing any of the four members. Faust did not have to move an inch from the main building, he kept giving commands to Awarnach, Elton and Cameron and with his ability, the squad killed all four members of the enemy team''s. The first day ended with Tsumugi''s family, against all odds, came on top of every other team. Every match they had, they completely killed all four of their enemy teams other than Selena. She is the only one that was left alone. "I-i can''t believe we actually won!" Elton says as he lay down on the couch with swollen arms and wrists. One needs sheer strength to use a chain whip to change its direction and to release it quickly. Elton gave his all and ended up with red swollen wrists and shoulder joints. The right shoulder of Cameron has been scared and swollen due to her continuous snipe attempts. The recoil of the sniper rifle is bad that the gun hits back inside her right shoulder as she shoots. Awarnach is in a position where he cannot use his two hands for a week. Carrying that monstrous rotatory barrel machine gun around and shooting at everything and everyone. The spiritual power of all three is drained and their bodies hurt physically. Their temperature has been increased and their eyes burn every time they blink. "You all! I cannot forget this day ever! Recruiting you guys is the best thing happened to this branch. I''m really proud of you all." Tsumugi who thought if they can win at least one match in the first round, they would have a chance to win matches in the second round, which is a 1v1 and their family would barely survive with points to keep them safe in the house. But now, they are standing on top of the leader boardings against all odds. "You all did great! Let''s go to my favourite place, eat noodles and celebrate!" Faust exaggerates to everyone about his master plan to completely heal everyone. Even when Faust announced in a cheerful way, none of the squad responded. They want to sleep and take rest, that''s all they care about. "We can order food from the shop." Tsumugi advices Faust to order the food than forcing others to join him. "Hm! I did not think about this." Faust leaves to his room saying that. - After a short while, as soon as the doorbell rings, Faust runs to get the door. He doesn''t allow anyone else near the door, he himself personally goes to open the door. "Uncle Mitsuru!" Faust laughs loudly upon seeing the owner of the shop, himself came to deliver the food they ordered. The restaurants in the lower land, deliver food to the powerhouses when asked to. That is the one thing no lower land restaurant could deny when ordered by a powerhouse. "Sorry for calling you all the way up here uncle!" "Ohhh! Faust! I would gladly come anywhere if you call me! And omo look at you! You are a captain already!" Mitsuru hugs Faust while immersed in happiness. They both keep talking to each other a lot about the wellbeing of everyone in the lower land. "How are Shizuku and Ma-Kun!" Faust asks of the twin kids of Mitsuru who are twelve years old now. "They both keep asking about you! They miss you a lot! You completely stopped coming to my shop, back in the day you and Cai-" "Ahhhhh! Uncle Mitsuru, why don''t you get in first, please arrange the food and did you try that recipe I told you about?" Before Mitsuru can say the name of Selena, Faust cuts in with different topic and takes Mitsuru to a kitchen. "Recipe?" Mitsuru asks in confusion, but all Faust cares about now is to distract Mitsuru from the topic. Mitsuru has brought five bowls of steaming ramen noodles with a thick broth, firm and thin soft noodles with a decent amount of chilli paste on top. He brought tempura of different veggies to accompany with noodles. The batter of the tempura being crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. However, the shrimp tempura stood as the main attraction for everyone. Served with soya sauce and hot mustard, ginger mayo and creamy cheese lastly. "Wow! The noodles are full of flavour from the broth." "Mine are chewy, just like I had asked." "The fried eggplant with shoyu is the best." "You must have had the best chef''s in your restaurant, please introduce them to us next time." After eating the food brought to them, Awarnach and the others gets lost in the taste of the food and Tsumugi goes as far as to asking Mitsuru to introduce her to his chef''s. Faust rubs his nose listening to his squad praising his favourite chef. "Haha but it is uncle Mitsuru, he himself cooks and manages the hotel while taking care of his twin kids as a single father." Faust tells to his family members about Mitsuru. "Being a single father, raising kids and managing the business is a big thing! I''m impressed you are able to do it with ease." Tsumugi with Awarnach, Elton and Cameron praises Mitsuru more for his endurance to deal with everything. "Of course! Uncle Mitsuru used to run an organization and r-" "Ahhh, Faust! I brought that favourite dessert of yours." Mitsuru cuts Faust boasting about him. The long night is spent with food, stories and celebrations. They all forgot about their ranks, worries, about another round of purge waiting for them tomorrow. They spent the time like a real family and fell asleep together in the main hall. - The next day, everyone got ready and is waiting for Faust, the final member to arrive in the main hall. Awarnach, Elton and Cameron got bandages on their wounds. Finally, Faust comes prepared and leads the way with his squad, Tsumugi and Charles. "Are you ready to win!" Awarnach asks him confidently, his voice is different from yesterday. He is full of confidence that Faust is going to win today. Everyone heads towards the Arena. There is nothing strange or flashy in the Arena today. It is plain and normal without any piece of metal or concrete inside. It is all covered with sand. All the nobles participating in the purge sits in the balcony with their respective squads that participated in the first round. There are a total of twelve nobles sitting in the balcony with four members of their squad standing behind them. Above the balcony are three thrones placed in a triangle. The lower two occupied by Uzume and Leviathan and the upper and bigger throne that belongs to Hades the house captain has been left empty. The audience seats are filled by soldiers and families of the soldiers. "We are here today to celebrate the second day of the purge." The host with a blue blazer on blue pants and white shirt. Welcomes the audience and nobles in his style. "Today is going to be a display of martial arts! Each branch will pick two of their best martial artists and one will be sent to represent their branch." As the host is explaining the rules of the round that is going to take place today. The clear sky turns cloudy in a brief moment. "This aura!" The nobles stand up from their seats and so does Uzume and Leviathan. The black clouds in the sky starts to glow with purple lightning. The clouds start to twirl around in a circle in the middle as the heaven''s opening the gates to earth. "Tsk showing off again!" Leviathan is vacillating between jealousy and admiration. He admires his dad but is jealous of the enormous spiritual power that he possesses. The next second a purple lightning falls onto the throne. The audience kneel on one of their knees with their right hand resting on their chest. The nobles stand tall by saluting the king with their hands on their hearts and the squads that are participating in the purge is kneeling down on one knee. The system of power is clearly shown in this one moment. Every soldier and person other than the nobles, get down on one of their knees and lowers their heads to salute and the nobles and royal families, salutes just by bowing their heads. A man can be seen standing at the place where the lightning was hit. He is wearing a long black coat with large white buttons which is up to his thighs. With black and red pants and white shoes. He is wearing a black and red cape, which is black on the outside and red on the inside. He got fifteen ribbons on the left side of his coat and 10 medals on the right. With a white band worn across from his waist to the top of his shoulder and an aiguillette that goes on to the right side of his shirt. The cape on his right shoulder is folded back a little, attaining the look of cross cape, which exposes the four stars on his shoulder strap which defines him as the only four star general in the house. "You may rise!" Hades announces to the entire arena, in a mic given to him, the crowd in the audience immediately, gets up on their feet and welcome him with cheerings and throwing flower petals into the air in a delicate way. "My King, we are blessed to have your presence between us." The host welcomes Hades on behalf of the management team. "It''s a martial art round! Of course I would be here!" Hades replies to the host and suddenly makes eye contact Faust who is standing in the balcony behind Tsumugi''s mother. 173 An Eye for an Eye Daniel, one of the three hunters that was sitting in one of the three chairs, he eyes towards Faust while observing his body language and trying to evaluate his spiritual power. The advanced captains and maybe some captains who are sensitive to auras are able to calculate the spiritual power of the individuals standing before them. Strangely, Daniel did not sense any aura or spiritual power from Faust. And as he is examining Faust from top to bottom who is facing away from him, he catches Faust turning to his left and glaring back at him, with an unknown hunger hidden deep in his eyes. Faust''s face is facing forward but his eyes are glaring at Daniel from the corner of his eyelids. Daniel widens his eyes at the fact that Faust is not looking away even after their eyes meet each other. "How can he stare at me like that?" Daniel whispers under his breath, being surprised by the guts of Faust. No one in their right mind would glare at Daniel, a royal and the currently strongest person. "He is not looking at you, it''s just his hair is on his eyes." Leviathan clarifies to Daniel. Who, upon looking closer realises that the sharp hair strands of Faust are over his eyes, due to the shadow and Faust''s standing posture, it looked as though Faust is eyeing at Daniel. "It''s true now that you say it." Daniel agrees with his keen confirmation. *"Did my eyes deceive me or did my son fool me?"* It did not sit right with Daniel, he for sure caught the glare of Faust but agreed with his son just in case. *"He is the man I need to take down one day! Him! That monster-like being! I will take you down one day."* Faust is so intimidated by the sudden appearance of Daniel that he forgot the position he is in and looked right into the eyes of Daniel with the hunger for Daniel'' throne. He wanted the House all for himself. *"What were you thinking staring at my father with those fierce eyes Faust!"* Leviathan caught him staring at Daniel. But for some reason, Leviathan took pity on him to save him. He wanted to know what Faust''s motives. Unless he is fully aware of those, he does not want Faust to die a pitiful death in the hands of Daniel, Leviathan want to see more of what Faust can do. "Let the festival BEGIN!" Daniel announces to the whole Arena causing a huge roar back from the audience being hyped for more action that is yet to come. There are two members chosen by the twelve families to this second round. Two martial artists represent their branches, one comes out to fight and the other is a substitute. From Tsumugi''s family, Faust and Elton are the two martial artists chosen and enrolled but Faust is the only one who will be fighting. During the squad matches, Faust did not fight in the last three matches. He supported the three of his squad to do all the fighting. Which is why the three of them are exhausted and wounded with bruises. But the three of them accepted to it knowingly, they knew that Faust is the only one who needs to fight on entire day two, hence they let Faust rest and support them while they did the physical labour. The martial artists from each family are different from the four-member squad that participated in the first round of festival. But for Tsumugi, due to her lack of soldiers, Faust and Elton who are exhausted from the day one has to fight on day two as well. Whereas, from other branches, new people come with full of energy and spiritual power. "I''m sorry Faust! For leaving everything on your shoulders." Elton apologises for being weak. He is not able to use his chain whip anymore and his spiritual power is still exhausted. Which resulted in him to sit on the sidelines for all the matches of today. "Hehe don''t worry, my shoulders can carry the world." Faust puts on his black cloak as he moves forward with a strong posture, ready to take on the world. The first match is hard on Carlo''s house. They have to face off against the old minister who opposed Queen Uzume while making Faust a captain. The old Minister''s house the branch of gluttony is also one of the reputational houses. In this martial arts round, every house picks a captain class to represent their house, unless the house does not possess a captain class martial artist. So the majority of the participants are original captain class unlike Faust, who became a captain in a short route due to Tsumugi''s sacrifice. "It''s going to be a battle between Geroge from the Carlos house and Ranada from Gluttony." The host yells his lungs out introducing the contestants of the very first match. "How long has it been my old friend!" George greets his old friend Ranada who, previously, worked in the house of Carlos but was baited by money and taken by the old minister. "Try not to die! Give up when you can." Ranada mocks him in a confident tone. "Begin the first match!" The host starts the match and instantly the two of them rushes towards each other in one leap. Both of them swing their hands at each other at the same time, George swings his right hand aiming for Ranada''s face, ranada dodges it by tilting his head to the right. Similarly, George dodge''s Ranada''s right hand the same way. George''s right arm is on the left shoulder of Ranada and same with Ranada''s right arm on George''s shoulder. Both of them at the same time wraps their right arms around each other necks which pulled them both closer. *Thud* Both of their left fists clash together near their abdomen, while they try to choke each other with their right arm. An air bubble is visible covering both of their hands up to their wrists, as a result of their spiritual powers clashing against each other. "AHHHHHHHHH!" Both of them puts all of their strengths to break the other one''s neck. The aura can be seen building around them. From their feet, a green transparent force is raising to their necks around their body. Both of their spiritual powers collide in between both of them and none of their force seems to overtake the other. It looks evenly matched for the moment. Both of them let go of each other''s necks, leans back on their hips, lifting their right leg up in the air. Both of them throws a kick at the same time, they kick each other''s foot, cancelling each other''s kick which sends both sliding back a few feet on their legs. "I see! You have been doing well all these years." Ranada utters narrowing his eyes, he gives penetrating stares to George. The martial arts of both George and Ranada is the same. Geroge used to learn under Randa as Ranada is his senior, which is why both of them attack each other with the same moves. The whole arena became quiet witnessing the power of the two. Seeing two professionals fighting, cancelling each other''s attacks with the same moves really surprises most people watching and inspiring most of the younger generation. "The real captains are on a whole another level." Faust''s eyes open wide as he reads each and every move of both. Faust, Yuki, Jericho are the captains of younger generations, who barely entered the captain class. Whereas, George (29) and Ranada (32) have been captains for nearly a decade. They are more advanced than the younger generation of captains. And this thing is pestering Faust, apart from being advanced, they also possess the gifter weapons that are more advanced than most of the normal equipment. The gifter weapons have the capability to bring forth the full capacity of the elemental stones. Not only that, those weapons can hold multiple elemental stones at the same time and possess a different weapon or ability within them. "Well, I definitely surpassed you. After you left and chased behind money and fame. I have been perfecting the techniques." George opens a small portal on his right side, pulling out a thin short staff. "It was nice knowing you." Ranada in rage over the insult pulls out his short black staff from his portal. *I will show you why money is important." Saying that Ranada turns the one end of the staff in anti-clockwise, and the whole staff is broken at ten places, making it seem like a wooden chain. And at the gaps that the wood is broken, chains of two-inch length appeared and the broken wood starts glimmering in green. "A gifter weapon!" George thinks to himself as he takes a position and with full of confidence, he leaps forward. 174 Who is Ares The match ends with George losing to Ranada, but Ranada too received physical injuries, but it doesn''t matter as they already have a substitute and the nanoresucts. The only drawback is nanoresucts can only restore your physical injuries but not the spiritual energy that is already spent. Faust witnesses a pure fight of skill, techniques and raw strength. This is actually tougher than he anticipated, some of the captains are not to be taken lightly. A captain with martial arts techniques is already dangerous, but a captain who is well versed in martial arts and also possess tons of spiritual power is leagues above a captain like Faust. "This gluttony is not to be taken lightly, they are second place in the first round with a young captain. And now this Ranada is like a veteran who is leagues above the young captain I beat. And that young captain felt stronger to me." Faust declares to his squad. "Well, these are veterans Faust! While you and that young captains are beginners. We will be happy if you win at least one match! That will keep us in the home." Awarnach suggests, sensing the nervousness creeping up into Faust''s heart. It is true, the gluttony squad in the first round is tougher than any other branch Faust and his squad faced. He barely won over them by the help of Awarnach, Elton and Cameron and by using different strategies and by eliminating them. It is different in this round! You have to make your opponent give up or knock him out to win this round. And there are no buildings or any covers in this Arena. "The next matchup! The crowd favourite! From the¨Care you sure about this?" While announcing, the host faces a problem regarding the name of one of the branches. A member from the management approaches Faust to confirm the name of their branch house and Faust nods his head in agreement. Awarnach, Elton and Cameron including Tsumugi''s mom is curious as to what bizarre name it is that the management itself came to confirm. Faust tells them to wait until the name is announced officially. "From the house of Devils! Welcome, Faust! And the other side, from the house of Richard''s! Let''s welcome Barkha!" The host announces loudly and the crowd goes nuts hearing the name of the kid that created history in the first round of the purge. But on the other side of the crowd in the nobles balcony. "D-devil''s house?" "How did you even come up with the name Faust?" "That''s it, I''m leaving the house tomorrow, I''m gonna go pack my bags." Cameron, Awarnach and Elton are surprised to hear the name. It is not a friendly name or anything special. The three expected a unique or cool name from a cool and powerful guy like Faust. "What? That name is the coolest! The name of our house itself is the House of Asuras, which literally mean the house of demons so why not? You all are just jealous! I''m sure Grandma Aiko would love this name. Only she knows the true meaning of cool names." Faust implies to the name of the house they belong to, adding that Tsumugi''s mother would find this name more befitting since her husband named the house as the House of Asuras. "Good Lord! That is our name? I was wondering what fool came up with such a name. That name scared me, God''s house would have been better ain''t it?" Aiko replies back, shattering Faust''s heart along with his hopes. "Please, Faust from the Devil''s branch!" The host invites Faust again who is lost in the debate about the name of their branch house. "It''s finally his time!" Daniel whispers under his breath, as he curiously sits straight on his throne to view Faust''s every move. Faust goes inside the arena, in between Ten thousand people, fighting in a city like structure in between no audience is no pressure but he takes a deep breath to calm his heart down in between ten thousand people. "Yes, you better be scared! You even grew height of a couple of inches since the last time I saw you." Barkha, the older brother of the bully Ahito, who beat Faust in the past back in Mindoro says in an arrogant tone. "Y-you bastard! What the hell are you doing?" Not being able to believe what he is seeing in front of him, Barkha shouts in desperation! He is in despair that Faust did not listen to anything that he said in a deep voice to scare Faust. "Ohhh! Ahhh! Thank you!" "Eyahhhh! Not really! It''s not that big a deal." "Eyahh eyahh, don''t make me shy guys." Meanwhile, Faust is holding his hands in front of him, his head lowered with cheeks turning red. His eyes are lowered too, ahy to look at the crowd around him. And his butt is twitching and poking out, goofing around acting shy due to the compliments raining on him from the audience. "Hey! It is our match you know! Bastard, pay attention to me." "Start the match." The referee announces the match and Faust gets all serious. "I will make you remember who I am." Barkha takes out knuckle dusters from his pocket and puts them on his knuckles. "I''m sorry I didn''t hear you, I just don''t hear shit!" Faust says as he goes on to take out his sword from his portal. He is goofing around till now but as soon as he hears that the match started. He wants to fight seriously by giving his all for the sake of his family. "You sure learned how to talk, but in this adult world, I need to tea-" before Barkha finishes, Faust appeared right in front of him, he is holding his scabbard tightly in the middle with both of his hands and before Barkha could react. A hard blow from the scabbard lands on his throat. And Faust pushed Barkha onto the ground with that and kept smacking his head with his scabbard. He didn''t even draw the sword out. He knocked out Barkha by smacking his head with the scabbard. After Barkha passed out, Faust stood near him with one of his feet on Barkha and waves to the audience and starts blowing flying kisses like a celebrity with a cute expression on his face. It''s a completely one-sided match, some did not even know that the match has started. Barkha lost his two upper jaw teeth and is not waking up no matter what. Some are wondering how it is possible to knock the person out completely with jusf hitting them on the head with scabbards. "Uh¨Cand with that¨CFaust has wo¨Cwon his first match." The host announces while being confused. The match has just begun and already ended? Barkha is a captain class that we are talking about. "It has ended already?" Daniel asks in surprise, he is still expecting Barkha to get up on his feet. "It is Richard''s house we are talking about." Moon Byul, another hunter among the three, takes an interest towards Faust and helps Daniel with clues. Richard''s house is the house with the lowest points till now in this purge. They have not won a single match in the entire purge. "Are we sending them off this time?" Daniel asks for his son''s opinion. "Well, the lowest has to go." "Good, and don''t let this soldier be in any of our branches! Kick him out or send him off to farthest dimensions." Daniel expresses his disappointment with Barkha. "Still, do you think he must have sensed the weak spiritual power of his opponent." I don''t know if he sensed it but I cannot seem to sense it from him, I can''t even sense when he jumped from one place to another like teleportation. I could not notice any power level. "Did you hear tales about Ares?" Daniel asks in a serious voice. "Yes!" "It is said that Ares did not have spiritual power too when he first joined the house." And with that Faust wins a match early on the second day. Faust''s squad along with Tsumugi takes a deep breath, they are relieved and now sure that they will be staying in the house until another purge arrives. "What are you saying?" Moon Byul asks knitting his eyebrows. "We were never told this!" He exclaims. Elizabeth, the third hunter that is sitting with them, a female hunter who is listening to the conversation of Daniel and Moon Byul suddenly lowers her head as she hears the name of Ares. She holds her hands tightly as if she is trying not to feel guilty. Meanwhile, the house of Carlos and the Outlanders family collides with each other and it is Carlos that comes out on top. - A couple of more matches get wrapped up with every branch winning one and losing one. Finally, it''s only Faust and gluttony remain with one win for each of them, the house that wins this match will be the winner of this round. And considering that gluttony is second place in the first round if they win against Faust in this round, gluttony and Faust''s squad will be tied. And the tiebreaker is the decision that the house which is in better rank before this purge is to be the winner. And everyone knows that gluttony always has a better ranking compared to Tsumugi''s house, which is always at the last place of the leaderboards. "Let us welcome Faust from the house of Devils! And on the other side, the well known, the one that is well known for his Godspeed, from the house of Gluttony, let''s all welcome GARUDA!" The host announces, creating a lot of hype. But the crowd responds with a buzz, everybody is whispering to each other appears to be confused with what they heard. Tsumugi runs up into the balcony of nobles. "They cannot do this! He is a general class! This is not fair." Tsumugi yells in desperation at the nobles that are sitting and viewing the unfair game without any objections. "I agree with lady Tsumugi! Isn''t this a bit too far?" Awarnach adds his voice. "Ahem!" The old minister clears his throat as he gets up from his seat, with a heavy sigh as to why he has to respond and reply to this. "In front of my mighty Lord Daniel! I don''t dare lie to anyone, as you all know, Garuda is still a captain class. He did not receive the general stars or have been declared officially. Hence he is still a captain class that my house possess." "If the Lord thinks that I have done anything unfair! I will gladly pay for it with my life." The old serpent puts up a fantastic act in front of Daniel by bowing down his head and speaking with a helpless humble old man''s voice. His words entered the ears of everyone like nectar, immediately making them pity the old man. But all the nobles knew it is his cheap play by making a general class enter the purge. Garuda is next in line to become a one-star general. He will be officially declared a general in 20 days. But the old minister wants to use the fact that he is not officially declared, hence using this loophole to benefit himself. But no noble wants to speak up, they dislike Elizabeth and Tsumugi, Carlos couldn''t speak anything, if he does, people will think he is favouring his niece, meanwhile,Tsumugi''s mom looks towards Elizabeth with concern. "My lord!" Elizabeth turns her face around hesitatingly towards Daniel with her head lowered. "Okay! You did nothing wrong! Have your seat and let the fight begin." Before Elizabeth say anything, Daniel quickly finishes the matter without having to listen to Elizabeth. "I have been blessed by my lord." The old minister bows down to Daniel, but the corner of his mouth curves as an evil smile surfaces on his face. He goes on to settle himself in his chair without even looking at Tsumugi "Faust! Forfeit the match! We won already, I don''t want you to risk your life, I cannot face Neith if something happened to you.* Tsumugi understands that nothing can be done now to change the matchup, so with regretful eyes, she asks Faust to forfeit the match. "It''s okay Aunty! Everything will be okay! If something bad happens, I have an option to quit." Faust assures Tsumugi with a smile as he pats on her shoulder. "No Faust!" Tsumugi holds his hand at his wrist! "I''m making you forfeit the match." She holds Faust tightly without letting him go. "Aunty! Trust me" Faust lets go of her hand and walks forward. "No Fau-" Tsumugi seems convinced but she realises that just trusting Faust won''t work and before she goes to grab again to stop him, she is stopped by Elton who appears in front of her. "Lady Tsumugi! Please let him do it, he is doing this for you." Elton says with conviction, each and every one of them wants to stop Faust from going head to head with a general class but all of them know that this has to be done for the sake of Tsumugi. Both Faust and Garuda walks to the middle of the Arena. Garuda is six feet one-inch tall, muscular and slim with spiky hair and yellow eyes. He is wearing black shorts which are up to his thighs and a T-shirt which are enhancing the look of his muscular body even more with his thigh muscles, forming a V shape on his thighs. "Looks like we shattered the dreams and hopes of your little house." Garuda says with a smirk. Both of them stood 10 feet away facing each other. Faust assured Tsumugi with a confident smile, but he has no idea as to how to deal with a general class. "Your house will survive the purge, and you will remain a captain! But that woman and your house won''t last." "You all came up with a good plan to make you a captain and getting equipment from other houses. But everything goes into water after this fight! Your house will perish and you all of you will be merged into another house." Faust found a way to bring back Tsumugi as the lead to their house and keep their house alive rather than merging into Carlos''. But that is only possible if his family comes out on top of the leaderboard. But Garuda mentions, that even after they survive the purge, the house without a noble leading it is bound to perish. Because Faust will lose to him in this fight. Faust does not say a word back, he undoes his little ponytail at the back of his head, as his hair goes free, he takes out his purple sword from the portal. People are still whispering about how unfair of a match this is to put a fourteen-year-old kid against a thirty-four-year-old. "Begin the fight!" The referee announces and immediately, Garuda disappears. "Tsk!" Faust knew he made a blunder. He is slow compared to Garuda which now made left him in a vulnerable position. He doesn''t know where Garuda is, he moves his eyes all around but does not get a glimpse of him anywhere. The next second, a knee digs into the abdomen of Faust. The impact is so hard, Faust felt a cramp around his lower ribs, his breathing has been stopped completely, the pain is so sharp as if a knife is stuck in between his lower ribs. Faust fell on his knees dropping his sword, he held his ribs and stomach in pain, he is not able to take breaths as the ribs give him a sharp pain every time he wants to take a deep breath. "It might have broken a rib or two!" Awarnach mutters in a low voice. All of them are dumbstruck! They have never seen Faust in this position, he always excelled in everything. And they cannot forfeit now, once the contestant enters the Arena, only he can quit or get knocked out. Garuda is not done yet, he comes in front of Faust wanting to kick the face of Faust with his foot. If a person receives an attack in that close the gap, from a man that possess immense strength it will break the neck or leave one brain dead. As he swings his leg, Faust flips to his left, grabbing the left leg of Garuda that is in the air, he keeps his legs under his arm and lands a strong hit with his left elbow onto the left knee of Garuda from inside. Garuda receives a hit on his inner knee immediately dealing a critical damaging. Faust while still being on his knees, turns towards the right knee of Garuda wanting to break the right knee as well. But Garuda quickly retreats. "He is quick to read the situation." Daniel says about Faust. He knew that Garuda is fast and that half of his strength is lying in his legs. Which is why he intended to break both knees of Garuda. Faust gets up on his feet while holding the left side of his ribs with his left hand and his eyes glaring at Garuda as wounded wild beast looking for revenge. "I thought you would be dead with that first blow, and to think that your eyes still have life left in them." Garuda utters while struggling with his left knee. Tsumugi, Awarnach and the audiences are surprised to see Faust landing a hit on a general class. It happened like a trade attack than a one-sided attack by Garuda. *"Dammit! It hurts like hell, It broke a rib definitely. And he is fast!"* Faust suppresses his pain, making sure not make it visible in his face. Faust stretches his right hand out in front of him as his palm is facing downside, his sword comes into his hand, he places the sword on the right side of his waist, holding it with his right hand. Tsumugi is concerned with Faust, she is the first person among her family to witness what Faust can do in his fight with half-dead. Until now, Faust only held his sword on his left side with his left hand. But Garuda''s hit must''ve really hurt his ribs that he cannot hold the sword with his left hand anymore. 175 Obstacle "Oni Iaido!" Faust lowers the sword on his hip forward, draws the sword out by holding the handle and instantly withdraws the sword back before the whole blade is exposed. A powerful slash travelled through the air towards Kira at a high speed. The attack travelled at the speed of a bullet but produced by a sword. But Kira evades the attack by swiftly moving to his left. At the same time as Kira dodged it by moving to his left, Faust is waiting behind him with his sword, he swings his sword and Kira leaps forward with great speed barely dodging it, "Tsk?" Faust gets frustrated as his attacks keep missing Kira. "No doubt about it! It is teleportation." Daniel utters out. "Did Ares also have this ability?" Leviathan asks in a surprise since many things are matching and common between Ares and Faust. *No! He cannot, he never did, but, even though this kid can teleport, he seems to be slow." Daniel replies while observing Faust. "Are you thinking that if you could try a little harder, you can catch up to me in speed? It is not that easy kid!" Kira smiles as a portal opens on his side. He pulls out two black gloves which have metal spikes on the top. And in between the spikes on top of his hand, appears to be a purple stone and an orange stone Purple stone on his right glove and orange one on his left. *"The purple stone on gloves than on a rifle? Is he going to electrocute me by holding me with those gloves? And that orange stone."* Faust thinks to himself. "Doesn''t matter! I will break your other leg too and wipe the floor with you." Faust takes off without wasting a second. He clearly remembers that the orange stone is a healing stone that heals your body, he cannot afford to give time for Kira to heal himself. Faust teleports behind Kira again, Kira swiftly turns back to stop the blade with the metal spikes on his gloves. Before the sword touches the spikes of the gloves, Faust teleports again and this time he is above Kira inches away from thrusting the sword into his skull. Kira still manages to put his right hand above his head blocking the sword before it lands onto him, Faust the flips in the air kicking the hand of Kira away that is blocking the sword, opening a gap to land another attack on his head. But Kira puts his other hand on his head as a defence and grabs the sword of Faust with both of his hands. Faust can see the orange stone shining brightly, which means the healing process has already begun and happening as he is fighting. Immediately, Faust can also see that both hands of Kira are above his head, defending himself from the sword, so leaving his sword in the hands of Kira, Faust teleports under him, inches away from landing a kick onto the inner knee of his right leg. As both of Kira''s hands are on top of his head, it would take more time for him to bend down to him and defend. This opening is what Faust has been searching for till now. Before Faust could land a kick, the right leg of Kira is lifted into the air and poured onto the right hell of Faust. He stepped on Faust''s heel as if he stepped onto some insect. "AHHHHHHH!" Faust lets out a cry due to the pain of his heel getting crushed under the feet of Kira. This time he did not use his hands or gloves but used his feet. Faust crumbles and shouts under the foot of Kira, while Kira doesn''t feel anything and he applies more of his body weight on his right leg, crushing the heel of Faust even more, if it''s a leg it wouldn''t have been so painful but having something pressed directly onto the bone is giving yet another sharp pain to Faust like his ribs. Faust looks at his sword that is in the hands of Kira, he teleports it into his hand and swings the sword in front of him which makes Kira step back, Faust too teleports back a few feet away from Kira. He takes the support of his sword and gets up on his feet while gasping for breath. Things are not looking good for him at all. "Ohhhhh! It''s all healed now, aww feels so good." Kira, on the other hand, moves his left leg freely and throws kicks into the air. His leg is completely healed. "And now." Saying that, Kira places both of his hands in front of him before his face and takes the stance of a boxer. He slowly starts to move his feet and shortly, he starts moving with a good feet work like a professional boxer. *"B-boxing?"* Faust is surprised by the way Kira moves. *"He cannot hit me if I don''t go too close to him, sword arts is better than boxing, no matter how you see it."* saying that Faust holds his sword tightly ready to make a move. Suddenly, a thin bolt of lightning struck Faust on his left shoulder. Faust is surprised as his eyes widen and he falls down on his knees without being able to comprehend what has happened. "There it is, the lightning gloves!" One of the people in the audience yells loudly. "God stop this madness! He is totally outmatched." "Someone stop this match! He is just a kid! Let him live." "You already did enough! give up now Faust!" The audience couldn''t take it anymore, they all keep asking Faust to give up. They couldn''t stand watching the kid getting beat up mercilessly. The place that the lightning bolt hit, pierce the flesh of Faust, his cloak and shirt are torn and the flesh around the wound is burned in black. *"Gifter weapon huh? Just a little more."* Faust gets up on his feet as his legs are wobbling like a toddler. Faust is injured, wounded and exhausted by taking a lot of damage, whereas, Kira is looking anew, all of his physical injuries are healed and he is in perfect shape to take on Faust. "Like my gloves?" Kira asks as the purple stone on his gloves shines brightly. His gloves can send lightning bolts to a distance like rifles. Every time he throws a jab or punches the air by activating his elemental stone, lightning bolts are released from his gloves onto the enemies before him. *"I guess I don''t have a choice, I need to really open my eyes to beat him in the battle of speed."* Faust stands still closing his eyes. "Is that it? You gave up? You better be." Seeing that Faust is not moving, Kira punches the air three times a row and three lightning bolts travel in the way of Faust with insane speed. *swoosh~* All three lightning bolts miss Faust and lands on the wall behind him. Kira''s eyes immediately narrow and Faust starts walking towards Kira slowly. Kira throws more jabs onto Faust and none of the lightning bolts touches Faust. *"What is this? The human smell that he had till now is slowly fading away."* Kira, the closest one to Faust senses something. Daniel is the other one apart from Kira to sense the change in Faust. Faust takes off in a blink, the land that he was standing on, turned into a mini crater as the effect of Faust taking off by putting all of his force in his legs. He lands a powerful slash on Kira, who blocks it with his gloves. Faust''s swing has a lot of power packed in it that pushes Kira a few feet away. On top of it, the top of his hand hurts due to the impact, the spikes stopped the sword from cutting his hand, but the impact is hurting his bones. Faust opens his eyes that are closed until now, his hair is covering his eyes from the outside world but Faust''s eyes are blood red in colour. The white part of the eye is filled with striking red colour and his eyeball is blowing in green. He suddenly teleports far behind Kira and throws his sword towards him with great speed. Kira moves to his right evading the sword. As the sword is passing behind him, Faust teleports to the sword he threw, which is now behind Kira, he catches his sword and lands another powerful strike onto Kira. *Clack~* Kira turned back in time and blocked the sword with both of his gloves and is still sent back a few feet away. Every slash that Faust is landing is so powerful that it is sending shock inside Kira''s wrists, few of these strikes and he would end up fracturing his hands. The teleportation secret behind Faust is based on his eyes. He imagines himself in a different position than the one he is standing in, and he will be teleported to the place where he is imagining. Certain conditions should be met for Faust to pull this off: 1)He must see the place physically with his eyes. 2)He needs to put a lot of focus in his eyes and feel the metal and atmosphere around the place. For Faust, the concrete, the land, the trees, roads and metal, all have life. He imagines the smell, the touch and the feel of the place he wants to go and he will be teleported in seconds. At first, it took Faust hours and 40-50 minutes for him to focus and teleport once a time. Later he was able to achieve the teleportation by focussing in a spot for 1minute. After practising thoroughly day after day, he can now teleport in a blink. And when his eyes turn red, the speed of his teleportation increases. **Please Read The Author''s note!** - Faust is using the same technique that Kira used. Hitting a strike with all of your strength is one thing and landing a strike in the momentum of full speed increases the impact of the force by ten folds. *"He changed all of a sudden! It hurts my ego to fight him seriously.** Kira curses his fate for having to fight with Faust on serious terms. He does not accept Faust to be a full-fledged soldier nor does he acknowledge his power of teleportation that impressed Daniel. Kira raises his hands up guarding himself while looking at Faust. He punches the air two more times and goes back to his boxing dance, moving left and right. Suddenly, nine lightning bolts struck Faust, piercing his cloak, shirt and his flesh. All the bolts landing in critical areas. Also, having nine lightning bolts passed through his body at the same time, electrocuted him to a crisp. Faust and everyone saw Kira punching only twice in the air but the lightning bolts appeared after he punched after he went back into his guard stance. How fast are his punches are for everyone to not see them? Even after taking all those lightning bolts, Faust barely stands on his feet. In the back of his head, he is worried about Tsumugi leaving the house forever. This matchup just seems so unfair, everyone lost their hopes. Awarnach and Elton decides that they are going to live in Carlos'' house. Tsumugi closes her eyes, knowing that she has to leave her house and submit an official document to the main building about her departure from the family. Faust holds his ground barley for the hopes of her family. He is in a position where even the slightest little touch can make him collapse. Kira Instantly realising that Faust is still standing on his feet, runs towards Faust with great speed. He punches Faust on the forehead with his spiked gloves. Everything is silenced for a moment for Faust. It feels like a brutal attack. Faust is already hanging and pushing himself past his limits to stand on his feet. Now he feels as if he made contact with a metal bat that swung at him with all the batter''s might. At first, he literally saw bright flashes of light equivalent to stars, there is no pain or burn. He is stunned and shocked realizing that something awful has happened. He can hear a ring vibrating in his ears continuously. Then - he felt something wet oozing out of his forehead, the left side of his forehead was completely numb as he lay on his back in the dusty arena. He knows where he is, he knows what he is there for and what happened. Both of his eyes are closed, he can hear the shouts of people. He knows he is directly under a tree, his head in the lap of his Grandpa. "Try opening your eyes, Faust, you have a mountain to conquer." Gus asks while running his fingers through the strands of his hair. "I''m afraid I lost my eye. I cannot open." Faust says in a scared tone, he wants to assess himself if he lost his sight or if it is blurry, but it is too painful for him to open his eyes. "It is okay! Grandpa is here! I will fix you up in no time, open your eyes." Gus assures Faust. As he opens his eyes, he sees the branches of a green tree, rustling leaves due to cold breeze. Under the tree, he sees the smiling face of his grandfather. Immediately, after he flutters his eyelashes. He sees people yelling at him from behind the walls. Every Time he blinks, it is becoming painful, "Are you awake?" The referee comes up to check upon Faust. "Gr-grandpa?" Faust asks as it is too bright for him to see anything, he needs to force himself to open his eyes and all he sees is white lights falling onto his eyes directly. "Are you done? Do you wanna quit?" The referee asks as he sees Faust laying on the floor from two minutes. "No! I''m okay!" Faust replies to the referee without thinking. "Okay! Try to get up on your feet." The referee suggests, but as he tries to get up, his head is spinning and it hurts like hell. He slowly touches his forehead as he feels cold fluids oozing out, flowing from in between his eyebrows to the sides of his nose. As he touches, it feels sticky and squishy with lots of liquid, he brings his hand in front of him and its blood on his hands, flowing from his forehead where the skin is cut open. He realised he fucked up big time. He tries to stand on his feet but his vision is getting blurry, he somehow manages to get up on his feet and starts searching for his sword which he thought he left on the ground somewhere. "It is right in front of you!" He hears a voice He keeps searching in front of him but all sees are sand and dirt. "I said in front." The voice resonates from his front. As he raises his head up, he sees Kira with his sword in his hands, Kira plays with the sword shuffling it in his hands and throws it far behind him near the audience "FAUST! GIVE UP AND COME HOME ALIVE." Elton yells from the noble''s balcony as tears are pouring down his eyes. No matter how tough the competition is, Elton and the others thought they would win! With Faust on their side, they hoped it would be a walk in the park. But not against a general, they are all prepared for what is about to come their way. "Jo-johnny!" His eyes widen as he realises his purpose, he is entirely taken by the pain that he forgot why he is struggling in the arena. "Why do you keep getting up on your feet? You are weak! Did you have anyone that you wanted to protect? I''m sure you do and you did not protect them. Because being this weak, You won''t be able to protect anyone! Just like that woman and her house." 176 Rage *Thud* Another hit on Faust''s head! This time he does not understand what had happened, he looks at Kira who is wearing a cocky smile on his face. But Kira does a favor for Faust, he takes off his gloves and punches Faust with his bare knuckles. The Mighty general might have developed a soft spot for Faust. "Wake up! or I will hit you again!" Kira yells at Faust who is breathing heavily, laying on his back on the ground. The words immediately lit a spark in the heart of Faust! "Wake up! I want to fight you." is how the words echoed in the ears of Faust. He immediately got up on his feet. Every muscle and fiber in his body is twitching as he forces himself to stand up on his wobbling foot. *Thud* Another hit onto his forehead, the cut keeps hurting him more with every beating he takes. "A battle to the death! That is the only thing that can help you ascend this human body! " Daniel sputters under his breath, relishing the bloody mess in front of him. Faust shoves the tired body up on his feet again, blurry vision and died blood caked all over his face, his almost wasted body is leaning to one side completely, while he is staggering on the verge of fainting, he tries to calculate for an opening to get a chance to teleport near Kira to land a lethal attack. To his surprise, before Faust could make a move, Kira disappeared and appeared right in front of him. "Dammit! I''m slow again!" Faust can determine that Kira is in front of him ready to throw his punches onto his already wounded head. Yet, Faust'' body did not respond as he wants and another hit directed on his head, but this time Faust blocked the punch with both of his hands on his forehead, palms facing out. He escaped a smirk for being able to obstruct the punch. Faust'' stupidity is annoying Kira more rather than amusing him. He grits his teeth in anger. "Why don''t you just stay down?" Kira lands another hit on the palms of Faust. Where now, the punch is swift and heavy, Faust, rather than being able to block the punch, he hit himself back due to the force of the impact. His knuckles struck back on his cut, splattering out blood and the numbness suddenly turned into a sharp pain. The cut is opened more and Kira is only targeting his wound over and over. He is showing no kind of mercy to Faust, landing thunder-like punches, his arms are r?esembling pistons that are pounding on Faust and all Faust is doing is blocking them with his hands while being overwhelmed by pain. His eyes are starting to pour down involuntarily, "Kira! He is just a soldier class! What is taking you so long? kill him if you need to use all of your strength!" Suddenly a scream is heard from the balcony. The old minister jumps out of his chair, coming to the edge of the balcony, he places his hands on the railing, leans over and yells at Kira to end the fight quickly. Also saying how according to nobles, Faust is still being seen as a mere soldier. He became a captain only because of Tsumugi and normally it takes a person at least four years to become a captain class. "I cannot wait! he he he - I cannot fucking wait!" The face of the mister turns dark, his white hair which is divided in the middle falls onto his face as he smiles creepily. "I cannot wait to kick that woman out! Imagine the things I''m going to do to her once she is kicked out of the house!" He exclaims in front of eleven nobles and three royals. "I will make her my slave and she will become my own personal toy, I will make her do everything that she has never even imagined doing in her life." saliva drools from his stinking mouth as he declares his desires. "Like we will let that happen you thick head!" Carlos says in an arrogant tone as he lays back on his chair and munching on some snacks. Faust realizes that he is talking about Tsumugi, he is getting pushed back slowly with each punch from Kira. Under the raining punches, Faust turns towards Tsumugi. "Clara?" Faust is surprised, his arms are loosened, even Kira is surprised seeing Faust softening his defense. Clara is the teacher of Faust who took care of him when he is eleven-years-old, she is considerate and kind to him when the whole village despised his existence. "Faust! Clara is kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend and his hired goons." "I will bring her back!" - "We found her body in the area, she has been dead for three days." "No" "They punched her brutally, even for us guards who are trained to be strong mentally, it''s hard to imagine what she has gone through." "They punched her face alone for thirty-three times, raped her, her insides are cut and torn. killed her and raped her body again before finally burning her dead body." "Please say it slowly, a kid is living in next door!" "Come down to the villa later to identify and collect her body." "So it happened because she has to live alone outside without any of her family members supporting her." "She would have been alive if she is living with her dad!" "I''m sorry Clara!" Faust weeps while looking towards Tsumugi. As his eyes clear, he looks at Tsumugi who is concerningly watching him. "She doesn''t deserve any of it." "HUH? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SAYING! YOU ARE DYING TODAY!" Kira while shouting his lungs out in rage keeps punching Faust repeatedly. "Over and over and over and over and over! How many times you wanna hit my wound?" Faust looking down grinds his teeth slowly, he clenches his jaw as his body is vibrating vigorously as his anger is building up, he loses all of his strength and collapses onto the ground lifelessly. The whole Arena is resonating with the beauty of silence. Everyone can hear the sound of their heart pounding fast and racing within their chest. They all are concerned about Faust, while the old minister and Kira are celebrating. "If only he possesses an ounce of Spiritual power! The outcome of this matchup could be different." Thorik utters his pities for Faust in his words, he can in a way relate to Faust since he himself was ridiculed in the past for having less Spiritual power. "Even if he possess spiritual power! You cannot foresee the fact that he is up against a general class!" Carlos adds his sympathies. Faust is on the ground, laying on his face. The referee paces inside the arena towards Faust, to confirm if he is still conscious. The void that is surrounding in the Arena is suddenly shattered by a loud noise caused by lightning in the clouds. Everyone is equally surprised and are looking at the sky in confusion, but Daniel alone is shocked by the incident. "Where is he getting all this power from?" Daniel mutters under his breath while looking at Faust who is lying lifeless in the dirt. Leviathan catches what Daniel has spoken, he turns back in surprise "I-Is this his doing father?" He asks Daniel in a rather hasty tone. Daniel does not reply but he keeps glaring at Faust. "What is happening?" Kira asks himself while looking at the sky. By this time, the whole sky is taken over by thick dark clouds, turning the day into night. *swoosh~~* In no time, air circles around Faust and suddenly black aura is seen oozing from his skin. *Thud!!* The air is gushing out from his premises and the ground beneath him is slowly shattering around his body. "Father! I-is that your doing?" Leviathan asks with a blank face as he is staring into the sky. Daniel follows him to take a look at the thing that made his son stutter. Daniel is in disbelief, the cloud right above the arena has a clean huge hole in between with the centre sucking the air surrounding it. As everyone is watching the sky in amusement, Faust''s body shows movement and the whole cloud is divided into two, making it look like as if the sky itself is split into two. "Is it done finally? hahaha! The key to the god''s realm! Dream of Mankind from centuries. Will they make the most of it? Or will they fall victim?" Far away in the fifth dimension of spirits, Uriel, the ruler of the dimension is alarmed by the aura that is released from Faust. In the same moment, the Kings and Rulers of every other existing dimension feel the presence of Faust just like Uriel. Meanwhile, Faust''s body starts moving by floating in the air and stands on its own, his eyes look lifeless, he does not blink even once and keeps staring like a lifeless doll. The black stone that is on his armlet releases black mist-like aura, the cloud of mist immediately wraps around his whole left arm, tearing the long sleeves of his white shirt. Soon the black cloud devours his whole body like a different entity taking over him with his eyes last to be devoured before his whole body is mummified with black mist. Shortly, as the mist is starting to clear from the top, Faust is seen with long spiky black hair that is up to his waist, his hair has grown long in the small-time, his eyes are closed and the wound on his forehead is completely healed. The black mist disappears into thin air unveiling his upper body, his already worn-out shirt fell off as it could not handle the immense pressure of the aura emitting from his body, showing his broad shoulders and sturdy chest that look like strong armoured plates, followed by his well defined abdominal muscles and strong lats muscles that form the perfect V below his navel. There are some uncertain marks present on his face as well. A black line is drawn just under his eyes on the lower eyelid in the form of the crescent moon that begins and end with a small stroke on the tear duct and outer ''V''. Another mark of a closed eyelid forms on his forehead, inches above where both of his eyebrows meet. His body slowly hits the ground, landing on his feet. slowly opening his eyes. At this very same moment the sword of Ashura in the main building which was said to be gifted by demons, shows a very slight moment as one side of the sword falls from the stand that is balancing it. *hrrrrrrrr hrrrrrrr!* After opening his eyes, his eyes fiercely scan everyone in front of him in a swift movement. His breath almost sounds like the growl of a hungry beast who was searching for his prey. His eyes catch the purple katana that is given to him by Neith while he lived under her care. He stretches his right hand to the back of his waist as he draws the sword, a portal opens behind him and a pitch-black coloured sword with golden carvings, surfaces in his hands. As soon as the handle of the katana is in his grip, the sword starts to vibrate vigorously. The blade is striking against the scabbard from inside that produces a strange stuttering sound across the Arena. Only one person in the whole Arena recognizes the sword that he is holding ''Fukitsuna Masamune'', the unholy sword that is used by Ares! But she is in disbelief to see the sword appear before her after thirty years and the colour of the sword is changed from white to black. Elizabeth comes forward from her seat while glaring at the sword, the expressions on her face a combination of fear and shock. "He has two swords?" Being surprised, Tsumugi asks her squad in a low voice without being able to divert her eyes from the divine form of Faust. "The hell are you brat? You think you can scare me with this puny exhibition?" Kira yells from the other side of the Arena. The purple stone on his glove starts to glimmer and he rushes towards Faust. It all happened very quickly for the people in the Arena. Faust just stood there with his sword in his hands, he did not attack or defend. Gaurda is behind him with his back against Faust and a decapitated leg is seen twirling in the air. 177 Inhuman Kira''s face turns pale in shock as he sees a decapitated leg twirling in the air before him. He senses a minor tingling in his right hip and before he could realise, he screams from the top of his lungs. His right leg is amputated from his thigh. He quickly steps back, increasing the distance between him and Faust to avoid more fatal blows. Every person in the crowd stands on their feet to witness what really happened. They see Kira hopping on one leg, trying to get away from Faust in fear with blood dripping from his hips. They look at Faust and he did not even draw the sword out of his scabbard. "I don''t know how he is doing this and I don''t care but, if this helps him win, I will support him from the core of my heart." Witnessing the power of the new Faust, Elton yells out with happy tears flowing from his eyes. - Faust is sitting in a squat position in a dark room without a single person or building in sight. He is hugging his knees and staring at the darkness without life in his eyes. He does not seem to be concerned with his surroundings or his well being. "Faust! Knock him out and we will be safe and together as a family again!" In the darkness, Faust''s ears perk up as he listens to the words. "I-Is it Elton? I cannot tell but, if only I can knock him out and win for real. He is stronger than me." Faust mutters in the gloom, looking for the medium he heard the voice from. Later, he scratches it off thinking that the voice he heard is only his inner voice. - "Beat Kira to a pulp and win right? Will that make you feel good?" A sudden creepy smile surfaces on the face of Faust that is standing in the arena, he turns towards Kira who is busy using his Healing element to stop the blood loss from his thighs. "Leave it to me!" The medium inside Faust'' body says in a groan filled Holding his sword with his right in front of him. With a gentle push on the handguard with his thumb, Faust unshackles the lock of the handguard that is holding the sword inside. And as the silver gleam of the lustrous blade is exposed he moves his hand down the scabbard from the handguard. With a deep breath, Faust leaps forward slamming the sword upside down on the ground. As the scabbard hit the ground, the already drawn-out sword flung back into his hand in a flashy way and he starts charging towards Kira in lightning speed. *Clank* In a blink, Faust is in front of Kira landing a powerful strike onto his neck. Faust tries to decapitate Kira'' head with a horizontal slash which is blocked by Kira in a boxing style, Kira tilts to the left and puts both of his hands up in front of his face, blocking the strike with the metal on his gloves. To his surprise, the thick metal on his gloves did not break but revealed dents as the metal is almost squashed with brittles starting to form on the edges. "You should not attack me, head-on kid! Did you forget who I am?" Kira''s eyes turn purple and the purple stone on his hand is opened at four places as its combination lock is opened. "So this is what you need to become a General?" Leviathan asks Daniel looking at him from the corner of his eye. "Yes! You need to know how to bring out the true potential of the elemental stones and you also need to be able to handle that immense amount of power." Daniel explains to his son who aspires to become a general in two years. *"I will be there before you!"* Leviathan glares at Faust. Leviathan is the youngest captain in the house until Faust show up. He was hailed as a genius and true prodigy. He has the talent and resources to climb up the ladder easily. But Faust came out of nowhere and took his spotlight as the youngest captain. At first, everyone scratched it off as a boy who got lucky because of the sacrifice made by his house leader. He was seen lower than a soldier class. "That new captain did not have any spiritual power it seems! And he is from the lower city! A mere commoner he is" "That youngest captain lost to Thorik''s house! The match ended in the first two minutes haha. And they made him a captain! Hah." But with time, everything changed about Faust. "His physical abilities are on a whole different level!" "I heard that he ran all twenty laps around that huge training ground!" "No way! That is only possible for the elites. Are you telling me he is not a soldier class anymore?" "Did you all see that weird power? I don''t know what he is using but his powers are so unique." "So it seems that he can teleport and it is due to his black stone. How is that even possible?" "He is chosen by the black stone! Do you know what they say about them? They say that the black stone users are the emperors of hell." Leviathan felt as though all the attention he receives is snatched away by Faust. And he wants to snatch it back towards him by reaching the general class faster than Faust. "HAVE A TASTE OF GENERAL''S POWER!" Kira gestures his hand like he is pulling down a bolt of lightning from within the clouds onto Faust and jumps back with a rage-filled heart. He lifts his head to watch Faust burn to a crisp. A gigantic thunderbolt coils around the black clouds like a dragon taking its momentum before raining down on its prey. After gathering thunder from all the clouds the thunderbolt came down onto Faust in a blink like a burning phoenix that wants to electrocute everything in its path. "This is going to be my complete victory" Kira mumbles in a low voice. *snap* The care-free smiling face of Kira turns ghastly with him just staring at Faust with his mouth open. He does not hear any sound coming from his surroundings. Being scared, he looks for his family leader, the old minister. But he too seems scared and cowers back in his seat. Not being able to figure out something, Kira scans throughout the arena and comes across the royal family, he notices that Leviathan is on his feet with a shocked expression on his face along with Elizabeth. Daniel did not stand up but he is one the edge of his seat with a serious face. Kira does not get anything. He keeps watching the expressions of the people around him. He looks at Faust who is staring back towards him without an expression on his face, All the people start whispering to each other without knowing what happened. Everyone is as puzzled as Kira. *"Is this what the prophets describe as astonished beyond astonishment? Form of a mortal fearing a divine being? And it did not happen with one person! It happened with every person in the Arena. Everyone felt as if they have skipped a frame in their lives."* Daniel who watched everything that happened, describes the situation as a scrummage. Everyone remembers seeing the gigantic thunderbolt just above Faust, feet away from hitting him and all of a sudden it disappears into nothing with a snap from Faust. "Father! Tell me you saw it!" Leviathan asks Daniel in disbelief. "I did!" "I saw him erasing the Thunderbolt!" Daniel responds with a small unseen smile. *"The humanoid that is made by combining the energy stones! There is no doubt about it!"* Daniel laughs in a low voice while talking to himself. *"Did he reach that level already?"* On the other hand, Leviathan clenches his fists tight as his eyebrows meet each other. Meanwhile, Faust disappears from his standing point. Kira is stunned and did not know how to defend himself if Faust approaches him an attack again. And as anticipated, Faust appears before Kira and this time Faust held the sword with both of his hands, he stretched his arms behind his head from the top. As though he is treating his sword like a sledgehammer launching an attack with all of his strength. The fierce slash came down again onto Kira, except this time, there are tons of weights behind the slash and surprisingly, they fall onto Kira'' gloves again. *"What is this? I did not see the attack but my hands blocked it? My body responded on pure instincts?"* Kira thinks, as he himself is surprised to be able to block the attack. *Clank~* Other thunderous sounds resonate in the whole arena, the steels are colliding over and over without surrendering to each other. Friction becomes visible to eyes in the form of fireworks coming out of the collision. But with each strike from Faust''s sword onto the metal gloves of Kira. Brittle cracks start to appear as the metal is crumbling into particles, not being to able to withstand the barrage of sword attacks. Faust is completely overwhelming Kira by pushing him back to his end of the Arena. Shortly, the brittle cracks open and drops of blood are seen sprinkling onto the face of Faust. "DAMMIT!!! STOP IT BASTARD! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?" Kira cries in pain. His fingers are seen flying in the air between the two. His metal gloves gave up and broke long ago and if Kira does not block Faust'' sword coming his way, Faust will surely land a fatal blow which will result in the instant death of Kira. So he has no choice but to keep his hands in between the sword and his body and Faust neatly chopped his fingers, his nails are plucked from his fingers and are neatly trimmed along with both of his thumbs. The way Faust moved and attacked left everyone open-mouthed. It is an unexpected and surprising situation to witness a soldier inflicting deadly damage to a General. "SHIT SHIT SHIT! How did you become powerful suddenly? Don''t you think that you can leave this arena alive! I-if you kill me here, your house will get disqualified and you will be kicked out for killing me. And if you win over me, the minister will forever haunt you to the ends of this world to kill you for sure." "You cannot defy a noble and live in this house! Just give up and I will make it look like you are a hair away from the win. People will think that you almost got me. What else do you want? You will be recognised as a captain who came close with a Genera." "Huh? Just give up this fight and you will live!" Kira stretches his bleeding hand towards Faust with a grin filled with new plans. Faust sheaths his sword back into the black scabbard, letting out a sigh in relief. The corners of Kira'' lips stretch back to his jaws to a creepy smile, upon realizing that Faust is giving up on the fight. "Huh?" Shortly, his smile is replaced with fear and confusion in his eyes as Faust opens the palm of his hand. *THUB~* In between the whole arena, as everyone is watching, Faust punches Kira on the side of his face. And with cracking sounds, burying his face into the ground and dislocating his jaw. Faust is gritting his teeth hardly while clenching his jaws tight. His face is shaking in rage, he sits on top of Kira and keeps punching his face over n over. His punches keeping messing up his already dislocated jaw, his nose was broken and his face is cut at multiple places. Faust'' knuckles are greasy with the blood, he kept punching the bloody face of Kira like a maniac who wants to kill him. He enjoys every punch that buried in the flesh and covers him in blood. Faust enjoys it immensely and does not stop anytime soon. "Fucker! Trying to scare me? I don''t like it when people try to scare me, it makes me want to break their skull, gauge their eyes, take their brains out with my hand and fuck them up so badly that they will know the difference between a real demon and a wannabe." Faust keeps raging without settling down after going so far, he cleans the bloody face of Kira with his shirt. After looking at Kira'' unconscious face for a while, a small pocket knife is teleported into Faust'' hands. "IT MAKES ME FUCKING MAD IF SOMEONE JUST" Faust groans with his clenched teeth as he carefully places the pocket knife on the lips of Kira. "Don''t you ever try to scare me!" "Don''t you!" Being enraged, Faust hastily pushes the knife into the mouth of Kira and with the sharp end on Kira''s inner cheeks. "EVER!" He cuts both the corners of his lips back to his jaws. "EVER!" Faust does not stop there, he brings the knife back to the middle of Kira'' mouth and with the sharp end of the knife on his tongue. "EVER!" He shreds Kira'' tongue over n over into fine chops of flesh as the blood spilt all over Faust'' face. Faust smiles brightly as he is performing this act that left everyone in the arena speechless. Tsumugi widens her eyes and cries as she covers her mouth with one of her hands. Instantly, A huge shadow appears before Faust. Faust immediately raises his head sensing a person in front of him but before that. Hand of that person is already inches away from Faust''s chest. The hand is not balled into a fist but the hand is folded and the thumb and middle fingers are joined. *TIC~* The person flicks Faust in his chest and in a blink, Faust is Blown away to a whooping Twenty feet and gets buried inside the walls of the arena. *"So that is what he is capable of"* Faust closes his eyes. 178 True Power of a Hunter Instantly, A huge shadow appears before Faust. Faust immediately raises his head sensing a person in front of him but before that, a hand of the huge person is already inches away from Faust''s chest. The hand is not balled into a fist but the hand is folded and the thumb and middle fingers are joined. *TIC~* The person gives a gentle flick with his fingertips on Faust'' chest right in the middle and in a blink, Faust is Blown away to a whopping Twenty feet and gets buried inside the walls of the arena. *"So that is what he is capable of"* Faust slowly closes his eyes eyeing on the person before him. "You don''t need to hurt him so badly! He is still a member of our house!" Daniel tells the person that sent Faust flying into the wall. "I held back myself quite a lot! If he had control over him, he wouldn''t have gotten hurt." Moon Byul, The three-star general of the house replies to Daniel. Faust, the mysterious kid who overpowered a general and left everyone in a shock is taken down with just a flick from Moon Byul. "Dammit! what did we witness today? Lord Moon Byul took that kid down very easily!" "And that kid took down a general very easily." "I don''t think I will be able to have a good sleep tonight!" The crowd has witnessed something incredible with how Faust kept fighting against all odds by winning over a general and then seeing how powerful the three-star general is to be able to take down Faust with just one flick. "Of course what would you expect? There are only three to five generals in every house that achieved the same level of Moon Byul. And there is only one Moon Byul in our house so. Of course, he is strong!" Elton keeps glancing at the sun rays that are trying to shine brightly from behind the clouds. It looks like a hot burning ball of fire striving its way to dry the massive oceans to make its mark. - "Fausto! Wake up, buddy! wakey wakey, daddy''s here." In the building of Tsumugi, Awarnach whispers into the ears of Faust who was asleep for the past three weeks. "Faust, I bought your favourite sweets that you die for, the spongy, milky, creamy sweets are waiting for you, wake up...." Cameron wearing a black tank top stands on the other side of the bed. Leaning down towards Faust while gently arranging the strands of her hair to the back of her ear with her fingertips. "Faust, we are the new talk of the town now! wake up fast! There are lots of girls that I want to introduce to you hehehe." Elton whispers into his ears slowly, rejoicing the fact that he has become popular among the house and the female soldiers. "I-I would prefer you all to keep quiet or talk in a low voice." The doctor treating Faust says in a shy, low voice. He is tall and slender with a pair of Buddy Holly glasses. "Hey keep it low guys, remember what the doc said? WE SHOULD NOT DISTURB HIM!" Tsumugi yells at the three that are potentially ''disturbing'' Faust. "You are the one who is louder than anyone in the entire room lady Tsumugi!" Elton declares without thinking twice. He just said what came to his mind. "How dare you speak to Lady Tsumugi in that rude way? Give me an order milady, I will dissect his mini Eiffel Tower and will make it into a tunnel!" Charles the head butler slides his way into the scene. His right hand on his heart and his head lowered gracefully as he asks Tsumugi''s permission to handle Elton''s gender. "I-I just¡­ Plea¡­. Quie?" The doc does not get anything that is happening which is turning into potential chaos and he tries to command everyone to talk in a low voice but his low voice is dominated by the mess made by Tsumugi''s family. "Huhhhhh? What does that even mean you, butler! Stop talking about weird stuff." Elton lashes back at Charles as he clenches his fists and leaps forward but is stopped by Awarnach who held Elton by his waist, without letting him go towards Charles. "Butler? But he is a butler! That is no insulting word for a butler John!" Cameron corrects Elton. "Ca- yo- guy- qu-qui-quiet?" The doc is still trying to calm everyone. He goes inside the mob, he places his hands on the shoulders of Charles to calm him down. "Give me orders milady! Give me orders milady!" Charles still stays with composure, his head is still looking down and his hand on his heart. He keeps asking Tsumugi gracefully to leave the situation in his hands. "Do not touch my tuxedo with your dirty hands, sir." Charles pushes the doc who approached him with a good cause. like a flea who does not have any importance. "N-no g-guys! L-listen.* The doc comes back into the fighting crowd and this time he tries to calm Elton and holds both of Elton''s hands to confiscate him from moving too much. Elton pulls the doc by his hands, lifts him like a doll by holding his hands and throws him aside. "STAY EFFIN QUIET." Having had enough, the doc explodes onto everyone. "I just told you he is gaining his conscious and I would appreciate it if you guys don''t send him back to his sleep with these melodramatic dialogues." The doctor decides to stop the crazy people from disturbing his patient. - "So my lord, your take is that this kid named Faust is the humanoid that left the mainland fifteen years ago?" Moon Byul humbly raises a question to Daniel in the meeting room. Every noble of the house with Moon Byul, excluding a noble from Tsumugi''s family, sits on a round table talking about the incidents happened in the purge. "Yes! And I guess he does not know how to use his powers to full potential yet, which is a piece of good news for us. And to have a powerful humanoid in our house would benefit us. " Daniel lays down his thoughts on the table for everyone. "He is a golden goose that we need to raise with care!" He exclaims with an evil grin as several plots go through his head. "I look forward to the future of our house. Luck is on our side and it''s our turn to create a new era!" "Keep this a confidential matter, restrain yourselves from talking to others about this. This needs to stay between us fifteen members, no one other than us should know about this." Daniel warns every noble of the house to keep Faust a secret. He has other plans to make it work with Faust without letting anyone know about him. - In the ''Palace of God'' that is in between the two nations governing the mortals. Inside a golden hall, where everything except the white floor is pure gold. Walls and pillars made of gold, decorated with jewels, chains and gems of red and blue colours. The ceiling all coated in gold and dressed in small diamonds that sparkle like stars. A blind man is guided by a royal guard in the middle of the hall on a black carpet with gold embroidered flowers. He walks up to a throne adorned with gems and diamonds on an eight-foot stage. Both, the blind man and the royal guard bent on one of his knees, lowering their heads out of respect for the supreme being seated on the Throne in royal clothes. "Your majesty!" The old blind man carefully addresses the person on the throne while telling himself not to make any blunders in addressing the person and at the same time fearing not to anger him by any kind of news that makes the person on throne unpleasant. Immediately, that person gestures his hand to stop and the royal guard who guided the blind man holds his arm from beside while tightly squeezing to make the blind man understands that the ''God'' the strongest man on earth does not want him to speak. The God then moves his hand facing the royal guard who guided the blind man and jerks his hand up gesturing him to speak first. "Y-your majesty! News from the House Of Asuras, The purge that has happened last week gave them a rather strong soldier who impressed many nobles. And Daniel speculated that the soldier might be the defective humanoid that our palace tried to get rid of years ago." The guard informs the news that is thought to be confidential in the house of Asura''s. The God then again placing his hand in front of the guard flicks his hand out as he is trying to shake off, gesturing the guard to leave the hall. The person stands up with his head lowered down, takes two steps back while still bowing down to the God, turns back and walks away. "Ahem" After the guard has left the hall, God signals the blind man that he can speak now. "Forgive me, your majesty! It is about the defective humanoid that we brought back after all these years. He is making good progress.!" The blind man informs about the same humanoid that is known to go out of the main country with the help of a doctor years ago. "Forgive me, your majesty! It is about the imperfect humanoid that we brought back after all these years. He is making good progress.!" The blind man notifies about the same humanoid that is known to escape out of the main country with the help of a doctor years ago. The mortal that is continuing to receive praisings as a God in the realm of mortals. Elohim sits on the throne with his right hand supporting his chin while the other hand on the hand rest. He is wearing a long gown of gold, a spirally spun gold strip, adorned with coronation robes which is also woven the same way with gold. On both his shoulders are chains from one end to another that hold his robe together. "Well, well if it isn''t for the best of my lord. Let the houses think that the soldier is that humanoid with an infinite amount of energy while we train the real one inside the palace in secret and make him our dog." "He will be decisive to plunder the thirteenth dimension! And once we succeed, all the stones we will enough stones in our hands to keep our earth running for the next ten centuries wagagagaga." Ivor the royal advisor for Elohim comes forth from behind the throne with happy smiles he expresses his feelings freely. Ivor turns back to Elohim to accept the words of praise from the god for his exceptional plans. But surprisingly he receives stares from Elohim who looks pissed. *"Huh? What is wrong? Did I say anything wrong? Why does my lord looks like he is ready to execute a royal advisor."* Ivor turns pale upon catching Elohim''s piercing glares. With a heavy sigh, Elohim settles himself in the throne adjusting his robe without getting it in between his legs. He looks a little old for a God as he hits mid-thirties a day ago. Thirty-six and the strongest mortal alive. "Be it earth or any other dimension you are in, be it gold, wood or paper. The walls always have ears, Ivor. " Elohim explains to Ivor. *"Dammit! I should have known better, I''m a useless adviser if I''m not even aware of my surroundings."* Ivor dramatically hides his face to show everyone how guilty he is. to may have leaked some important plans of his lord. "Anyway, His name is Markos, Abraham. Stop calling him it or this. Even though he is a humanoid, he is like us." Elohim only shows his kind side to the people very close to him. One is his blind teacher who taught him life and the other is his close friend. "And we are dealing with generals Ivor! They are considered as the most powerful in the world. We need better plans to keep Markos a secret. You are my friend so I have you as my adviser, Ivor. But please don''t come up with any plans. Let me plan out everything accordingly." Elohim states out everything to Abraham, the old blind man from the retirement house and his friend/advisor Ivor. "And I have heard about the fourteen-year-old soldier who defeated a general class. It is not an easy feat to pull off, nor is the general a pushover. And also he uses a sword, a real one. So I want you to keep an eye on him as well." Elohim is the kind of person who keeps friends close and enemies closer. The network that the people of God''s Palace is so vast that they can keep an eye on each and every person of the world. - "Fausto! You are finally awake my boy, let''s go party on this occasion." Awarnach yells with enthusiasm upon seeing Faust. "Awarnach, we literally spoke to each other after I woke up. I just went to take a bath and here I am, it hasn''t been days." Faust responds to the little over-enthusiastic Awarnach. "Yes, but let''s go to the party!" "Wha-what party Awarnach?" "Oh, Faust! you are out! here, take this attire and suit yourself. We have a medal ceremony to attend." Tsumugi ran into both Faust and Awarnach, hands Faust his military ceremony clothes to get ready for the awards. "Oh, it is not done yet? So we did not give Auntie her previous leader position yet?" Faust asks in curiosity/ "Of Course not, we denied receiving medals without our captain. And without the winning team, they cannot really hold a ceremony so they had to wait till you are back from your nap." Awarnach explains to him what has happened. Faust realizes that it is rather important and heads to change his clothes. Once everyone is ready, Tsumugi and her family head towards the main building for the ceremony. Faust wears a white long sleeve shirt tucked into black pants with red stripes on the side, a black coat on the shirt which is up to his waist. And a black cape up to his feet. The right side of the cape is buttoned on the right shoulder, exposing his right arm. While the cape on the left arm is buttoned below his collar. The Japanese kanji word for ''Ashura'' is printed on the left side of his cape and He is wearing knee-length black shoes that tightly gripped his calves. The other members of his squad are wearing the same clothes without a cape. Tsumugi is wearing a figure-hugging, sparkling mini dress with long sleeves while her husband is wearing a tuxedo. "Wow, we came to the main building in the morning and noon but what is this? Is it this pretty at night?" Faust is in amazement upon seeing the main building. The main building is lighted with many colours and the full moon glittering in cantaloupe behind the palace-like building. From twenty-feet to the building, a red carpet welcomes you that goes all the way inside the building. Thin wooden pillars are planted on both sides of the carpet and small lights connect the tinder on both sides which becomes a roof made with lights that glow in yellow and green. The texture of the red carpet also seems different. Every step you take, the carpet glows in bright red under your feet. The main building is tall with four floors. The founder of the house Ashura comes from Japanese inheritance, whereas his wife, mother of Lady Tsumugi comes from a Spanish background. The house is a mix of both cultures, The main building is a combination of three buildings in reverse ''U'' shape. A sakura blossom tree present in the middle of all three buildings, which is again wrapped in small led lights that glow in yellow, blue and green. In front of the main building, three wooden fire torches are glowing in red as the ember is burning brightly. Two more torches on each side of the entrance in front of the main door. One torch is placed on top of the whole building as the torch of Olympus. 180 Duality? "I''m actually planning to make a new squad by recruiting new people. So we need five new elemental stones without the air (green) or explosive (red) element." Faust''s lips form a small curve that turns into a smirk. Fab is surprised at how far his thinking is. While Tsumugi is regretting for not thinking the way that Faust is thinking. "You heard him, Mr Robert! Other than air and explosive elements, please give me five different attributes." As soon as Tsumugi turns back to face Robert, his face goes back to the kind old person who looks like he is ready to do a favor for anyone at any time. "Ahhh, let me¡­ take a quick look here." Robert takes out each elemental stone out of the pouch. His quivering hands show the signs of his ageing. He chooses a white stone, which enhances the physical properties. A yellow stone (Light element), a blue stone (Ice element), purple stone (Lightning element) and last but considered most rare an orange stone (Healing element). "So you only need five stones, if I eliminate four air element ones and one explosive. You get a white one, light element, ice element, lightning and a healing one." Robert divide the 10 stones into only five and five with each different attribute other than Red and Green stones since Rachel, Fab and Jonathan already have their elemental stones. "I guess it will be... Hmm, let me count, 120,000kani for a red stone and 200,000kani for one green stone. In total for four green and one red you get 920,000kani." Robert does his calculations in front of Tsumugi and her squad. "9-9-920,000kanissss." Fab loses his sanity hearing the number, his eyes widen and the mouth opens in awe. *"With this money, we can renovate and repair our house. We will still have some money left with us."* Tsumugi goes through her plans she has in her mind. "Pretty good, we would like to tra-" "Auntie-" Before Tsumugi says that she likes the offer and going to take the money. Faust intervenes again with his innocent call. "Youngins these days stick their noses where they do not belong." As soon as Tsumugi turns her head around to face Faust, Robert utters words of insolence. He looks at Faust as nothing but a mere commoner, and when Faust is interrupting the talk between two nobles, it is hurting his pride. Tsumugi''s ears catch the words expressed by Robert, she stifles the words which almost escaped her mouth and turned towards Faust again to ask him. "What happened again, Faust?" "Well¡­" With a pause, Faust turns his eyes to look at Robert for a brief moment. He then turns his eyes back to Tsumugi to add. "Let''s not sell the stones. I want to recruit more soldiers so let''s save them." "Huh? Tsumugi takes a step forward bending her upper body to hear him again. "Yes, I want to recruit more." "But Faust, we need the money to repair our house and to expand it, let''s recruit only four for now and we can recruit the remaining later." Tsumugi says with a concerning tone and pleading face, she is praying inside that Faust is not plotting something inside. He never went against her till now, and she is hoping he wouldn''t in this matter as well. "Trust me, auntie, I want to recruit more. Trust me on this and come with me." Faust too speaks in the same desperation. He looks at both Fab who is shocked by his behaviour and Tsumugi who is confused. With a heavy sigh, Tsumugi turns towards Robert. She took a large gulp of air. "Mr Robert, I guess I will come tomorrow to trade the stones. Please forgive our rudeness." Tsumugi bows her head while Fab and Faust bow their upper bodies in respect. Robert is a noble of the main building and an elder. Of course, you need to show respect for petty old nobles. Robert did not need to reply to Tsumugi. His eyes said it all. He is furious and pissed off because of Faust. "Faust! Why did you behave like that in there? What are we going to do without money!" After coming out of the Trade block, Tsumugi started asking questions and the reason why Faust did not let her sell the stones. "I felt like he is paying us less for the stones." Faust says while holding his chin. "HUH? WHAT? You felt that he is giving you less money? Is that why you brought us outside?" Tsumugi and Fab yells in the face of Faust. He has no plans to recruit people, but he just brought them back because he thought Robert is giving less price for the stones. "Eh, Don''t worry, I will explain to you both once we reach home." "You better!" "You better Fausto! That is 920k we refused." All three of them returns to the main building to meet with the rest of their squad and later leaves to their home. - "So, do you care to explain why you refused the trade?" After returning home, Tsumugi obstructs Faust from entering his room to ask him as she crosses her arms while questioning him. "I told you, auntie, he is cheating you people. We get more than 920k for five stones." Faust explains to them how he felt that the deal is wrong. "I''m going back to the lower city for a few days. I need to visit the school and while I''m there, I will sell these five stones for you guys at a higher price and will send the money your way." Faust opens his altered space to his left to take out his luggage bag and starts packing his clothes. "W-wait, you are leaving? But you are the captain here. Also, you can go to school in the upper city. All the kids of nobles and houses study in that school. There might also be kids from other families in there." Tsumugi advises to him. "Ahhh, you see, I promised my principal that I will participate in the coming school festival. So I need to go and finish one year of my high school there and then I can transfer to the upper city one." "Huh? Which stupid school principal asked you to participate in the school festival?" Tsumugi asks in an annoying voice. "Ehh, don''t call him stupid auntie, he is the one who gave me the black stone for free. He''s a good guy, principal of the Medellin High school." Tsumugi dumbstruck hears the words, she does not talk or move for a while. "Auntie? Are you okay?" Faust with gives a jerk on Tsumugi''s shoulder to snap her back to reality. "H-he gave you the black stone?" Tsumugi asks one more time as if she''s trying to confirm something. "Yes." *"Then it is the same black stone? He wouldn''t give it to anyone that easily."* Tsumugi looks at Faust while reminiscing her memories with the old principal of Faust''s school. "*Do you believe that he is the one? Uncle Shizu."* Tsumugi utters the name of the old principal. Shizu. After taking a leave from Tsumugi and his branch, Faust appoints Fab, the new captain to serve the house. He takes the five elemental stones and heads towards the lower city. In every security point, the soldiers from the Ashura house recognized him and praised him for his fights in the purge. *Knock knock* "Coming! Please hold on." Faust reaches his apartment and knocks on the door. "F-FAUST!" Neith comes to open the door and gets surprised after seeing Faust. Even though her initial emotions are happy, she stares at his captain''s cloak with pride. "Finally, I get to see you in captain clothes." Neith walks closer, sliding her hand on Faust'' shoulder. "Oh, did you use the two sword style that I taught you? Did it help you win? Oh, silly me. Come in first, did you eat anything? Let me prepare your breakfast." One of the two swords that Faust is using belongs to Neith. For the two years that Faust spent with her, she taught him her two-sword style and gave him one of her swords to use it in place of Fukitsuna Masamune. "No, Auntie, I did not get to use your sword Arts." "Oh, you used unholy sword arts? I thought we both decided not to expose that sword arts in public." Neith asks in a surprise. "No, I did not use that too. I used basic slash''s and cuts and won somehow." Faust replies, and as he said, he did not use any of the sword arts in the purge than his unmatchable speed and strength. "Wow Faust, I did expect it. You did not even use the sword arts and won every match. Talk about handicapped without spiritual power. It does not stop you, Faust." Neith praises Faust for his win. "But that is not all Auntie." Faust sits on the dining table in front of the kitchen that Neith is cooking. He pauses in between the lines and holds his knuckles. "He appeared again, took over my body while I''m unconscious. My team members told me I did not hurt him badly, but I know he would have done something horrible." Faust addresses that he lost his body to red-eyed Faust. Neith is taking the ingredients from the cupboard and she freezes as she hears about the red-eyed. "Him, huh? Again?" She looks down in distress. *"I thought I got rid of him, What triggered this again?"* She thinks to herself. Her face displays concern and guilt. "*How do I tell him? That it''s not someone else. It is you, Faust. It''s no dark magic or ghosts. But how do I tell you that it''s your own personality? That you are suffering from a personality disorder."* The reason that Neith''s face is also displaying guilty is because she is hiding from Faust about his illness. The red-eyed Faust that keeps appearing is none other than his other personality. It is due to his anger, his feeling of uselessness and powerless gave birth to the other Faust that is ruthless and fearless. He fulfills the tasks that are left incomplete by Faust. *"Two years ago when you approached with guilt and sadness. I had no other way but to tell you that what happened to your village is not your fault, but the one who is living in your body, a monster."* "*But how do I tell you, you are that animal."* Neith is filled with remorse and fear. Faust is ok after coming to Neith, His personality is stabilized and Neith thought she cured him, but listening to this is filling her with nothing but regret. She is stuck in between telling Faust about his disorder and leave him be, hoping he wouldn''t go crazy with his other personality. If she tells him about the disorder, it would mess up his head where he could completely isolate himself from everyone. "By the Auntie!" The words of Faust woke up Neith with a jerk, it''s almost like a jump scare for her as she is deeply lost in her thinking. "A-are you okay aunt?" Faust asks with while worrying about Neith. "Ah, it''s okay, I''m just" Neith turns back and the back of her elbow pushes a jar of flour behind her. Before the jar hit the floor and break, it disappears. Neith who almost had a mini heart attack due to the jar is now settled and looks at Faust. The jar is safe on the table. "*His teleportation speed increased. He must''ve gone beyond limits again. This makes sense now. His personality changes when he exerts his eyes."* Neith observes Faust''s skills and tries to depict what has happened at the purge. *"I shouldn''t have sent him to the purge."* "What happened auntie? Why do you look worried and bothered?" Faust couldn''t help but wonder and asks Neith. "Nothing at all, don''t I look normal?" Neith tries to act normal, but her hands are shaking out of anxiety and her breathing increases. "Anyway, auntie, I need a favor from you. I have some elemental stones and I want you to come with me to sell them at a high price." Faust asks Neith. "I can spare a few of my working hours for you, but remember we can only go there in daylight. There will be lots of powerful guys trying to rob people at nights." Neith replies while adding a pinch of salt to the flour before her. "We shall go in the coming Saturday then. I will go to school tomorrow and inform my principal that I have come back." Faust tells her. - "Yo! Aion." Faust waves at Aion, while waiting near the gates of the school which his back leaning against the wall. "Faust, you are back already?" Aion casually asks as he approaches Faust and with his arm raised with his fist balled, travelling at Faust. Both of them are gone for a fist bump. "Tsk, at least smile for my return you heartless bastard." Faust says in an annoying tone. "Oh, look at this, captain''s cloak but senpou class? They only gave you Senpou class? " Aion asks in a surprise. "Huh? Then what? Am I a general or what?" Faust asks back. "If they knew that you are my friend then would have given you Ten (Heaven Class)." Aion displays a smirk on his face and starts running while Faust runs after him. As Faust takes a few steps inside the school, he is stopped by the appearance of a tall figure before him. "So you have come back?" Awarnach, the senior and one of the strongest few in the school appears before him. "Uh, wait! I know you from before don''t I?" Faust asks. 181 Another Festival? "Wait, I know you don''t I?" Faust asks in a surprise. "Yes, of course. You were detained because of me." "I thought you were lucky that you escaped in the name of detention. But I saw the purge wars." Awarnach, who is mighty and looked like a hungry beast, now looks calm and relaxed. "I want to tell you that I''m sorry for not believing you." People around both Awarnach and Faust are shocked seeing Awarnach apologizing to Faust. Faust just keeps watching Awarnach without speaking a word, he just keeps smiling. "Can I ask you to learn my martial arts? It''s not a popular one, but, I really want you to keep it in your arsenal. It is based on misdirections and deflection of weapons in midair. Please accept my request." Awarnach stretches his hand for a handshake while offering Faust his skills. In this era, with no handful of martial artists. Martial arts, scripts and scrolls are treasured in a hope to pass the skills down to younger generations. Most of these are scrolls are owned by the powerhouses. And getting a chance to learn a martial arts, no matter how low tier it is, benefits a person in getting into one of the houses as a soldier. "I will think about it." Faust with a smile, shakes hands with Awarnach. "But, can I know the reason why you are willing to help me learn your skills?" Faust asks him as he, Awarnach and Aion are walking inside the school. "I just want my martial arts to shine in your Arsenal set of skills. It is also good to be on good terms with a powerful captain like you." Awarnach walks beside Faust, almost like his lackey while praising him. "Ahhhh, nice, I will cherish your skill and try to uplift it by merging with my other skills." Faust replies to him. "Merge it?" Before awarnach could ask for details, he finds himself in the principal room with only Faust. He looks for left and right for Aion before finding him outside the door. He realizes that he forgot his surroundings while talking about the martial arts. "Wh-why are here?" Awarnach whispers in the ears of Faust. "I''m back in school sir, I hope I can go back to my classes as usual?" Faust asks the principal who is staring at him with a proud smirk on his face. "Ahh, yes! Welcome back, how did your purge go?" Shizu starts a normal conversation with Faust. "Ah, by some luck, it went good sir. Look at this, I also got into some class ha-ha." Faust pridefully shows his captain''s cloak to the principal. "That is very good, a senpou class huh? You should have worked harder to get a better one. And I happen to hear your conversation earlier as soon as you guys entered the room." "You guys don''t need to set up a date to learn something. Your school festival, training begins from tomorrow. You guys can train yourself with the remaining members that are going to the festival with you." Shizu explains. "Faust is also going to the school festival?" Awarnach asks in a surprise. "Of course he is, what did you think? Just because it is going to be all seniors in the festival, Faust cannot do well?" Shizu asks jokingly. "No, not at all. I''m happy he is joining us. He will be a big asset in this. I have always lacked raw strength. But this time will be something different." Awarnach replies happily and both of them leaves the principal room and heads back to their classes. - On the next day, Awarnach and Faust go towards the school gym. A huge stadium with lots of practice ground. There is an indoor running track and swimming pool in the stadium itself. And that two just take-up of about up 5% of the entire stadium. In the middle of the stadium is a huge ground of five hundred yards with plain sand that is used for long, mid-range shooting practice, archery practice and physical training. "Yo!" Faust and Awarnach approaches a group of people who are discussing strategies standing in a circle. A tall woman with blonde hair and glossy yellow eyes turn back towards the voice. She gets surprised to see Faust in front of her and more surprised when eunuch is beside him. "My grandpa said a freshman would be joining us, I didn''t expect it would be you." Cameron looks at Faust with her piercing eyes as she arrogantly flips her hair back. Her blonde hair is tied on top of her head like a ponytail. But her hair is long up to her waist. If she hadn''t tied her hair with a band on top, her hair would easily be to her thighs. "Ah, I remember you, you saved me from a senior back in the day didn''t you? I don''t know how to thank you for saving me on that day." Faust says with a bright smile and Awarnach is completely caught off guard. When he first met Faust, he clearly said about not remembering Awarnach. But now he recognizes Cameron in a glimpse? "Oh, you can thank me just sitting on the sidelines and not disturbing us. You are here to watch and learn so just watch and learn." Cameron says without a second thought. Her voice is filled with pride and no remorse. "What? Do you guys know-" Before awarnach could speak up, Faust stops him by placing his hand on the right shoulder of Awarnach. Awarnach does not speak up. Finding it weird, Cameron turns back to face the circle and starts discussing strategies again. While Faust and Awarnach go to a side and watches them by sitting on the stairs nearby. "Why did you stop me1?" Awarnach wants to know the motive behind Faust''s actions. "Ahh, Working in a group and strategies is really tiresome. I just finished one and this is time for me to take a rest here. Also, when will we practice your style if we just keep working with them?" For the next week, Faust and Awarnach practices the martial arts of Awarnach and his family. Every day, Faust only focuses on new skills and learns new things. "He became a captain of one of the powerhouses in his first year of high school. What the hell? I thought he was a delinquent and doesn''t have any talent?" "True, look at his cloak. It looks real." "Also, Awarnach, who is the top assaulter of our school hangs out with him, or so I heard." All the class of Faust and Aion starts a new gossip over Faust and his new cloak and friends. "I also heard that he is selected in the team that is participating in the winter school festival. Have you heard about it Ming Jie?" One of the students drags Li Ming Jie into the conversation. The conversation is happening at the back of the classroom in a corner while Ming Jie is sitting in the middle rows. He is eavesdropping on the conversation while pretending to be looking at his book and studying. "Huh? He is not looking at us? Strange, I thought he was listening to us." The student catches Ming Jie, watching them from the corner of his eye while listening to their conversation. But when he turned towards Ming Jie for his opinion, Ming Jie seems to be focusing on the book in front of his desk. "Oi, Class Rep Ming Jie!" A girl from the group calls for him in a loud voice and this time Ming Jie had no choice but to turn back. "What is your opinion on Faust?" The girl questions him. "What about him?" Ming Jie asks with a blank face as though he did not know about Faust, who is the hot topic in the whole school. "C''mon, you should have heard about him right? He''s a captain in the house of Ashura''s now. How do you think it happened?" One of the guys comes out of the group asking Ming Jie. "Ming Jie looks hesitated at first, but then, his face becomes still as if something struck him. He is, in fact, annoyed by the fact that Faust is receiving more attention than him. He is getting tired of hearing everyone talk about Faust. "You guys know he is the black stone user right? A rare elemental stone user. Of course, any house would want to get their hands on such a guy. And they would pamper him with what he wants. Nothing more than this." Li Ming Jie announces with a poker face. He looks as though he is not interested in the whole topic and turns back and starts pretending to study. "Wow, I did not think about it." "For real, how did I not get this thought?" "No wonder, Ming Jie must be telling the truth. How can a fourteen year old can become a captain of a house?." "We need to share this with everyone and clear their doubts regarding that guy. He is nothing but a weakling with no spiritual power. He became a captain just because of the stone he awakened." While the faces of the group, gossiping about Faust have turned pale by the theory. Ming Jie is smiling under his poker face. His evil self keeps rejoicing with what he hears. *"This is it, spread the whole news around the school and stop acknowledging him. He is nothing more than a talentless average guy whose luck is good. Whereas I am a real genius. I ruined your fame in mere seconds with two lines."* Ming Jie is clenching his jaws and balled his fists in joy, knowing that this will completely result in the defamation of Faust. Aion is sleeping in the last row as he lays his head on the desk with his hands covering his face to block the sunlight and his eyes closed. But under his arms, his lips form a curve slowly. "Shall we continue training at my home tomorrow? Since it''s the weekend, we can practice at our home." While leaving for home, Awarnach asks Faust concerningly. Concern, because he wants Faust to learn as much as he can and quickly. "Let''s take a break tomorrow, I have other work to do. We''ll meet again Monday." Saying that Faust and Awarnach both go their separate ways to their homes. "You want me to come with you tomorrow?" Aion asks regarding the thing Faust is going to do tomorrow. "For what? I''m going there with Aunt. It''s ok, I have company." "Hmm, if you say so. Be careful." Aion suggests him "Careful? We''re only going to sell stones and get money. Anyway, I will see you later too!" - On the next day, Faust goes into a dark alley with Neith. Following Neith''s suggestion, they both visit the alley on a bright sunny day. The alley is really small, only three people can walk next to each other. Most of them have to walk in queues to avoid running into each other. Fortunately, the alley is free with less people. So, Faust and Neith can walk next to each other without any discomfort. There are different kinds of shops on either side of the alley. However, most of them are closed and only opens at night. Some of the shops displayed paper lanterns with the shop''s name on it. Like typical Japanese shops. There are also walk-in food stalls with the capacity to harbor five to seven people at once. With tables, but no chairs, a person has to eat while standing. After reaching the middle of the alley, they encountered a thin stairway, that goes further down into a darker street. The end of the stairway, however, is blocked by a worn-out gray cloth to go to the other side. And an old man is sitting on a stool to a side. "Wow, auntie, you came all the way here when I asked you to sell my black stone?" Faust refers to Neith, implying that she has already come here once to sell the black stone that is given to Faust by his school. This alley is the reason why Faust bravely stopped Tsumugi from trading the stones for money in her house. He has sent Neith to this alley before to sell the black stone and he has information on the prices of each stone. "Oh, one can''t possibly step foot inside this alley. You know the formalities." The old man sitting on a stool with a hat that covers his eyes speaks to Neith and Faust as they are about to enter. "Of course, of course, I know the drill, Dante." Neith, Standing in front of Faust hands over a small piece of paper that is the size of a business card to the old man. "You may enter." The old man welcomes them with a smile on his face. Neith pushes the curtain to her side with a hand as she enters inside. Faust catches a glimpse of what is inside, he sees a huge shadow with fur inside. With the curiosity building up, Faust pulls the curtain to aside to walk in. "Be careful." The old man mutters as Faust enters inside. 182 Is he still the same? The moment Faust enters the curtain, his emotions started overflowing as he is struck in awe. A huge creature covered in fur is in front of him. "Oh, new customers!" The fur started talking by itself. "What the HELL?" A fur is talking to me. "Who you calling a fur?" The dark shape in fur responded. "I''m not calling you anything." Neith''s voice is heard from within the fur. Faust did not say anything for a brief moment. "Ok? Auntie? Did you get eaten by the fur or is there a portal inside?" Faust cupped his hands in front of his mouth and as he yells. "What are you saying? Faust? Hello?" Faust hears Neith again, and this time, he realizes the voice is coming from behind the fur. As Faust tries to go around the fur, the fur slowly starts moving. Faust sees Neith, and walks towards her. She is under the street light which was suspended from the roof, as Faust walks close to her, he notices the fur is of orange colour. And it is a fur coat worn by a tall and huge man. This man from behind, in his fur coat without a ray of light, looks like a huge creature full of fur, "You know this kid?" The huge man asks Neith. His voice is one of those extremely deep voice that is buried in the roots of your brain once you hear them. There''s no way you will ever forget his voice. "Of course, he is with me." "Auntie? Here you are. I was worried. This place is so dark by the way." Faust says as he gets near Neith. "This is built underground. The roof above us is a city with roads." The tall man assists Faust, describing the place. "Ok, Bang! I will see you next time." Neith does not speak anything else and decides to move on with her business. Bang pauses while looking at her and Faust before eventually saying. "It''s ok, You have my code, right? Hit me up sometime." I would like all of us to meet and hang out once again." Bang says and sends off her off unwillingly. He wanted to stay and have a chat with her for some more time, but seems like Neith decided not to talk to him in front of Faust. Understanding what''s in her mind, Bang sends her off in her way. "Woe auntie, you know many people here as well." Faust wants to ask her about Bang. But he doesn''t want to be rude as to checking up on her. For which he decides to bring him up in a casual way. "Of course, don''t you know what I used to do." "So is he your friend or?" Faust asks cautiously. "He is someone I know from the past. Anyway, be careful to cover your nose. We''re entering the wild market." Neith takes out a tissue, covering her mouth and passes a tissue towards Faust. "Oh, what do you mean by wild market." As Faust asks, he sees a purple smoke in front of him. He goes on to cover his nose and mouth with a tissue. As they both are approaching, Faust notices a bad pungent smell, it''s getting stronger as they reach the market. "Buy these! Just caught wild beasts from the forest of darkness." A guy shouts from outside of a shop. Faust can see a form of cage from inside the purple smoke. Everyone is wearing a sort of mask and looking inside the cages and some are discussing with the shopkeepers. The wild market is a place where they sell wild beasts that are poached. These are not your ordinary beasts, rather, these are mutilated and evolved species, due to excess oxygen that is present in some forests. The entire mankind has isolated itself in a small bubble and surrounding this bubble is a vast ocean. But, between the bubble filled with oxygen and man-made protective screen of sunlight is a huge dense forest that is growing rapidly. "They sell wild beasts here, mostly the nobles that visit this market. They have a wide variety of animals here. Some come here to buy the beasts for amusement while others come here to choose their dinner." Neith explains to Faust, who is looking at the cages. Everything inside the cages is dark, but Faust''s eyes catch two small beautiful wolf cubs being handed over to a couple. "The cubs are crying and trying to get away while the shopkeeper keeps pulling their chains that are wrapped around their necks. The chains are suffocating the cubs and they are being dragged in the dirt without a concern. It looks painful just to see them struggling. The cubs reminded Faust of Bella, but he kept walking by. Soon, they got out of the purple smoke, Neith took off her tissue and kept it in her pocket. Faust followed her and after crossing a few more shops. "Oh, young man! Yes, you! Come here." Another guy calls for Faust with a bracelet in his hand. "Oh boy, look at you! Overflowing with spiritual power." The guy says. "Who me?" Faust asks in surprise. He is the only known living person who has no spiritual power in the entire world. And this shopkeeper is saying he is overflowing with spiritual power? "Just try this bracelet, It is for both offensive and defensive. We will also give you an elemental stone-free if you buy this." "And keep waiting, your powers will bloom and one day you will become a soldier in one of the powerhouses." The person announces. At this point, Faust is just staring at the shopkeeper with a poker face. *"Really keepah?"* Faust said in his head before Neith call him and he starts walking on his way. "How long more auntie?" "We''re almost there." A decent-sized shop appears in front of them both with the words ''T R A D E" written on the signature board outside of the shop. "This is it." Neith enters the shop. "This is it, huh?" Faust keeps staring at the shop painted in black. It is built as one of the oldest bars, with all wood. Glass windows for ventilation and a white signature board in front of the shop that is attached on top of the entrance. Faust follows the steps of Neith and enters inside. The whole shop is quiet and on either side, elemental stones are displayed inside a glass display. There are all seven types of elemental stones without the black one. There also some stones that implanted inside rings and watches. Faust is mesmerized by the wide variety of tools and places his hand on the glass display out of admiration. These elemental stones are like gems and the tools are made of gold and platinum-like jewels. "I wouldn''t touch them if I were you." He hears a female voice from behind him that startles him quite a bit. He immediately retracts his hand and steps away from the glass. A girl appears from behind, carrying a spray in her hand. She sprays onto the place where Faust placed his hand and starts wiping it off with a cloth. She repeats the process until the glass starts to shine. "This glass is of low quality, so if you touch it, your fingerprints are clearly shown on it. And if my boss notices them, I will be punished." She utters in a low voice. Faust has found her voice, unique and adorable. It sounds like a female character from an anime. She is wearing a tight figure-hugging black jumpsuit like clothes. It looks like an outfit with only zipper in front. In a sense, the dress is enhancing her every shape, The dress is kind of leather. She bends down to wipe the dust on the bottom of the glass. Her hair is brown and short, one side of her hair is really short while the other side is long enough to cover one side of her face, over her left eye. "*Uh oh."* Faust says in his head as her outfit is getting tighter and tighter as if it''s going to be torn. He is surprised that she could bend first of all, as her pants are tighter than normal and look like they will be ripped apart if she even bows to someone. "Faust!" Neith calls for him from inside. Faust takes off the tissue that is in his pockets to wipe the sweat off his forehead. He notices that his forehead has gotten hot. He folds it and places it back in his pocket and starts going deeper into the shop. "There are also tools in this shop huh?" Faust tells as he is walking to where Neith is standing. In front of her is a wooden table and she seems to be talking to a middle-aged man. "N-o, Listen! That is not. Why can''t you understand?" "I''m telling you, we don''t buy black stones. Those are useless as pebbles." The guy sitting down in his chair is arguing with Neith, without even listening to what she is saying. "Faust, show him the stones that you have got. He is thinking that I came back here to sell the black stone again." Neith yells in anger. She is fuming like a fire. "Faust takes out his pouch from his other pocket, takes out the stones and places it on the table in front of him. One red stone and Four green stones. The man jumps out of his chair seeing five finely polished stones on his table. "Melissa!" The man yells and the same girl walks towards them. "Who disturbed him again?" She asks in a really sweet voice. She walks over towards the other side of the table to the guy and plants a thin earpiece in his left ear. "Ahhhh, now I can hear properly, are you sure you guys came to sell the stones?" The man wants to check with them again. He could not believe, he is looking at brand new elemental stones. "Tell us the prices first, if we like it, we will trade them. If not, we will go to some other city." Neith raises her voice, she is not being the kind and caring aunt anymore, her body language describes her as strong military personnel. "Yes, yes! Normally it is three hundred thousand Kani for the red stone and five hundred thousand for green. But, since it''s you, I will give you a price that you cannot deny." "Five hundred thousand for the red and seven hundred for the green. Final price. No more bargains with me." The man says in a rather aggressive and demanding tone. His voice is resonating around the whole shop even when he speaks normally. If he were to shout, it would make one quiver in fear immediately. "Ok, nice to know." Neith, takes all of the stones, turns back and starts walking. Faust is confused, but he follows Neith in her steps. "W-w-wait wait wait! What happened to my princess? Come back here and let us talk." Neith stops in her tracks upon hearing the words of the man. "Come one, let''s not be hasty, tell me if you don''t like the deal, but don''t just walk out on me." Neith comes back furiously and slams the stones on the table. She leans forward onto the table. Her eyes are burning like a fire. "Look here, old man. We don''t have all day to sit and discuss with you." "These elemental stones are not even used once in their lifetime. You think I''m stupid to take five hundred and leave? Did you forget about me?" Neith says and the table that her hand is on starts producing snowflakes and shortly the snowflakes turns into ice freezing the wood around her hand. Melissa, who is standing beside the man, draws a short gun from under the table to point it towards Neith and aims at her, *click* In a blink of an eye, the gun that is in the hands of Melissa is in Faust''s hands and he takes out the red elemental stone off the gun. Melissa and the man sitting there are beyond shocked. The shotgun is instantly teleported into Faust''s hands. 183 New Enemies "Oh, Oh stop it, please, Melissa just reacted that way, because I cannot move my limbs. Forgive her rudeness and listen to me." The man sitting in the chair lost control over his limbs due to an accident. He describes the actions of Melissa as the protection of her master. "Well, my kid here did what he is supposed to, protecting his family." Neith is not going back or showing signs of kindness, no matter what the man is saying. "Okay! Nine hundred thousand for the red stone and one million for the greens. I cannot go up than this, I would go bankrupt if I raise the stakes any further." The man sitting in the chair turns his head towards Melissa and nods his head. Melissa takes out a thin rectangular box from under the table and places it in front of them. The box projected a visual screen in front of them and a visual keyboard. "Please enter your code in that and I will transfer the money from me to you." He instructs Neith. The code here is a seven-digit number that everyone on the mainland possess, or rather, given to them by the government. It acts to activate your mobile, vehicle locks, passwords and banks. "The price is but, I would rather take metal money than digital. You see, I need to pay someone back. That is why we are selling the stones too. Otherwise, why would we even sell the new stones?" Neith insists that he pay them in metal. Money in metal is the currency in the form of metal coins. Paper money is banned long before. Due to the reduction of the earth to only one percent of land and even in the one percent, the forests are filled with mutilated and evolved beasts. It is hard to make paper out of trees. Which is why the metal coins are introduced in the place of paper. "O-kay, as per your wish." With a heavy sigh, he turns towards Melissa again and gestures her to bring something from the inside. Neith, particularly asked for money, because she knows that the dark alley is full of frauds, they can scam her account anytime. Which is why she denied for digital money and asked for cash in particular. "A total of four million nine hundred thousand, all in the form of metal coins." He yells at Melissa who has gone into the room. She brings back a huge briefcase, filled with coins, that are arranged in a row. Melissa hands over the case to Neith and Neith gives it to Faust. She then passes the stones to the man sitting and Melissa takes them over and puts it in front of the man. Meanwhile, Faust touches the case all around while observing the material of the case, the smell and the texture of the case. Melissa and the man sitting finds it very odd, but does not say anything. "Will see you later again." Neith takes her leave and both her and Faust walks out of the shop. They keep walking back the same way they came from. This time there is no Bang in front of the entrance. Both of them walks out of the old gray curtain. The old man is still sitting there as a guard. "Pleasure doing business with you. Have a good day!" He greets them both as they start to climb the stairs of the alley. "Oh shoot!" Faust says in a loud voice, Neith turns back instantly and holds the arms of Faust tightly. "What happened?" Neith asks him while checking her surroundings. "I wanted to buy some tools for myself, ish, let''s come back some other day." "Tools? Since when did you become familiar with the tools Faust?" Neith asks him, he does not even have spiritual power to use any tools. "Oh, no-no. I''m learning a new skill from the senior of my school. And his skills need to have a thin magic - thread and some normal equipment that I wanted to use. But it''s ok-" Faust explains her about the tools and before they could start going. Two guys covered in hoods and masks that cover half of their face, snatches away the case that Faust is holding and starts running. Faust and Neith just climbed the stairs and they get robbed while the old man is still seeing them. Neith first looks towards the old man, he does not move an inch or speak anything. "Faust!" She yells. Faust stretches his hand in front of him. The guy running with his is running while hugging the case in his chest. They are already twenty feet away from them both and are running very quickly. *Bong* With the sound of a bong, as if someone has played a heavy bass, the case is back into Faust''s hands, he holds the handle of the case tightly this time. "Where did these guys come from now?" Faust says and the two guys running are confused. They turn back to see that the case is back at Faust again. The two men turn back facing Faust and Neith, they look determined to get the case back. As Neith and Faust wait for the next move to be made. A bunch of people show up, coming from inside of the shops and on the roofs of shops. There are a total of fifteen people, all covered in gray hoods and a mask on their face, covering their nose and mouth. A faint smirk is seen on the face of the old man sitting in front of the curtain. "Fausto." "Uun" Neith and Faust responds to each other''s call as if they understood what they need to do. The fifteen men start walking towards the two. Two portals open on either side of Faust. "He is not a normal person, let''s finish this fast." The man in the middle of the fifteen speaks and all of them start running towards the two. They are running in the alley, jumping on top of the roofs of shops from one shop to another. Neith places one of her legs behind and one in front and places herself in the running pose. She pushes her hind leg into the ground as she is getting ready to take off. Faust, on the other hand, folds his left hand in a way that his index and middle fingers are open while the rest are closed. He points the fingers down towards the ground and with a flick, he moves his wrist from bottom to upwards as he is directing something towards Neith. The portals that are on either side of Faust suddenly emits two swords. One of them is Faust''s purple colour sword that is given to him by Neith. The other one is crimson-coloured with golden handle. Neith dashes off towards the bunch at the same moment, her arms are crossed under one another and her hands are reaching for the swords that are on either side of her. She holds the sword on her left with her right hand. And the sword on her right with her left hand. Meanwhile, two of them have come very close to her. They are holding a large two-man cross saw. A long blade with two handles on each side. Both of them are holding it on each side and planning to ram Neith with the blade to behead her in one swing. As they come close, Neith, disappeared and appeared behind them. She is still in her same posing and still drawing her swords from their scabbards. But disappeared in front and appeared behind the two men. As if she has teleported. "How did she disappear? These guys are looking dangerous, switch to mid-range, take positions. "The man in the middle orders the remaining. The man''s voice is also strange, it is of a computer voice that sounds like a robot. The people in the alley draw barrel guns. The guns are as short as a short gun, which is the size of their hands. They aim the barrels on the walls and roofs of the shorts and walls and a cable comes out of the gun with a hook on the end of the cable. They all jump onto the roofs of shops and walls, keeping their distance from Neith. The fifteen of them takes out another small gun that is gleaming in purple color. "All of them are lightning users?" Faust whispers under his breath, but, people start shooting and the guns emit real bullets that are in the shape of chips. Neith is evading all the bullets in the same way before. She is disappearing into thin air and reappearing in other places. "How is she avoiding all the attacks? Get the crossbows and get her now!" The man in the center commands all the members again. "Hmm, the bullets are emitting electricity?" Faust tries to analyze the guns and weapons the people are using. The guns are like tasers with bullets. The chips are emitting electricity after making contact with the ground. Soon, crossbows enter the scene with half the people using crossbows while the other half are shooting the guns with electric darts. Neith twirls and jumps back to avoid the bullets. She then Launches herself onto the roofs of the shop with a leap. The roof, she wanted to jump onto is already filled with three people on the top. "No way she is going to come here." One of the guys says after seeing how low her jump is. The roof of the sop is fifteen feet tall and Neith''s jump barely made five feet. "You cannot dodge in midair." He draws out the pistol and takes his aim on her. Suddenly, Neith disappears again. *Slash* "AHHHHHH!" The man on the roof is withering in pain. His back is slashed from his right shoulder to his left hip, leaving a bloody scar. "Sword Arts -" A blue light is shimmering on the right hip of Neith, from inside her shirt. The nerves in her body are getting cold as her blue nerves are visible to the eyes of the people near her. It is spreading throughout her body and the blue ice element is visible in her veins as her nerves on her hands are turning blue. Her hands are again producing snowflakes, which froze and covered the handle of the sword in ice, that slowly crept onto the blade. The sharp edge of the blade is covered in thin ice that extended further making her swords as ice blades. "Sword Arts - Ice shackles" Neith uttered from her cold blue lips. Instantly, a patch of ice formed from under her right foot that travels to the guy standing on her right and with a slash the ice tears his clothes, skin and flesh. The eye cuts his body in half. A similar thing happens to the guy standing on her left. A path of ice formed from under her left foot that travelled at jet speed, tearing the flesh of the man. *Gulp* Witnessing the ice element and the sword techniques, the robbers couldn''t help but swallow a large wad of saliva. They are still in shock that they forgot to point their guns at her to shoot her. In the next moment, Neith is on top of another roof, she is moving very close and fighting three on her own. "Sh-shoot her" One of the hooligans, yells in desperation. Wiping his sweat off, he aims at her and starts shooting. Yet again, all the bullets missed her, but struck their gang members, and all three of them collapsed on the roof from the shock. "You Idiots!" The man ordering them is flustered and he looks at Faust, who is standing with one of his hands in his pocket and holding the case of money with his other hand. "I know how she is moving so fast. I had a hunch." The leader of the mob, says as he sneakily moves towards Faust. Neith on the other side is swiftly moving from one roof to another. Seven of them are already down. The old man is sitting in front of the stairs, notices one thing about Faust, who is standing in front of him. Ten feet away from him. The eyes of Faust are moving very quickly. It''s as if he is painting a picture with his eyes or moving his eyes to observe a very fast-moving object. The thing that is happening with Faust is, he is helping Neith to fight. The reason behind her disappearance. Faust is supporting her by teleporting her repeatedly. She is not receiving any damage as she is teleporting before any arrows or bullets hit her. And she is being teleported at the blind spots of the mob to land an immediate lethal strike. The leader of the mob realized that Faust is behind the fast moments of Neith. But he doesn''t know that it is teleportation. And hence he is moving towards Faust in stealth. The leader sneaks in closer to Faust. Just being fifteen feet away from him. He reaches into the pockets of his hoodie and takes out an orb. The orb looks like a soap bubble at first look, but it is hard and emits a mixture of white and pink colors. He is staring at Faust and immediately, the surroundings of Faust started to emit pink smoke. Faust notices that pink smoke is devouring his surroundings. Shortly, his entire view is blocked and he, himself is consumed in the pink smoke. The last thing that he sees is an evil smirk on the face of the old man, sitting in front of the stairs. 184 Duality - 02 Faust tries to wave his hand to touch the smoke that is around him. It is like a pink cloud. "I saw this somewhere Is it?" Faust remembers the first time he saw a cloud of this type. It is the spiritual cloud that he saw along with Yui, in the spiritual world. Apparently, when you keep a handful of this cloud in your mouth. It boosts up your spiritual power to another level. *"Is this done wanted? To improve the spiritual power of their gang?"* If they want to boost up the spiritual power of their members. They would be aware of Faust. Is this done knowing that Faust does not have spiritual power? Is what running in Faust''s head. *Thud Thud Thud~* Among this smoke, Faust starts to hear footsteps, he can tell that a person is coming closer towards him. But Faust does not fear or get alarmed, he stays cool and looks in the direction, where he is hearing the footsteps from. "You are not scared of what is happening around you?" The leader of the mob walks towards Faust and asks him in surprise. "What is there to be scared? You made a smokescreen to take me out or what?" "Yes, taking you a kid out is better for us that heading straight for that strong woman. I''m sure you are not in the fight because you are not strong. You are just supporting her in a fight. Now prepare yourself." The leader estimates that Faust is weak because he cannot sense spiritual power from Faust. And a fact that Faust is still fourteen. He thought, he could come and take out Faust first, or take him as a hostage or knock him and steal the case, so the other members can fall back from fighting with Neith. "Haha, I have been underestimated haven''t I? Faust says with a smirk. He knows that the person in front of him is not more powerful than him. As Faust and the leader keeps talking, the leader slowly lifts his hand and with his fingertips. He slides his mask down. He looks like he is in his mid-forties. He has a thin beard with both grey and black hair mixed. What''s more noticeable about his face is a scar that is on his chin which is stretched to his cheeks. He slowly removes the hoodie on his head and Faust became concerned with what he is seeing. The scar on his cheek is split open as a fold. It is further stretched onto his forehead and his head. There is no hair on the side of his head. Also, the scar is completely open at the side of his head, exposing his skull and brain that look half-eaten. "You look pretty ugly." Faust utters at the leader. "Really? Why don''t you look at yourself and say the same thing?" Faust felt something is wrong, as soon as he heard the words from the leader. The first thing he did is to sense if there is anyone else in the smoke. Secondly, he checks his surroundings and then notices something strange is happening with his hands. The skin on top of his hands looks old with wrinkles, Faust pulls up the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbow and all of his arm from his elbow. His skin turned like the skin of an old man. He looks at the leader again and he is surprised. He and the leader are of the same height. Last time he checked, he is taller than the leader. Shortly, blood drip from the jaw of Faust on his left. He gently touches the side of his cheeks and his cheek is split in half. It seems similar to the scar on the leader. "Why don''t you touch a little higher?" The leader utters in a cocky voice. Feeling anxious, Faust moves his hand above and the skin on the side of his head is gone. He felt his brain, the skull is broken from his eye. *" What is happening?"* Faust thinks to himself. He feels no pain at the side of his head. it is just numb for all he can feel. And the other and most important thing is his wound looks exactly like the scar that is on the leader of the mob who is standing in front of him. Meanwhile, Neith notices that she is not getting the support she wants from Faust. She places an ice wall behind her, where the bullets are coming from and keep fighting with four people in front of her and takes a glimpse towards where Faust is. She is startled by what she sees. "Impossible! They are still alive?" Neith utters as she gets panicked and tries to jump to another roof to reach Faust. But the moment she gets out of the ice defense, she put up behind her, bullets and arrows started raining at her, making her go back inside her defenses. *"Be careful Faust! It is a deadly illusion."* What Neith sees is not smoke. She looks at Faust and the leader of the mob standing in front of each other. What Faust is experiencing is all an illusion that is made possible due to the orb. All the pink smoke, including the evil grin on the face of the old man that Faust saw, is also an illusion made by the leader of the mob. Even the scar on Faust''s face, the face of the leader might be an illusion. But Faust is not aware of this. "Hah, say goodnight kid." The leader pulls out a short knife from behind his hoodie. There is no smoke surrounding Faust and his eyes have turned white as if he is in another world. "She became slow all of a sudden, get her now! This is our chance." The men near Neith yells while she is already fighting four of them at once. The leader jumps to Faust in one leap, he holds the knife in such a way that the sharp side of the blade is facing outside of his hold and he swings the knife in front of the neck of Faust to slit his head open. "Heh, say goodnight kid."The leader jumps to Faust in one leap, he holds the sword in such a way that the sharp side of the blade is facing outside of his hold and he swings the knife in front of the neck of Faust to slit his head open. "Huh?" The knife is on the skin of Faust, but it did not cut or go through. The leader is surprised at why his knife did not get through. "A cheap illusion I would say." Faust is sounding abnormal than now. His voice is not calm or arrogant as it is till now. He sounds like a crazy guy. Faust holds the tip of the blade with his fingertips before it digs into his skin. He turns his face towards the leader who is on his right. The eyes of the leader widen. The right eye of Faust is all red with green pupil. He stopped the knife with his left hand and his right hand is holding the case. Faust goes for a strike with the case onto the stomach of the leader. He swings the case from backwards, The leader pushes his body back and swiftly tries to move away from Faust. "What?" The leader cannot move back, Faust held his right wrist tightly, the same hand that he tried to attack with a knife. He got himself caught and unable to go away from Faust. *"How is a kid, so strong."* He thinks for himself while anticipating where the next attack comes from. Faust again swings the case to his front from the side, targeting the abdomen of the leader. Realizing he cannot go back, the leader pushes his gut back and bends his chest forward to avoid the strike. As the case came closer to his abdomen, the case instantly disappeared and the right hand of Faust travels upwards fast and grips the neck of the leader. *"It''s a feint."* The leader played into the hands of Faust. Faust is suffocating the neck of the man without mercy, as he is not able to talk anymore, an electric structure is broken with a cloud of black smoke coming from the neck of the leader. "Huh?" A computer frame to protect your neck? Lame." Faust grunts out and grips his neck tightly again. "Ahh" He screams, but his voice is different than before. So the frame is a voice changer? Faust thought. Faust is suspicious and wanted to see who is behind the mask. He reaches for the mask and pulls it down. For is frozen for a moment, it is Melissa from the shop he just visited. His grip on her wrist loosens, Melissa finds the opening that Faust gave her, while he in shock, she flips the knife towards Faust in her hand and goes to ram the knife in his eye. Instantly, Faust blocks the knife by landing a hit on the forearm of Melissa with the lower side of his hand, with the soft part between the wrist and fingers. Blocking her hand from stabbing him, he swings his right hand back as he slaps her on her cheeks with the back of his hand. His knuckles dig inside her cheeks, causing her unbearable pain, he then swings the same hand to his front and slaps her again on the other side of her face. The slap paralyzes Melissa with a shock. Half of her face is numb while she keeps hearing a bell ringing constantly in her head. To end this fight, Faust takes a step towards her, clenches his fists tightly and lands a powerful uppercut. Only the knuckle bone on his middle finger makes direct contact with her chin. Her chin clamped with her upper set of teeth, it sent a jolt to her brain and she immediately rolls her eyes up and falls on the ground lifeless. Faust immediately turns back around and looks up at the roof behind him. It''s the man from the shop he traded the stones. He said, he met with an accident and could not move his limbs. But he is on top of the roof with a crossbow aimed at Faust. *"How did he notice me? Anyway, he wouldn''t be able to stop this!"* He mutters in his head while being surprised, at the same time decides to shoot Faust anyway and shoots his crossbow that is glimmering in green. The green elemental stone provides extra wind and enhances the speed of the projectiles they shoot. And the man has three green stones embedded in his crossbow. He rained arrows made of air, the arrows keep raining down on Faust, but none of them hit him. The shopkeeper on the roof gets scared by seeing Faust. The arrows keep landing on the concrete roads while Faust is casually walking without getting hit by an arrow. He then sees Neith is having trouble with the rest of seven people. He tilts his face to a side like a lunatic and his lips form a creepy curve as he smiles. *Snap* He snaps his fingers and all seven of them who circled Neith and trying to fight her are now around Faust. They are surprised and before they even realize, the arrows from the shopkeeper''s crossbow hit four of them and they collapse immediately. Seeing what he did, the shopkeeper holds his shooting, and immediately, Neith teleports in front of him and her swords are on the neck of him. He dropped his crossbows and surrendered. The three on the ground with Faust, also dropped their guns and tasers as they surrender. "Kneel down!" Faust commands the three of them. The robbers kneel down in a circle around Faust. Faust enjoys the view as he laughs. Finally, he gives a psychotic stare to the old man sitting in front of the stairs. *Sleeeck* The heads of the three robbers kneeling down around Faust in a circle fly in the air with blood squirting out of their decapitated bodies. Faust does not have a sword, nor does he move his hands. But the heads of the three are cleanly cut at the same time. "Faust!" Neith, shouts at the horrible self of Faust. "You need not kill them, they have surrendered," Neith yells at him. The curtain beside the old man opens at the same time and Bang walks out slowly with his huge body. His body covered the whole stairway. He came as a security to the old man. Everyone can sense the blood lust emitting from Faust. "You don''t understand!" The old man sitting in front of the stairway lifts his head up. His amber eyes look Faust straight in the eye as Faust utters the words. I won''t give second chances, if one is thinking about messing with me. I will make him go through real hell. I will burn his arms multiple times at the same spot. I will burn it, heal it and repeat until his tendons start to profuse pus. I will then cut off his limbs and peel his skin slowly, torturing his body as his soul will scream endlessly, while he is still alive and barely breathing, I will make him feel the pain and the experience of hellish punishment. "Then I will hang him to the wall as a showpiece. He is like the deer to me which I had hunted. Thus, Do not try to scare me, I will pay you back tenfold." Even though at first it sounds like an explanation to Neith. The last two lines seemed like they are directed towards the old man and Bang. Faust walks away after saying what he wanted and Neith follows him without saying a word to Bang. 185 Aztecc In a far away place. - The vast ocean seems very calm with cold wind currents and a faint light glimmering. There isn''t a single bird or vegetation in sight. Just one huge ship which isn''t making any noise, seems to be travelling in the water at a great speed. "It is right in front of us. Keep maintaining this speed. Turn to 1 O''clock. We should be safe." A person who is in his mid 30''s with a buffalo plaid cap, tells the person holding the mast. "We are entering the domain in 10 minutes. Weather is hot and it''s Autumn. Gentleman, thank you for our; once again successful scavenge." The person announces and takes off his coat and hat. Entire ship crew took off their winter clothes. "The weather seems to be getting colder every year. And the sun looks like it was getting smaller. Are the rumours of our earth drifting away from the solar system are true? Are we moving far from the sun? How is earth still holding up together? We are only living on seafood since birth. I wonder for how many more years can we keep fishing in the outer ocean." An old man keeps talking to a person beside him with puzzled and dead eyes. His face only shows that he is waiting for his death. "Oi, old geezer! You people are getting the ship and equipment to fish to feed yourselves. You better stop listening to rumours and be happy for your life. Show gratitude to the Lords." Another person with a cigarette in this mouth makes the old man shut up with his arrogant statement. *"This Reginald! Dog of nobles. He would only understand the suffering when he has nothing to feed his family and faces the dangers that are there for a person living in the lower city."* A person sitting next to the old man, loathes Reginald in his heart. "We are now entering Aztecc!" The announcement says. The view In front of the ship is still plain ocean, with no sight of land anywhere but they all are looking forward. The tiptoe of the ship seems to be entering into a thin bubble, resembling their mirror reflection, seeming to pass into another realm. The inside of this thin bubble is a whole new another world. It is bright and warm with sun rays, the cities are split and firstly a shipping dock takes all the glory. The leaf like ship dock consists one long bridge in the middle, built really close to the water surface with the road for transportation. And on either side of this bridge are stem like ship docks which makes the whole ship years seem like a leaf. Past that island. At first glance, you can see skyscrapers and tall building. But as you go close, one can see that most of these buildings are broken and destroyed. The continent contains only two nations. Aztecc and Agartha. Each nation consists of a 100 cities each. Medellin is one among the cities of Aztecc. The rainbow-coloured housings were settled on the mountain plains, each connected to others with their roofs joining. The whole city held upright houses close to each other that may even have terraces, to serve as a passage between two. An aerial view would present a bright glimmering rainbow painted on the whole hill. Elders and kids always seem to interact with each other in the very streets. There is a one huge escalator in between the city which goes up the hill. There were malls, schools, markets and entertainment stops on either side of the escalator. Here, some school kids and elders are gathered around to watch a show of someone entertaining them in between the crowd. "Wahaha, who is this kid? How did you find him? He is so funny!" One of the school girl who is 10yrs old, talks to her friend beside while laughing at the person in front of them. "Ehh, this is the kid I told you about who does things for us when we give him money. He is either autistic or his brain stopped growing. He has no father. His mother is sick. But this fool comes to entertain people for money and he buys food and chocolates for himself haha." Her friend responds mockingly at him. "Eh, too bad for him. He is blind on top of it? Hah, I''m glad he was alive till now." The girl replies back. The guy who is entertaining them indeed is Autistic. He cannot interpret what is happening in the world. All he knows is food and snacks. And for that needs money. He entertains people, by doing what they ask. "Roll like a dog" "scratch your head like a monkey" "flip around" "get dirty in the sand". The things people ask from him and he does, in return they give him 1kani a person. Kani is the global currency of 5062. A small coin made of a mysterious black metal only made in the land of Nobles and royals. The people laugh in joy while clapping hands, making the autistic kid do whatever they want, without a hint of humanity or concern providing him necessities let alone quality life. After the boy is done with gathering money, He walks away with a goofy smile on his face. His shirt and shorts are torn in some places and his hair is messy. He delightfully went to a small shop, packed some food and snacks with chocolates and goes home. "It''s Big brother! He''s back." A small 6yr/o girl comes to receive her blind brother. She takes the food and snacks from his hands. He walks while touching and sensing his surrounding and slowly reaches his mother who is sick on a bed and sits beside her. "Why are you doing this Mark! Why are you acting like you have an Autism? Why are you letting people make a mockery of you? You shouldn''t deceive anybody. Nor should you worry about your mother anymore. She will no longer live." His mom says with a crying voice and wet eyes while holding his hand in between hers. "Don''t ever say that mom. I will protect you! I will save you! I will take care of you and little Shizuka myself. And people like calling me autistic. They like to make me dance on their wishes. They like the mask I wear." Mark explains to his mom. His faces show how much he despises people because of the life he is living. "People like masks, not the person. I will wear a perfect one for everybody. Let them think I''m playing on their will. In reality, I will be laughing behind my mask, making them play as I will." Mark says with pure contempt as he dwells deeper into the darkness. He views this world with his hooded blind eyes. "Big brother! Let''s go to the other house now. They will be waiting for us!" Shizuka intervenes between Mark and his mom, while holding his arm tightly Her eyes gleam in excitement, thinking about the other house she spoke of. "Haha, yes, let''s go." Mark gets up. He grabs the snacks he bought with him and goes outside guided by his little sister. While walking on the road, Mark pulls his sister to his other side, the one that is not exposed to the road. He doesn''t want his sister to walk on the road exposing herself to the accident-prone side, with speeding vehicles. He puts himself on the accident-prone side and places his sister in between him and the shops. Shizuka giggles at the love her brother has for her. They both soon reached a house. The house is painted in white, with a royal blue roof and a huge black gate. The building is 10-15 feet ahead from the gate, with small plants on either side of the path. "Ahhh, it''s Markos and Shizuka! Our little grandkids are here." An old man in his 60''s shouts, on sighting Mark and Shizuka and welcomes them with a warm hug. "Ohhh ohh! Speak of the devil! We were just talking about you, Marky, and here you are." "Yay, it''s our Mark and Shizu! Let''s have a party!" "You just want a reason to throw a party and get drunk, don''t you?" The old people living in the retirement house come out to give a warm welcome to Mark and Shizuka. Markos''s face lights up and smiles very brightly at the voices he heard. He stretched his arms to his front trying to hold the people coming his way. Mark and Shizuka love to spend time with old people, who have been abandoned or have lost their family. This is the only place where Mark smiles, and that is when he''s with all these people. They don''t fake their love or concern. Some of them even act like kids to play with Shizu, and the whole building is filled with laughter when they visit. Also, a blind old man too happened to live there in the house. He doesn''t move from his spot, and doesn''t speak at all. He just listens to the laughter, with Mark sitting beside him, and laughs along with him. "Ahhh, Shizuka here come the nobles... Are you readyyy? I''m coming in 1...2...3!" One of the grandpas says playfully, while he frowns and runs towards Shizuka on the count of 3. Shizuka bursts out laughing and starts to run. The word ''nobles'' here is being used like a mother scares her kids with the excuse of a ''ghost'', to make them sleep and eat. And these nobles doesn''t live on the same land. Many years ago, after the end of world had passed, people of earth had been left with no resources. No food, no minerals and no metals. It resulted in the tall skyscrapers being destroyed due to no proper maintenance. The very land started to break apart due to the shift of magnetic poles. And soon the fear, of land about to break and spread across the globe floating like tiny islands, grew amongst humans. The nature had became too violent due to the atmosphere around the earth disappearing completely. The earth went through number of changes, now, looking mostly like a complete water body. And in such chaos, the scientists from all across the world, gathered in one place conducting studies and experiments to have the world keep going. They need a new world. But the technology, resources and everything is gone to even evict the earth for few people to survive. And so, a very interesting thing struck to the scientists during such devastation. There are some places that give off fresh, spiritual and refreshing atmosphere when you visit them. Such as top and well known churches, mosques or temples in the world. There is some unknown, unique peacefulness you feel in such places. Even the mysteries of the world like the pyramids or stonehenge''s, have a mysterious vibe around them. The reason these have such forces, is that they are built on a well researched particular place, called energy stream. The energy streams are just a tunnel of excess and large amount of energy that is flowing due to the magnetic force. And now that the magnetic force is distorted, these energy streams started to slip into another dimensions of the earth. The gate ways had finally opened. The energy streams are working just like data streams, and the gateways as loop holes to another world. Many cities in each nation consisted of energy streams from a weak flow to a stronger flow. The weaker flow steam lets you enter the initial dimensions from 5th to 8th. The stronger flows allows you to go higher, from 9th to 11th. Then there are very long pillars built on such energy streams, which are oscillatory machines that work in sending humans and military to slip into another dimensions. Such cities are well cherished and are given an unimaginable amount of riches. The cities which does not have a energy stream become left overs. They''re marginalised, without even simple and basic needs given to them. Medellin is one of such city. The oscillatory machines are built taller into the clouds. A roof is being built on top of these machines that reach the clouds. On top of this roof, with oscillatory machines as pillars, is the land of Nobles. A truly rich concrete jungle with latest technologies used. Each nation built their own land below the clouds. And hence, earth currently has only one small continent with two nations. Agartha and Aztecc. Monitoring these two nations, is the task of people working in a structure built in between the two nations. It is referred to as; The Place of God". The people from there, are said to be stronger than the ones in both the Nations. 186 Hot Weather "Ah! Aah! Ahh!" Deep breathes and heavy gasps ricochet around a large royal room. The items on the desk along with maps and pins are pushed to a side on the office desk. The black cloth that covers the red metal like desk is messy and uneven. "Ahhhh! Yes! Yes! Steadily! Good, you are doing good!" A woman in her early 30''s, seems to be moving up and down. Her tight white shirt is unbuttoned just until her abdomen. The tightness of the buttons are pushing her soft, huge melons outside and upward. Her shirt is barely covering her swollen, perked up pink nipples that are begging to be plucked. She is straddling a 20 year old boy, her knees are resting on the table on either side of him. Her short, black skirt is rolled up to her hips. Her toned, sweaty thighs are asking to be embraced, to be grabbed tightly. The boy barely tries to keep up with her pace. His eyes are closed, jaws clenched and his body is stiff. He could not hold it anymore as her scent is all over his body. Her hot breath is steaming off from her mouth and her tongue is wet with her dripping saliva. He instantly wrapped his forefingers on her nipples from above her shirt. *Slap* The woman slaps his face real hard. "I told you, not yet. They''re all yours when you satisfy me. For now stay still." The woman says while pinning his arms beside his head. She bends lower as her sweaty breasts rubs on his naked chest. Her long hair is dancing on his neck and face. She tightens her womanhood on his hard member and keeps pounding down as sparkling golden liquid keeps squirting, she slams her lower body hard on him. "Ahhh! Ma''am.... I- I cannot hold it in anymore." The guy says while his member becomes harder due to the excitement and the slipperiness it is feeling. *Slap* The woman slaps his face again, making his face turn red. The pain, infused with love making, makes him more excited. She sits straight on him and digs her nails into his right chest. "Hold it in you bastard! I''ll kick you out from my regiment if you let it out." The woman says with a rather joyous smile. She holds and squeezes her left breast as she digs her nails deeper into his chest and keeps pounding as her under cheeks slams on his thighs. "Ahhhh! Uwah! I- I can''t, please don''t squeeze it hard." While saying this the guy releases his juices inside her. The face of the woman becomes disgusted. "Who told you to be so selfish. You useless piece of crap. A synthetic humanoid is way better than you, tsk!" Saying that she stands up as his member slips out of her. "Q-Queen Shamian, I think we have a problem again! The regiment that went into the 8th dimension are not back yet, they''re not answering our calls either!" A soldier storms inside the room to relay a message; his face turns red. Shamian is facing away from him. His gaze goes down to the lift up mini skirt of Shamian, towards the juices dripping down in between her thighs. Shamian turns her upper body around "What are you looking at?" Shamian asks the soldier who is gazing her bottom. "N-nothing Q-Queen Shamian. Th-Theodore is demanding your presence and your squad." The soldier says while stuttering badly. "I will be there soon." Shamian responds. "General Theodore! Oh I see all the captains and generals of our house are gathered here as well. Are we all having a party?" Shamian arrogantly says while entering the hall filled with captains and generals. "Shamian! Learn to respect others and attend meetings on time. We have wasted our time here waiting for you." A captain in the room says to Shamian as if he is pissed waiting for her. "Oh my bad... I was involved with a work you see." Shamian''s shirt is still unbuttoned to her abdomen enhancing the beauty of her breasts. Immediately making the other captain feel embarrassed looking at her. "Shamian! Take the artificial humanoids with your squad to dimension 8 and rescue our family if anybody is alive." Theodore the 3-star general orders Shamian. The man is 6 and a half feet tall with well-built body. He is in his mid-40''s wearing a long, black coat. His voice is dominating and deep mixed with his grumpy nature. "I will definitely try not to kill the 8th dimension''s creatures." Shamian gives a cocky reply to her general. "Good! The reason I assembled you all here is to inform all of you. Our House of Asuras is taking a step further into the humanoid creation. We all know that 10 years ago ''The God'' the most powerful person on Earth from the ''Place of God''s'' the neutral country has made a powerful humanoid." "We have known the secrets of it with the help of Uriel who helped the god in making this humanoid. Unfortunately, though the humanoid has gone missing after it was made 10 years ago. But we do know that the humanoid is made of nothing but elemental stones. And so now with the help of Lucifer and our new ally, Uriel. We are making such powerful humanoids." Theodore explains to his house with prideful voice. "We all heard about that myths of that humanoid... I heard some old doctor took it out of our land. It''s a pity that we could not get our hands on it. Who knows how powerful the humanoid is if it did survive till now." Another general in the room speaks up about the dangers of this humanoid. "Nobody knows the whereabouts of the doctor or the humanoid that has gone missing. But if time comes. They will come to our land by themselves. And when they do. They won''t leave this land." Theodore defines his passion and obsession with power and to create a powerful humanoid. "Well, I want to excuse myself. I need to prepare my squad and we need to head to the 8th dimension to save my little puppies. Who knows which cute puppy in there may need my services." Shamian says with a grin as she salutes and leans down to Theodore asking for his permission. Theodore is really annoyed with her behavior. She leans forward, giving Theodore a whole view of her breasts. He couldn''t help but sigh- "You are excused. Take assaulter''s from any other squad if you need the help." Theodore says with as he wants to get rid of her presence as soon as possible. Shamian smiles from the corner of her mouth. She casually adjusts her shirt, flips her hair and starts to walk back to her regiment. Darren, the second in rank in Shamian''s squad, follows her. His eyes are still fixated on her back and on her mini skirt. He couldn''t erase the view he saw a while back when he visited her room to request her to attend the meeting. "What are you looking at, cherry boy? I''m not interested in your types." Shamian playfully teases Darren as they were walking towards their base. The whole corridor they are walking in is pure marble decorated with very fine polished design of black carving with gold linings. The corridor stretches to 100 meters long in a straight path. From there, a zig zag way of corridor invites you with 50 meters for each turn and finally you will reach the other side of massive room again. Shamian is in a surprise as soon as she entered her regiment base. All of her squad is getting ready with their suits and armors; as well as gears and their weapons. "Oh! Am I only one who has been informed late about this?" Shamian turns her face around to look at Darren again with a slight annoyed face. "Don''t blame Darren, Cap''n. He was just scared to knock on your door. A secret crush I presume." A soldier from her squad teases Darren with his words. "Yes yes! He sure is a loyal Vice captain." Shamian takes off her shirt while saying. Shamian needed an upgraded armor so she chose to dress up in black one, made out of indestructible black Vibranium. Her whole armory consisted of a black Vibranium skin fit jeans. Upon it, she wore shin and leg armor. Everything was made out of that mysterious metal which could neither be burnt nor destroyed. On her upper body she wore same fitted shirt of similar shade. Every male soldier in the room was drooling seeing the goddess like beauty changing in front of them. She wore the armor like shirt on her bra with no add-ons. On which she placed a breast plate which made her plump chest rise a bit into a sexy tight shape. Vibranium-made black pauldron were hung on her both shoulders and on the right side, a red metallic shoulder plate laid with a strap. Which went around hugging her body just beneath the chest plate. "Ok I''m ready to go. Where is the engineer? Is my tool ready?" Shamian asks while she settles down in her clothes. "He is on his way here. He should be here soon." Darren says while he lift his feet, raising his head up in search of the Engineer who is supposed to be here. "And who''s squad is it that was stuck in the dimension?" Shamian asks casually as she leans to a side with her hand under her cheeks. "Ah! It''s Captain Thorik! We are going to assist them and bring them back or find the stones they must''ve left behind." "Huh?? Are you fucking kidding me? It''s that brat Thorik? Nobody said we need to assist him. Ughhh I hate that super hyper brat to the core." Shamian responds with a long pale face. "Sigh! I have to always babysit these Sissy''s. I want a prince handsome or somebody worthy Tsk." She says while she rolls up her eyes pitying her own fate. "I''m here Shamian! The tools are ready." The guy who was previously under Shamian on the table walks out with a red-colored case written Shamian de''souza on it. "Hm! Let''s move out squad! Knowing Thorik, he is not someone who will die easily we also need to give up on the elemental stones that they collected." Shamian says while she revolves her right arm stretching her arms and moves out. "We can''t do this. You can''t do this. We can''t stand. You won''t stand a chance." A man in her early 20''s keeps his head lowered while talking. The land is red with traces of black sand at some places. Mostly covered with very small stones than sand more with Rocky hills and slopes. There are three persons on the ground behind the standing man. One of them gravely injured as half of his gut seemed to be bitten by some animal. Beside him are two girls on their knees looking scared, holding each other hands. "C-captain! We cannot, th-there are many of them" one of the girl with green hair tells to the man in front of them. "Just because I don''t have monster-like spiritual power. You refused to increase my rank. Just because the blood of servants is flowing in my body, you refused to put me in a royal house. And now just because my whole squad is newbies, you think I will die of something like this?" The man keeps talking ignoring his subordinates behind him. He has a red spikey hair with a long leather jacket up to his hips. There are gun mags tied to his belt around his waist.both of his hands are holding onto machine pistols. Black Uzi look alike guns in each of his hand with glittering in red color. "Ca-captain! Please let us surrender to them. They will leave us alive." The green-haired girl says again, and this time her voice is trembling and stuttering badly. The facial expressions of Thorik changes with the words of his subordinate. "Haha you should listen to that girl there. It''s pointless, there are 20 spirit beasts here. You won''t even stand a chance against them." A person sitting on top of one of these spirit beasts speaks in a mighty voice while looking down on Thorik. *"Just give up Thorik. I have killed countless captains the same way. You humans give up easily when you are put under tons of stress. The fear of your subordinate behind you and the fear of the beasts in front you. You have no choice but to surrender and to get back stabbed by me."* The man sitting on the beast thinks devilishly while he cherished the moments he is imagining in his head of how he is going to kill and feed Thorik to his beasts. "Hmm Ok! I give up" Thorik says out of nowhere with his head lowered. It can either be the feeling of shame or he realised his pride on battlefield today that made him lower his head. *"Hahaha this is it. The perfect opportunity to take him down."* The words said by Thorik instantly made the other person excited. "Hawk! Go chain him and the girls and bring them back. We will accompany them to the king." The person orders his sub ordinate. 187 Gifters "But! Before I come with you guys. I want you, the monkey who is sitting on top of another monkey to answer me something." Thorik says referring to the guy who is sitting on top of a beast. "How dare you talk ill about Sir Arald! Just when he took pity on you guys and wanted to let you all live." Hawk says while approaching Thorik with cuff''s. "Heh! This human suddenly grew horns now that he knew I was going to spare his puny life?" Arald says as he stares down at Thorik while smiling from the corner of his mouth. Arald seems calm without getting provoked or intimated by Thorik''s words but inside he is saying*"Talk big all you want. Once the beasts are all assembled. You won''t be able to talk anymore."* To Thorik out of anger glittering eyes. "What do you wanted to know? I will grant your wish." Arald says as he waves his hand towards Thorik as if a king giving his permission to the slave. Arald''s words and his body movements showed how cocky he is and how superior he is feeling right now. "A soldier- with a divine weapon like sword." Arald''s eye brow feels a twitch all of a sudden upon hearing the words of Thorik. Thorik on the other hand is taking his time in telling what he want. The hairs on his body are standing up as he is reminiscing the sight of the soldier he is describing. "The only soldier who could use the God arts... The one with whom you people have formed alliance with to win the war with the 11th realm. I want to know how he attained the God arts from? I''m sure it happened after he became your ally. After your ugly Queen accepted him into the kingdom." "I want to know what took place? and is your Queen the only female to grant the power of God arts? I want to know how to get my hands on it." Thorik finishes his words like a wild beast hunger for power. It was silent and Hawk and Arald are speechless with what Thorik had spoken. Hawk is standing 5ft tall with jade green body. Reinforced with light green armor like skin at his chest which is hard and looks like an extension of his skin and lizard scales on his neck. His arms are long stretching down to his knees from his shoulders. And he is dressed in normal full body gown. Arald on the other hand is over 6ft tall and muscular. His lizard like scales are dotted and stretches all the way down to his thighs. The scales on his body are more hard looking. Acting as an armor for his body. He only has a one silky green cloth wrapped around his waist as if he has just came out of shower. Both Hawk and Arald are backed up by dozens of beasts of 8th realm which, each beast is of a captain grade. Meaning, as powerful as a captain on earth. These beasts are also green in color with four limbs, sort of resembling an ape but every beast is above 8feet and muscular. "He-he! S-so you are seeking for a power. You seem to be in a Captain''s position, but it looks like you''re not a gifter huh. A mere seeker for power became a captain. If only your squad has a gifter in it, you all wouldn''t be in this pitiful position." Arald says with a goofy face trying to act like he does not know what Thorik is asking him about. "I-I told our captain to get a gifter for this particular mission to assist us. Sir Theodore even offered our squad a gifter. B-but captain just ignored everyone and headed out with us inexperience squad and everybody flew away. We are the only one trapped here." The girl behind Thorik cries and stutters about her bad fate. In this world, the gifters are people who have massive amounts of spiritual power inside them. There is a weapon which is gifted to them solely based on the type of elemental stone they use. Like a green bow of Zoilas with 3 green stones which can shoot an arrow without the use of an actual one. The weapons of gifters are unique and different from their squad soldiers. Which differentiates a gifter from the soldiers. Most of the gifters ends up being a captain and from there it is based on their skillset which pushes their rank up. "You Mr. Seeker, I suggest you to give yourself up and die here. The things you have asked me and spoken off are forbidden to speak in this realm." Arald gets cocky once he realises that the captain before him is not a gifter. Hawk also laughs to himself for the stupidity of Thorik to stand against them even when he is a seeker class. He walks up to Thorik with chain cuff''s and a small steel spear. "You don''t have a squad to back you up here, nor do you have the power. Do not try to jump or slip away from us. We will give you a quick death." Arald says as he lean forward with an evil smirk. "So you want me to spank your butt and make you spill the truth about God arts or are you going to make it easy for me?" Thorik who has been quiet till now opens his mouth. "Hahaha you puny human! What makes you so confident! You don''t even have your armor on your body as of now. I have my dangerous beasts and dozens of them. Hawk alone can slice you people up to pieces. I''m blessed by God''s for my superior physical ability. I''m a noble here. I have everything. What do you have that is making you cocky? Tell me what do you have!" Arald goes on a rage all of a sudden with the behavior of Thorik and his words. Hawk gets closer to Thorik with his cuff''s and wraps his chains around Thorik. *Clack* Thorik who is infront of Hawk is suddenly walking away from him with his back against Hawk. Hawk is confused. Thorik is facing him until now but now he is walking back from him? *"Huh? Why is he walking away? Wait! Why is Arald and the beasts are in front of me? They''re supposed to be behind me." He is puzzled with what is happening before him. As he sees Thorik walking away, Hawk feels his body is falling down onto the ground. The head of hawk is turned backwards by Thorik as he walks towards Arald. "Well I have thumbs! And guns!" Thorik says to Arald with while showing his hand. Arald, Hawk and the 8th realm beings only have four fingers and no thumb. Thorik reminds Arald that he has two of them while he breaks Hawk''s neck by turning it all the way around. Arald is just watching with a horrified expression. "T-take him down and tear his limbs apart!" Being overtaken by the rage of losing Hawk right in front of his eyes, he shouts to the beasts in desperation of getting rid of Thorik. All the beasts let out roars and storm towards Thorik. His red hair waves around as his sparkling eyes get sharper, assisted by his evil smirk. His hands reach out to two Uzi guns strapped to his belt on either side of his waist. *BRRRRRRTTTT~* Within the next two seconds, the sounds of a submachine gun echoed in the entire field. The first approaching three beasts are filled with 20bullets each. The red Uzi''s are shooting continuous endless bullets filling up the flesh of the beasts. The bullets are as small as magnetic balls. The Uzi''s are enhanced with red elemental stone in its mag, as a replacement for bullets. The red elemental stone can release bullets of various sizes, from small as a fly, to as big as a Canon, depending on the spiritual power of the user. Thorik''s gun let off steam with the continuous firing. He has fired 300 rounds approximately in 1 minute, managing to hit the beasts hidden behind the first three. Naturally, if it had been a real gun with bullets mag, the muzzle of the gun would have melted completely. The pistol grip would be hot for a person to hold and the cartridge would have softened. But since the Uzi Thorik is holding is presented with elemental stone in the place of bullets, the gun is in perfect condition, other than the light steam and warm pistol grip which is compensated with the red and black gloves that Thorik is donning. *"The spiritual power of this captain must be less based on the size of bullets he is firing. But the bullets are pretty fast, even if they''re smaller in size."* Arald starts evaluating Thorik based on his assault. "These beasts of 8th realm regenerate in almost no time. You need to shoot more than one of your puny bullets to affect my beasts. How do you plan on taking all of them and me? Useless effort!" Arald says while he bursts out in laughter. The kong beasts are of many classes starting from domesticated house class to general class. The special ability of these beasts, however, is that they regenerate and heal quickly. The regeneration state is faster as the class of the beast increases. "Heh! Seeker and gifter, noble and general. You have been talking non stop all this while. A barking dog never bites. Haven''t you heard of that saying? You monkey!" Thorik lets out a faint smile from the corner of his mouth. *Snap* "EXPLODE!~" Thorik snaps his finger and shouts out loud. His face is filled with excitement as if he cannot hold any longer to show something new to Arald. *Sliiiiiiiiccckkkkkkkkk!!* The three beasts that have been shot by Uzi bullets have suddenly started acting weird. Their skin grows lumps at some places looking ready to burst out. Out of nowhere, 10 huge red spikes grew out of the lumps tearing the kong beasts from the inside out. The brain, eyes, gut, organs and finally, the heart is shoved out, pierced by the red spikes. This left Arald more confused while Thorik reveals a smile on his face. "I-impossible! W-what did you do? Those were just normal bullets from your gun. The bullets are also small sized. How did the spikes come out?" Arald is starting to get scared. A seed of fear is planted in his heart. The two girls from Thorik squad also look astonished. They do not know what happened, but they are starting to have a hope that they will be defended for a while until the help arrives. "Hm... Don''t tell me that you have never watched this type of reaction? It''s simple. The large amount of bullets I shoot into each person or body is not because they are small. I mean- they are small because of my spiritual power, yeah." "But! The bullets I shoot are magnetized. Thus, the blood spikes killed your beasts from inside." Thorik was filled with pride, and a feeling of achievement rose in his chest. "M-magnetized? B-but you aren''t supposed to have any gifted weapon." Arald stutters. Thorik starts moving forward while he unequips the mags of both of his guns. He reaches out to brand new mags in his pockets which consist of not one, but three red elemental stones in each mag. The mags he used till now only consisted of one red stone. But these new mags consists of three of them, more powerful and effective bullets. *"Dammit! Why do weaker people face stronger ones in a fight? Why do the weak act cocky at first? And then, the stronger one will reveal the ace up his sleeve and the weak ones run away! Life is so unfair. Especially my life."* Arald''s shackles broke on seeing a gifted weapon in his hands. He is thinking of the most effective strategy on a war ground. The ''Run away without looking back'' strategy. The magnetized bullets that Thorik fires, work on a basic principle. The north and south poles of magnets. Each gun of his is a pole of the magnet bullet that ejects out of his gun. The gun in his left hand only fires north poles and the gun in right fires south poles. At first, more than 2 bullets are shot inside a flesh. They magnetize the water content and blood of the body. Later, Thorik fills the body with either all south or north bullets, which repels the magnetized blood. And in the end, the blood move away and spikes protrude out of the body, leaving it deceased. For example, Thorik first fires a South and North Pole bullet inside a body ''A''. The magnetized bullets magnetizes the blood of body ''A''. Later he fires all same pole bullets inside the body ''A''. The same pole bullets repel the blood inside the body causing it to spike out as thorns and smoothly eliminates the foe. This is the gifted weapon for the gifter. 188 House Meeting Get him!" Arald turns the beast he is riding on, back to his city to escape from Thorik while buying time, by sacrificing the kong beasts. "Ah Captain! Arald is running away. You need to chase him down and finish first with your flashy moves and guns!" The crying girl shouts from behind of Thorik. "Why? Are you a stupid or what, kid? Why do we need to chase and fight him when there is no use in doing so? I will take down these beasts fastly so we can collect the lost stones which were dumped by your idiot newbie squad members. Then we head back to our realm." Thorik replies using the presence of mind, instead of being impulsive. "Huh!?" The girl is puzzled. *"Every captain acts high and might and like a noble. But what kind of captain is this person? who acts rough and delinquent alike, no he is a delinquent in and out. Geez! he does not even know how to utter sensitive words from his mouth to a helpless beautiful girl like me! I''m quitting this squad after we go back. I''m jumping over to some charming and handsome captain who treats me, Charnie the beautiful doll with respect and food."* She thinks to herself pouting and clenching her fists, cursing Thorik with her eyes, and pursing the lips. *"The God arts from many years ago. And a humanoid that is made of all the elemental stones. A doctor who has escaped with the humanoid. I want my hands on everything. I want to rise to the top with such power. I want to achieve my dreams."* Thorik is lost in ways to quench his lust for power, in his own thoughts. He starts shooting at the rest of beasts that storms towards him. Even though Thorik is lost in lust of power, his body moves on its own. Fancy jumps and turns, he movess elegantly with the guns with a fierce glare in eyes. He doesn''t take his finger off the trigger even if all the beasts are down. It''s almost like his muscles are reflecting his cruelty, on their own based on muscle memory and insightful lust for despotism. He stops firing in the end while thinking about the God arts. This is his Everytime routine whenever he gets sent to eighth realm. He seeks the power that is lost in history. And yet again this time he is lost again with no clues or leads. Thorik heaves a sigh, turns back away from the beasts as all the beasts grows spikes from their bodies at the same time. The view is ''beautiful'' scenery like a thorny garden full of blood roses. Meanwhile the two girls inject a nanoresuct into the guy laying down on the ground with half ripped out gut. The wounds of the guy starts repairing themselves and the open wounds starts to reattach themselves. *"The wounds are stitched back and the body is repairing itself no more death threat now."* The other girl that is along with Charnie thinks while moving far from Charnie slipping away slowly like a kitty. "Huh? What? Why are you moving away, Amy? It''s ok, I''m here to protect you. Don''t worry, our captain is apparently a gifter here so we are o-" before Charnie finishes her mother like warm words. A huge Chunk of green intestines and green blood pours down in the area that Charnie is sitting. Her Blue aquamarine hair is drenched in green slime like substance with intestines dripping from her cheeks. Charnie is more than grossed out, and to top it off all the organs are flying towards her. The lower part of a beast covered her legs making the beast legs look like an extension of her body. And more parts including the green fur which is like the hair on caterpillar covered her. "EEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!!! I HATE THIS CAPTAIN!! EEEEEEEEEEK YUCK INTESTINES!" Charnie shouts in panic! The organs of the beasts that are dead due to the spikes are flown towards Charnie and decorated her self proclaimed beautiful and curvature body. "Stop being such a sissy! For real, why did I have to be the one to babysit such weaklings. What about the elemental stones? Have you both even started collecting them?" Thorik yells at both Charnie and Amy. He shifts his gaze around Charnie looking for Amy. Suddenly he finds Amy on his right side. She is innocently picking up the stones like a good innocent kid without a care for the world. As if the stones are her first and foremost thing to her. "Aren''t those the stones you dropped on your way? That''s why they''re lying so close to where you both are." Watching Amy''s Oscar like acting, Thorik raises his voice about the stones that Amy threw while she was being chased by the beasts. A quick shiver touches the body of Amy suddenly. She realises that Thorik sniffed out the culprit, she still maintains her composure and acts like an innocent who has been accused. "And you! The good for nothing one! How long are you going to be laying down hugging that huge head of beast?" Realising that it is no use in talking to Amy, Thorik turns towards Charnie who is passed out because of the terror she faced. "Tsk! I know you girls never listen to me. That''s why I bought another weapon with me today." Saying that Thorik slips his hand inside his sleeve with a smirk on his face. Both Amy and Charnie feels a twitch suddenly upon hearing Thorik. He pulls out a whip from his hand sleeves and swayes the leather whip in air, the torturous thing flung around in a circular motion before it hit the ground biting a rock causing loud noise. Both Amy and Charnie instantly knew what it was from just the thunder like sound it made. They instantly start to sweat and looks back from the corner of their eyes. Before Thorik takes a step forward towards the teen girls, an arrow made of gust pierces the land before him and draws a line made from the gust. "I don''t think you''re supposed to treat a trainee squad in this way, Mr. Thorik." A male voice is heard from behind Thorik. "What are you doing here, Mr. Obsessive with those pants of your female captain?" Thorik annoyingly questions to Darren who shot the arrow from his crossbow. Both Darren and Shamian have same weapons, that is the crossbow. Rather than the arrows their crossbows have a dial attached to it with three green stones that can shoot invisible air arrows. This is a basic captain level crossbow, the one starting General class crossbow consists stones of different attributes. "T-talk with some shame Thorik! I''m not a pervert like you who would want to whip teen girls while they''re working." Darren yells at Thorik on top of his lungs but at the same time, blood drips from his left nostril as the words of ''whipping and teen girls'' came out of his mouth. "I don''t want to hear that from someone who grows proud below the navel everytime he sees his captain from behind." Thorik throws an insult at Darren, sticking his pinky finger inside his ear, he rotated slowly and arrogantly and blows the wax off his finger taking his time. "Eeeek! Stop, Thorik. Behave like an elegant cap-" Before Darren finishes off someone interrupted him. "Oh my! I never knew you only like me from behind." A beautiful and husky, seductive voice is heard. Shamian turns her upper body backwards while she wonders what''s so special about her back. Her already short skirt lifts up slowly exposing her red inner clothing. Nosebleed intensifies for Darren and the faces of all men standing behind Shamian brightens up with sparkling eyes. "Captain! I will always be behind you and protect you with my body!!!" A soldier shouts from behind her while his gaze is fixated on Shamian''s back cheeks. "Whatever! Anyway, moving on. Aren''t you banned from being sent to this realm, brat?" Shamian asks Thorik. Thorik just lifts his middle finger up pointing towards Shamian as a reply. That is true, Thorik always messes up his missions in this eighth realm of evolved beasts. He always goes for the information on God Arts and about Ares. That is why his house, the House of Asura''s stopped giving him any missions that involve going to eighth realm. "Nani! How dare he show finger to our goddess, just one word Queen and we will kill him." A soldier with squinty eyes shouts from behind. "Yes yes! How can he talk act like this with the Queen." "You are just jealous that you are not in Queen''s squad." "Die virgin, you cocky brat!" "Die virginnnn!" All the soldiers behind Shamian causes a havoc and goes crazy starting ranting whatever they want. "Hey!!! Calm down you guys, Queen gets angry when someone yells from behind her." Darren tries to control the squad for his captain. The thing he is most afraid of is the anger that is building up inside Shamian. She closes her eyes and grits her teeth being annoyed and trying to suppress her anger. "Pop! my cherry Thorik you beasty man! Kyaa." An old man''s unspoken desires too goes away in the ranting of the crowd. Yes you heard right. It was an old soldier that said it. "Korraaa!!! Who the hell said that just now! What kind of an insult is that you pervy men!" Darren too yells. "SHUT UP PIGS!" Shamian losses her anger and Shouts out loudly. That is not the scary thing, her crossbow is shining in green color and the dial on her wrist is turning fast. This denotes that her spiritual power is rising above her peaks, instantly sending fear down the spines of all her soldiers. Shamian takes aim at Thorik and before Darren can cool her off. A powerful green arrow is made from the swirling of winds and is released on to Thorik assisted by gusts. The arrow lands at the feet of Thorik causing the arrow to explode into a gust of wind. The jacket and the thin shirt inside that Thorik is wearing constantly flaps in the air and raises above his abdomen revealing his steel like abs which looks like they have been sculptured every inch carefully, making even the men behind Shamian jealous of his body. "Heh you are still in my to do list before you get kicked out of the house." Shamian suddenly changes her tone and tells to Thorik with her seductress like eyes fixated on him. "Tsk." He turns his face away from her. "Help us collect the stones and take care of my squad and take them back to earth for me. I will be back after a few days." He folds his sleeves of his jacket up and says to Shamian. Shamian turns her face to her side looking at the ground she lets out a groan and all of her soldiers starts spreading out looking for and collecting the elemental stones. Some of them takes in the wounded guy and Charnie into their care and carries them on scoop stretchers. Shamian however walks towards Thorik with a smile, but before she could say something. "The guy fought well. He stood up to a captain class Kong. The two girls stayed back to guard the injured kid. The guy gets ''A+'' the girls gets ''B'' and the rest failed." Thorik says without Shamian asking him anything. Thorik is the captain of his own squad ''Dwellers'' who are scavengers and mostly mid range combat squad. Every captain of these official squads are to take the trainee soldiers to any respective realms and judge their capabilities and combat and judging skills. Thorik is in the middle of that with a trainee squad. Where all of his squad members escaped to earth when he showed them the way other than for Charnie, Amy and the injured guy. This is all part of training for them. He hands over Nanoresucts to Charnie and Amy to inject into the injured kid to save his life. And the moment Shamian arrives the test ends and Thorik hands the responsibility over to Shamian. "Me and my squad had to come here because you extended this training period! Seriously? Eight days in this evolved beasts realm? Don''t make Theodore kick you out of house. That old man is hard to predict." Shamian says. "But there is more to it At first I thought it was because of the meeting of all captains from a week is the reason they sent you to this realm. But I was wrong. They sent you off so they can have this meeting about the things that you are very interested in. Want to know what they are?" Thorik stopped in his traces after hearing Shamian. Shamian takes out the ear receiver magnet from her ear. A warm rubber that looks like the part of her ear is her receiver-"The mic is planted in the meeting room." She says holding her palm out with her receiver in her hand. 189 Thorik As Thorik turns around to face Shamian, she closes her palm withdrawing her hand back and plants her receiver back in her ear. She lets out a faint smirk -"The information comes with a price you have to pay." She says - "If not we can just walk our own paths." She raises one of her eyebrows and gives out a faint smile as of saying ''you know what I want''. "Eh- let it be, I will find the info on my own in this realm." Thorik writes her off. He knows the tricks and traps this woman uses to get what she wants. "Ugh! Why are you so hard? Are you only into teen girls? Tsk! Fine, I will give this to you for free." "They have the possible suspect name" Shamian pauses to catch a breath and continues "Of the doctor that flee the mainland with the humanoid kid." Thorik appears to be beady-eyed, he seems to be attentive more than before. The arrogance and cocky manner he had shown earlier is nowhere to be seen "And? What is his name?" He muttered under his breath unknown of what was awaiting ahead of his utterance. "Huh? You said something? I could not hear you." Shamian questions with a puzzled expression while she lowers her head a little and becoming all ears, as to hear carefully of what Thorik said. "His name! Did they say his name?" Thorik impatiently shouts. "Oh well." Shamian rolls her eyes. She thinks to herself what is wrong with this human? He gets so interested in this topic that he literally spaces into his own world. Taking a deep breath, she says. "The name is Gus Hughes!" The name of that doctor." Shamian replies exhaustingly. *Sigh~~* "Gus Hughes huh" Thorik lifts his head and looks up above thoughtfully. Only cosmic dust can be seen high in the sky. There are no clouds, it is plain dark night sky. All the stars are clearly visible to human eye and comets have filled up the sky travelling like a flock of birds. He lets out another sigh. Shamian is confused with his expressions, she does not know whether he is relieved or more worried. *Back in the House of Asura''s* "Just by knowing that some doctor ran away with a newborn baby, can we assume that the baby is a humanoid and he is the person? If so, are we hunting him now?" A captain asks Theodore in the meeting room. "He is a doctor for a reason. Who knows if he wanted to raise the kid or dissect him to gain the power. Keep your eyes open on every other houses and the islands they own and the people that come to their houses to enroll in the military. And when you find a person with last name Hughes. Bring them back here." Theodore orders all of his captains and generals. "And soldiers, prepare our house to buckle up for the enroll tests. In five months, kids from Mindoro will be here to take the test." He also passes an order to his soldiers for the test that is about to happen. Where Nick, Tim, Roy and Faust are selected for by Yang to showcase their talent to be taken into the House Of Asura''s. --Five Months Until The Test-- *Back in Medellin in the dark streets* "Haha yes! Get him! Beat him up!" "Don''t waste this opportunity guys, let all your anger vent out." "You blind piece of shit! How dare you not visit us the past week, you know we need to let out our frustration every week don''t you? Why! Why the fuck!" A blind kid is on the ground in the middle of a very narrow and dark street. And teens of 16 yr old are stomping on his head. His hair is dirtied by their shoes and clothes are not able to hold the hard blows. His eyebrow is cut and swollen, a guy is stomping on his face hard, the kid can feel the hardness of the guy''s shoe heel on his left cheek. It is crushing his skull deep into the dirt. It is getting harder to even breathe. Storm like punches and stomps are raining over him. *Heavy breaths~* "You better be here on time next week. Or we are going to expose your little truth that you are not autistic to the people of this city and we will rape your mom and little sis you got it? You blind fuck!" "Haha well said Akhito! you better remember that blind kid! You are going to spread your blindness to us and make us foolish blind people too if we let you loose on the streets." A teen with curly hair shouts in the face of Markos who is barely breathing on the ground. The 7 teens walk away after peeing on Mark and kicking his gut once and twice as a parting gift. They''re not satisfied with this but wanted to save their punching bag for next week. Mark searches for his bags of food and snacks for his mom and sis. He realises it is spilled all over the place. Stream of warm tears crawl down his cheeks instantly, breaking his strong emotional fencing. The punches, insults and kicks did not break him internally but the thought of having no food to feed his mom and sister tore his heart and the sadness he held in his throat. The money he earned by acting like an Autistic, killing his pride and doing what people made him do has gone to waste. He left the rice but tried to pick up the snacks. He gently wiped off the dirt and started putting them in his bag. His whole body is hot and his legs are quivering and jittering like the legs of a newborn, making him unable to stand. He tries to stand up twice and fails to do so. His frustration and tears increase with the fail of his 3 more attempts. He finally gives up and sits in the dust to catch a breath. Footsteps are heard coming from behind him but Mark is lost in his own thoughts to notice any sound. Suddenly two hands grabbed him from behind and started applying a medicinal gel gently to his bruises. Being startled from the touch Markos shouts out loudly "Wh-Who is it?" From his lungs. "It''s me Markos! Don''t be scared, I will carry you home." A warm and soothing voice of an old man is heard. It was the old blind man from the retirement house that Mark sits with all the time. "G-grandpa! Why can''t people just be nice? I just wish I could die and be released from this pain." Markos asks with pain filled voice. The words from the kid breaks the heart of the old man. It is beyond his imagination that a kid has spoken these words. God knows what he is going through in his life to have said it. --Four Months Until The Test-- On a pleasant sunny day, a street is filled with laughs and shouts of kids playing. They are pushing and throwing paper balls at each other. A house nearby is filled with grief and darkness to it''s already rusted door and dead wooden walls. "Heh! I will give you 200 kani''s and no more than that." A guy speaks to a women dressed in inappropriate clothes. "Reginald! Please, I just gave birth two weeks ago and it still hurts. I do not even have milk to feed my baby. Please do not decrease the normal price of 300 kanis you used to give normally." A woman begs Reginald, the guy who was in charge of the food supply ships that go out of the mainland. "You bitch! How many times do I have to tell you? Look at the scar on your tummy, it creeps me out so I''m not going to pay you regular price. Now I''m going to fuck you and pay you 150. If you want to live in this city, you better not talk back to me." Saying this he shoved the lady back into the house. He ignored the cries of the lady saying "Not in front of the baby." The lady kept begging with tears filled eyes. He heartlessly pushes her back into the pile of clothes formed like a small mountain after laundry. He tears her undies, bra and forces the lady to submission. --Two Months Until The Test-- "Ah! We are going out in the summer again to catch and stock the food to save it for winter huh. Outside the mainland, it is always cold. It does not even look summer." A fisherman in his 30''s talks to his fellow workers. "Ah the cold increased since the last time I came here. This old man cannot bear the cold anymore." The old man covers his shivering body with a warm coat hoping to finish his job and sail back home soon. --The Day Of Test-- "Faust! Hmm you are disqualified. Please try again after two years!" "But w-who is Ares?" Theodore asks Hades Queen Uzume is shunned in her tracks listening to the name she has long forgotten. "Ares~" Hades starts talking. 190 Who is Ares "Faust! Hmm you are disqualified. Please try again after two years!" "But w-who is Ares?" Theodore asks Hades Queen Uzume is shunned in her tracks listening to the name she has long forgotten. "Ares~" Hades starts talking. Year 5015- Mindoro in the past . . . . Captain Ares!, Captain Ares! ... Wake up, Ares!"- The four soldiers saved by their captain stand beside his bed with their arms and legs wrapped up in bandages, as Ares tries to opens his eyes "Aryyyyyyy!!..... You are finally awake after 3 weeks of sleep, I was so worried about you" A very fair female soldier, with sparkling eyes, long eyelashes and an exquisite nose, says worryingly in the face of Ares while being awkwardly close to him. "What the..." Ares (age - 20) confusedly tries to get up, but his body does not respond to any movement he make. "What happened to my body?" Ares asked in surprise. "All of your muscles and tendons got torn apart. 7 broken ribs, and multiple fractures." Gus (age - 15) replies while he is preparing medicine few meters away from Ares sitting at his desk. All the soldiers were living with Gus in his house on a hill, a little far from the village. "As the kid says, Captain, you were badly hurt and been on bed for 3 whole weeks. The villagers and this kid took good care of you and us. Tanya, move your goofy face away from captain''s!, let him breathe." Says another soldier with glasses, he seems to be a very smart, yet nerdy person. "I''m not a kid oi, I''m almost the same age as you all, just a little short.... arghhhh!" An annoyed Gus shouts to the soldier who called him a kid. "Among the 50, only five of us survived. The enemy ships were assisted by storms and whirlpools. We lost our soldiers. This shows what happens to a squad if their captain is a young lad. Almost every squad has experienced people as their cap''n and just because you were considered a genius, we are now stuck with someone who is the same age as us. Some genius who managed to get his entire troop killed." A soldier with a tattoo of Chinese letters on his right arm belittles Ares with a rather arrogant voice, filled with hatred. "You are right. I''m sorry that we lost them because of my incompetence"- Ares replies with a grim and gentle look on his face. He is ready to take the blame and shoulder the weights of the dead as his sole responsibility. He feels it was his fault that they had died. Gus seems surprised and could not digest the fact that Ares saved 4 men without a thought about his own life and brought them to safety all by himself and yet, he blames himself for what happened? This triggered Gus and he was about to speak up for him, but was stopped by what he heard from on of the soldier. "No-not at all Ares. If you haven''t ordered us to sail the ships into the storm, we wouldn''t have gotten rid of the enemies on our tail. If we kept continuing to fight, none of us would be alive here. I''m deeply thankful to you for saving me" - the youngest of all soldiers, Alex (17), replies with hesitation and gratitude while bowing his head down with utmost respect towards Ares. Hearing what Alex said, Gus really didn''t have anything to say and his heart settles down. "Also someone else might still be alive just like us. I''m sure of it" - Tanya (19) the female soldier adds soothing words along with Alex. "Alex, Tanya, thank you for your kind words, but it doesn''t change that everything happened because of my orders, I''m the one responsible for the lives of my subordinates." Ares replies bitterly. "Not at-" Albert, the soldier with glasses (21), tries to say something but was interrupted in the middle by the soldier with the tattoo. "As far as you remember what had happened, you are making our party a weak one, with your ideals, inexperience and feelings." Yang(21) the soldier with the tattoo says, storming out of the room angrily. "What did he say? Does he not even have little gratitude for the person who saved his life?!"- Gus yells after Yang and tries to follow him. "Please, why are you getting mad at him? That is how a military personnel should behave" Albert says while holding onto Gus''s right arm stopping him from going outside to confront Yang. The soldiers looks down as if they don''t have anything to say to Yang. The military soldiers shouldn''t and aren''t supposed to show any emotions or feelings, showing any is considered being weak. Ares always treats his subordinates as his own friends since they are all of same age, but for Yang, it is weakness and weakness is intolerable for him. He believes being cold and cutting off emotions from the heart is a better way to treat one''s subordinates, only then can a person truly become strong. Not only Yang, but all the soldiers in modern-day were trained and raised that way since they were young children, they never experienced a motherly or fatherly love before. "Oh Ares!, We still have two nano restoration syringes. If you take two of them you are definitely going to recover instantly." Alex excitedly reminds Ares as he takes out the syringes. Nanoresucts or nano restoration syringes are heals for soldiers. When these syringes are injected directly into the nerves, the nano particles combined with a healing element(mixture of a healing substance that is available in main country) instantly start repairing the cuts, internal bleed and even fractures. No matter how much one is near death, when one injection of these nanoresucts is given, it will keep them alive at all costs. "Huh? Recover instantly? But his whole body is damaged, it''s gonna take him at least 8-12 months for his whole body to heal. Even after 12 months there is no guarantee that his body will go back to the way it was-s....." Gus starts uttering words without a pause. Ares want to explain Gus about their heals, but it''s a military secret, so he just changes the topic. "Ahhh.... By the way Gus, I heard that you guys took care of us when none of us were able to move. I really owe you and your city big time. Let me meet the mayor." Ares asks one last favor from Gus politely and appreciating him at the same time. "But Ares, its not like a city.... I don''t really know how to tell you"-Alex, the another nerdy guy in the party checks and inspects around the island after he gained consciousness and strength to walk, and now he wants to show off his knowledge and nerd skills and impress his cap''n, that his nerdy behaviour is nothing less from a badass soldier''s. "What''s a city?" Gus interrupts in the middle - "And what''s a mayor? If you want to meet someone important, I can take you guys to the Village chief who lives at the foot of the mountain in the village, but there is no one called mayor here". "Village?" - Ares says in surprise "That''s what I was going to tell you about Ares, this village is situated on something we studied in our books. Something which we did not anticipate would exist. It is an island, an island with three villages which are 20- 30kms apart from one another. Also, one of the village seems to have some good weaponry too, It seems they harbour craftsmen and strategists in their village. I can tell by having a glance at their armors and barricades they have around the village. I have concluded this much." Alex proudly explains everything in a hurry and fear, that someone might interrupt him again. "Yes, we got raided by a village 3 years ago. They are well equipped in heavy armor and raised hell, we tried to defend ourselves but in the end we lost everything. They have taken everything precious to me and the villagers." Gus says in a vicious voice. The unnamed island has three villages situated on top of it with each village at the each corner of the island. One of the village is Mindoro, the other one called Caracus and the last one is Sable. Caracus is a village which chooses weapons over cultivating lands and seeks blood more than water. Caracus has been raiding both Mindoro and Sable from past 4 decades. Whenever the village goes low on resources and food, they raise a war over other villages. A recent raid happened 3 years ago on Mindoro and it took both of Gus''s parents and ever since then Gus have been left alone, which is why he despises Caracus to the core but he couldn''t do anything to take his vengeance out on them. "An island you say? That is impossible. Did you really scout the area well?" Ares''s face seems to be brightened up with what he had heard. Hearing about an island is nothing to get excited about, but Ares and his party is living in the 51st century. After the catastrophe, the earth only had one continent and no traces of islands has ever discovered by humans. Ares have only lived on a giant land which consisted, desserts, snow and spring all at once and they have only heard and read about the islands in history classes and books. Nobody living on the main land ever came across an island, so this is pretty much new and adventurous to Ares. "Alex, fast inject me with the nanoresucts but only one is enough. We need to save the other one for ourselves if we get into trouble on our way back from here" Ares smiles very brightly and starts planning excitedly on what he should do on this island as he beckons Alex to give him the heals. "Oohhhhhh... Cap''n, even after you are on bed without being able to move an limb, you still chose to take only one nanoresuct to save the other for us in future. You truly are our kind cap''n" Alex starts tearing up happily. *"if we run into trouble my butt, if I took two nanoresucts now, I will be fully healed and you guys will bug me to start going back to the mainland. We will be in war before we know it. If I took only one, it will be hard on my body, but I can stay here on this island until my body heals completely. Now it''s time for me to run around this island and have a perfect holiday, heh! heh! heh!"* Ares laughs mischievously inside his mind Alex takes out one of the nanoresuct, it is an injection but the fluid inside is green in color. The liquid is sparkling because of the presence of the nano particles inside. As he inject the nanoresuct into his median vein forearm, Ares is able to get up and sit on his own in mere 20 seconds and is freely able to move his left arm easily, however his right arm feels piercing pain when he try to move it up and down. This makes Ares unable to move his arm well. When he gets out of his bed to walk, his left leg is not able to bear his weight. *"Hmm my right hand and left leg are in really bad shape, this is worse than I had imagined. However... heh! this island is life!!!* Ares thinks to himself cheerfully... 191 New Trouble Ares walks out of the house with the help of clutches and his right arm in an arm sling. He instantly gets blown away by the sight his eyes are met with. He finds himself surrounded by grassy terrains all around him with hills, and a small village in the middle. A beach could be seen faintly across the mountains. There are small, steep trekking steps to get down from the hill that Gus house is located on and the stair way is curved. There is room for only one foot on each step. It really looked like a stairway to hell. It could really become one if they were not careful enough. It is certainly not for the weak hearted. One needs to be careful of the slippery wet steps. And with strong winds blowing in the midway, it is naturally hard for a normal person to crawl down and even harder for Ares to get down as he cannot use the strength of his two feet completely. "Mr. Ares, would you prefer going down with a rope way?" Gus asks with consideration. The rope way is good for two people at a time and a person needs to pull the rope to make the wheel move. The cart will travel in any way they chose to move it. "No no, no need for you to use any force" Alex tries to speak, but before he could - Out of nowhere Yang suddenly takes a long leap and jumps down the hill from the peak without any hesitation. For Gus who has no idea about the superhuman strategy of advance technology panicked and worried at the sight of seeing Yang jumping down the mountain. "What?? Mr.Yang! Oh no, this is bad!!" Gus is greatly in shock at what Yang has done and rushes to the cape to see what has happened to him. Yang is wearing two leather gloves which seem to be reinforced with steel near the knuckles but what draws our attention to it is, there is a red stone on the palms of his gloves which started to emit a red aura, the red mist like aura swirled around his arms like a snake coiling around branches. Yang seems like he is getting ready to aim at the ground by drawing one of his arm behind him and his other arm in front of him. *Oomph!" he threw a punch in the air as he approaches the foot of mountain. It''s nothing different from him punching the air. Following his punch, a strong gust of wind is created around Yang, as though he has blasted a canon, which decreased the falling momentum of Yang. In mere 5 seconds after Yang jumped off the mountain, he landed on the ground normally as though he is hopping on the ground. "Wh... what in the world did I see just now?!" Gus panicked upon seeing such power and strength displayed in front of him. He was of all more surprised and curious of the gloves that Yang was wearing, as Yang''s gloves are now back to normal with the red stone looking dormant and the aura disappeared into thin air. "pfff, yeah, what a show off. Doing a little circus trick to impress people. So mature of him." Tanya says with an arrogant and smirking smile and none of the soldiers on top of the mountain standing with Gus seemed surprised. In fact the look on the soldier''s faces shows displeasure. "Oh! So our tools are fixed this fast? No wonder having you with us is a big relief" Ares praises Alex with his words and starts to climb down off the hill using the small steps. Even though the winds are strong and the steps are too small that it is hard to climb down for a normal person and for people like Ares its almost impossible. But to Gus''s surprise, Ares and the rest are comfortable getting down the mountain without any problem. They do it while talking to each other about different things. Actually, it''s Gus who is being left behind unable to keep up with the soldiers as he keep rushing down to catch up with the soldiers. "Oooof! It was easier than I thought it would be, eh? Now, my saviour Gus, let''s go see and explore the island" Ares is moving all around in excitement and jumping around like a kid, as if he wasn''t hurt at all. "Cap''n are you really hurt?" Albert asks with a smirk and suspicion written all over his face while Ares nervously just laugh it off without saying a word. As they continue to walk, the soldiers comes across the dogs and hens that welcomed them on the streets. The people too started recognizing the wounded soldiers that were washed ashore. Everyone started to greet them and wish them to recover soon. Each of the villagers tried to grab and take the soldiers to their houses as guests, to introduce many things to the soldiers as they walk by. "We also have guinea pigs over here." A women says while pointing her finger towards a fence and a little garden with a little house built for guinea pigs. "Guinea pigs? Oh wow guinea pigs, I see them in the garden." Ares face lit up as he see guinea pigs in the lady''s garden. "You don''t see guinea pigs in cities and concrete jungle nowadays." Alex says. "But why Guinea pigs? Are they just your pets?" Tanya asks the lady who showed them. "Yes..." The lady replies with a smile. "Oh wow! This lady also has some vegetables and mint leaf growing in her small garden" Ares talks excitedly like a little child. "Are you cultivating on this land?" Yang asks the lady. "Yes, me and my sister Tisha(age-18) cultivate and grows vegetables in this garden. The chicken eggs help us earn a little money and our dogs here guard the garden and guinea pigs" Rissa (age -22), the lady who invited them over to her garden explains to Yang. "Who is the person hiding behind you all this while?" Tanya asks Rissa with curiosity and she peeks over Rissa shoulder to get a better look at who''s behind her. "Oh! this is my sister Tisha,whom I was talking about. She''s a little shy, so don''t mind her." Rissa says with a grin. Yang felt a little tense as his and Tisha''s eyes meet for the very first time. His heart-felt as light as a feather, almost floating, he couldn''t take his gaze off from Tisha. Tisha is a shy and timid looking girl. She has very soft and fair skin that looks very delicate. It''s so creamy white that it seems if her skin ever comes in contact with anyone, it will make it dusty. Tisha''s fair skin has more pink added to it now as she sees Yang''s gaze fixated on her. She hurriedly looks down trying to avoid his gaze as she blushes and her round amber coloured eyes sparkles. It attracts Yang, who had never felt anything like this before. His heart is racing fast not allowing his feelings to settle down. He has never seen a girl who could stir up his heart and soften him up completely. "Ahem... Yang let''s move on now?" Ares says to Yang before things get more awkward. He has seen what was going on between Tisha and Yang. "Oh why... I wish someone would look at me too with their blue piercing eyes ahhhh~" Rissa playfully says as she gets closer to Ares and leans on his shoulder referring to how Yang looks at Tisha. "Ah, how much I wish someone would hold my hand too" Tanya furiously says under her breath as she holds the other arm of Ares and glares at Rissa. Ares can feel that Rissa and Tanya are pressing their chest against him as if they''re competing against each other. "Whaaaa!!! well.... We.... ooooooooo ummmm" Ares face turns super red at this situation unfolded and he have a really tough time to utter words out of his mouth. "Ta-Tanyaaaa!!!!! Ares, you popular bastard!. Alex give me my weapon. I''m going to incinerate these creatures!." Albert cries out loudly for Tanya while hating Ares for his popularity among women, as he shouts at Alex, asking for his weapons. "Haha, I just like to tease young boys. Well, all of you are welcome to come buy eggs and vegetables from us anytime. I only sell vegetables to people who are special to me" Rissa says in a seductive tone while she runs her finger on Gus''s cheek. Gus shivers at her touch and he backs away quickly, tilting his head down as it got red and hot. "Ahhhh, Alex kill me please Alex I don''t want to live anymore!!!" Albert shouts while he grabs Alex''s neck and suffocates him. Albert is beyond disappointed that even a 15y/o gets more action than him and he curses his very own virgin life. "Ahhhhhh, Albert I will hold your hands if you want just don''t kill me pweasee!" Alex annoyingly said to Albert and frowns. I will do anything you want, just don''t take your anger out on me and choke me to death is what Alex wanted to say. "We need to leave now, we will come for dinner sometime later" Ares says and runs out of the house without even wanting to look back at what he has just experienced. Yang looks around and comes back to his senses. He takes his leave quietly but as he leaves, he sneakily looks back at Tisha who was still hiding behind her sister. Tisha who was brave enough to look up after the soldiers left, caught Yang is still looking at her when he is about to leave and she smiles at him shyly, but sweetly at the same time. A smile that rivals the beauty of cherry blossoms that instantly melted Yang''s heart even further. As everyone heads towards the house the village chief lives in, no one has noticed how Yang was suddenly acting strangely, except for Ares. *"So a woman can do this to any kind of man huh"* Ares smiles in secrecy at the reddish face of Yang, who was just a cold-blooded soldier a while ago inside Gus''s house. As they enter the chief''s house, Gus notices a pair of shoes left in front of the door which was never seen by him in this entire village. He quickly realized that something is wrong with the noises and unfamiliar voices coming from inside the house. Gus suddenly rushes towards the entrance, the soldiers realizing the unusual seriousness in Gus''s behavior, follows him as he opens the door hastily. "WHAAT THE HELL..!!!! What are you guys doing in our village??!!" Gus yells with rage. And he takes out his scalpel and rushes towards the person sitting in front of his village chief and point it at him threateningly. "No Gus, hold on!." The chief of Mindoro village, Mars, shouts in surprise of the action taken by Gus. Gus is just overtaken by his rage, he couldn''t listen to a single sound n the room, because in front of him are the people from Caracus village and his long time enemies. But they seemed to come here to talk to the chief about something peacefully. *"It''s legal as long as it''s not our men who drew the weapon first."* One of the guards from Caracus village feels the meeting is useless and takes this as an opportunity to attack the villagers and dashes towards Gus with his blade which is longer than an arm of a person. Gus could not even see a person coming towards him to take his head, the rest of the guards from Caracus that are in the room realizes the blood lust of one of their guard who is charging towards Gus with a huge blade. The guard was about to swing his huge blade to cut Gus vertically into two, but suddenly a person appeared in between him and Gus. He stopped Gus with his clutches and halts the swing of the blade by holding the sharp edge with his finger tips. "Ow ow, a huge blade for a scalpel? This is a little unfair, don''t you think? Hehe". Ares playfully said to the soldier with a mischievous smile. *"Wha-what..! who is this person!, I cannot move my blade inwards to cut him nor can I retract my blade. His hand isn''t even budging!"*The guard thinks while witnessing the power difference between him and Ares. *"Is he even human?!!"* "I suggest you to refrain from your violent thoughts." Ares says to the guard while his bright smile starts to fade away slowly and turning into a killer expression. Ares is emitting a strong aura. The guards and the soldiers in the room can feel his aura from a distance, his eyes are turning cold and sending chills down the spines of the guards of Caracus. It''s almost as if they are looking at a demon that they cannot be comparable in strength. The atmosphere inside that single room became greatly tensed and every guard in the room automatically drew their weapons out as their pure animal instinct is telling them that death is coming in their way in the form of Ares. "Why don''t we talk first? I want a cup of coffee if possible, my whole body is so sore hah! hah! hah!." Ares suddenly changes his presence and laughs in a goofy voice. "Gus, soldiers, please calm down." The village chief speaks up trying to calm his people down. "Stand down!" the official of Caracus orders his guards in a commanding tone. The official looks like a strict and serious person. Ares loosens his grip off the huge blade and the guard with the blade steps back from Ares like a helpless hyena backing from Lion''s vicious strike. The soldiers and the chief are relieved, but the official from the Caracus village and his 4 guards were not relieved by a bit at all. All of them are shocked and scared, they did not expect Mindoro to posses such strong kind of people like Ares. "Chief Mars, what are these people doing here?" Gus asks the chief bitterly. "We got attacked.... by outsiders, they annihilated our village. They have different weapons that blew away our barricades, pierced through our armor, we suffered a huge loss" the official from Caracus replies. "That''s what you ge..." Gus was about to add insult to the injury, but before he could, he was interrupted. "They said we were hiding 5 soldiers" The official said to Gus. Gus and the soldiers were dumbstruck. Ares and his party are the only 5 soldiers on the entire island. Did they get tracked down and are now being hunted? 192 Novoice "They said we were hiding 5 soldiers in our village. And they claimed we were lying after they destroyed our whole village" The official of Caracus villager said. Gus and the soldiers were dumbstruck. "The official came to warn us about some uninvited guests into our island, who carried weapons of destruction that can wipe our whole village in a single blow and so they came to ask for our help in fighting these foes," Mars said. The whole room was filled with silence. Everyone in the room other than the Caracus villagers and Mars were confused with endless thoughts and doubts running in their heads continuously. "We conveyed our chief''s message. We completed our mission and will be going back to our village now. Those who have attacked us are going to show up in 5 days and asked us to surrender the 5 soldiers we were hiding. Since we are not hiding anyone, our village is going to fight them to death. We will be waiting for your answer." The Caracas village official left after saying those words. A war in 5 days, one needs to prepare a number of things to go into a war. Mindoro is a village that has only produced doctors and farmers, not a warrior. Things really got out of hand. *"They are the soldiers from Agartha, our enemy nation, but how? How can they find us so fast? Our ship sank into whirlpool. There is no way they could anticipate what has happened and come here in search of us. And these are the mythical islands no human has ever seen before"* Ares wondered to himself and suddenly something struck him. *"Islands that no human has ever discovered, yet we have an expedition unit back in the mainland, which searches for islands and studies about them in our government. The unit only consists of Nobles and people that sit in higher positions. But how? Are they keeping islands a secret from the rest of the nation? But in reality, they have come across many? And they even have technology which can locate the islands and create an easy path into it? Have we been deceived all this time?"* Ares felt betrayed and lost. If the government really have the technology and methods to locate and enter islands concealed by harsh nature, he wouldn''t have lost his ship and his soldiers. This made Ares so angry as he kept thinking about the soldiers who lost their lives to this ridiculousness. Agartha is one of the two continents and an enemy nation of Ares''s. They are the enemies that hunted Ares and his ship and somehow they learnt that a small squad of 5 soldiers survived the attacks, came into this island to take refuge. They chased after Ares persistently to put an end to Ares and his friends. While Mars, the head of the village and Gus were in deep thoughts- "Chief, first of all, I really thank you and your village for helping us so much while we were wounded and in need of nursing. Even now while we were walking in the streets, your people still show us so much support and the amount of love shown by you guys is immense. Honestly, we of the military people don''t deserve the love we have been receiving. We work for people and expect nothing in return. When the people are in danger we lay our lives on the line." "Please leave it to just us 5 soldiers. We will go on behalf of your village and we swear on our lives that we will not let a single person come for your throats." Ares spoke like a leader, with words full of pride and honesty. For Ares, this is his oath and repayment to the villagers for helping him and his soldiers when they needed it. When Ares said he swore to do something, he always succeeded in finishing those things. He sets his own goals and would never fail in achieving them. "Hmmm, brave young soldier, please follow me," Mars said thoughtfully. Mars took the soldiers out to the streets for a walk. When they reached the stage which is used in the village to announce important matters or to pass on a message to all the villagers, Mars rang a huge bell, that was on the side of stage, three times. This was to address the whole villagers to gather for important hearing events. Slowly one by one, the whole village gathered in the place. Mars and Gus stood with the five soldiers at the centre of the stage. Mars took a deep breath. "As you people have all noticed, we have been visited by the people of Caracas. I appreciate that none of you made a huge ruckus of it and left it alone, for me to deal with." Mars started by thanking the people, which helped the people to clear the doubts from their heads. The villagers nodded their head happily in approval and they started paying one attention to the chief speaking, as they recognized how loyal he is to them. "Caracus was attacked by some military from outside. Their whole village was destroyed and many lives were lost. The reason they got attacked that attackers thought the people of Caracus were hiding a group of 5 soldiers in their village." "These five youngsters on the stage ( Mars is referring to Ares and his four soldiers), are for some reason being targeted. It is evident that after the attackers are done with Caracus they will come after us too. The attackers don''t have any means to negotiate at all, they only want to destroy and take what they came searching for. " "5 days from now they will come back to Caracus, Caracus are fighting for their lives. In fact, taking our place. We are the ones who need to help and support and aid the people who come to us, Is it not what we were taught all these years?!" The chief asked in a loud voice. "Yes... " "These five are our responsibility." " So what if they destroy us?we will rebuild the village over and over again!" "We are not new to wars, are we, chief?!" People from the crowd vigorously respond one after the another. The soldiers were speechless. They did not know how to respond to this massive positivity and support. In the mainland, soldiers are nothing but tools that need to keep the country safe. They were nothing but guards, that guarded the gates of Nobles at nights like dogs. That was how Ares and the others were treated, until they came here. This village really moved the hearts of every soldier standing on the stage. A tear dropped from Yang''s left eye and he didn''t let anyone watch his soft side.Tisha who has been watching Yang from the start from the crowd took a notice of his soft side, and was surprised to see that Yang wasn''t what he seemed to be at all, from the outside. Mars turned to face the soldiers. "We people are also training with arms from some years since our village always get plundered with raids. So please soldiers, help us fight for our homes." Mars asked the help of Ares and others, in a very polite and humble voice. "Of course chief!!!! it would really be a great honour fight alongside your people" Ares said while tears rolled down his face. How can he turn him down when these people love and respect soldiers so much. They are even willing to fight for them. For them, who are merely lowlife soldiers in their own country. "We either kill the enemy or die by their hands! Get ready for the war!it''s time to kill or to be killed!". Mars shouted and let the villagers hear his war cries. Everyone left and started preparing for the battle. Ares and the rest followed to discuss the strategies. "There are four units in our village." "First - The guards, they will guard our rear and stands in front lines with spears and their bodies as armours." "Second - The archers, they can hold a particular position and can also snipe far away from people." "Third - The medics, they are well versed in medicine and can save and help the inured people on war ground itself. They are also familiar with weapons to support the troops and." "Lastly the "Supporters", they will be the ones conveying messages and reports from front lines to mid-range fighters, from them to the archers and from archers to base camps. They''ll also risk their lives to discover any hidden enemy units or traps. In short, they are our communicators and messengers." "Let us all find a way to do the impossible" Mars explained his village power to Ares and the soldiers carefully. "I''m going in too." "I will hold the weapon and nurse the injured ones." Gus who was standing beside the soldiers all this while, said with a pretty confident tone. "Gus, all of us in the village are as passionate and dedicated as you to fight the enemies and protect our homes, but each person has a specific role to play. You need to guard the village, while the most elite adult guards are out." Mars said to Gus. "Chief, I can fight. I have been training with a sword for 3 years, all for this moment. Please let me join our village in the war. I want to fight for my friends, I want to find my goal, my purpose. Most of all, I want to discover myself, please. I beg you" Gus earnestly asked Mars, telling him about how he wants to change his self and help the villagers. "Gus, I understand your admiration but...." Mars tried to make Gus understand the situation. "Chief, leave Gus to me. I assure you he will listen to you in this matter. Gus comes with me for a walk" Ares cut in shortly and assured Mars that he will be the one to convince Gus in this matter. "I guess I can leave it to you guys," Mars said as a token of trust for Ares. Mars thought Ares can change Gus''s mind, since they were almost the same age as each other. He left with peace in his mind. "Alex, I want you to bring Masamune along with the white and red stones, to the hill behind Gus''s house. Rest of you, go do the preparations and get enhancements from Alex. Prepare to go all out." Ares ordered the soldiers with a commanding tone. Everyone left to collect their suits and gear from Gus house. *"Huh? Masamune? Who is that? There''s is no one in the village with that name"* Gus thinks while he and Ares head towards the hill behind Gus''s house and into the woods. *"Hmmm, Gus definitely has his body in good shape that is required for a swordsman, "* Ares thought to himself while evaluating the well-grown and ripped muscles of Gus. "Gus, grab two waster swords or logs that you practice your swordsmanship with, we might have a need for them after reaching the hill". Ares told Gus. A waster sword, usually called ''waster'', is a practice weapon. A sword made of wood or plastic and in Gus''s case, he uses a wooden one he got from the guards and trains with them using the waster. After Ares and Gus reached the peak of the hill with grass and open area, which seems to be a perfect place to test each other''s abilities. Ares stood 7 feet away from Gus. "Now, come at me with all of your strength and try to hit me with your sword," Ares told Gus without a hint of playfulness, as he dropped his clutches and takes off his arm sling. "What? But Ares you didn''t take your sword yet, here let me give you" Gus has both the wasters on his belt around his hips and as he was about to take and give one of it to Ares, Ares stop him. "I don''t need a stick, you can keep both. You can attack me with both wasters if you are willing to, I don''t mind." Ares said while he gave a faint arrogant smile from the corners of his mouth. "What? No, that is unfair, you need to have a sword with you too. Only then it will be equally fair." Gus righteously said. "You are not fit to stand on the battlefield." Ares said out loud and clear to Gus, with a mocking tone. This suddenly hit Gus like a lightning bolt out of nowhere. Gus stands still. He doesn''t know what to reply to what Ares just told him. *"Did I say something wrong? Did I do something wrong? Why did Ares just say that?"* Gus got lost in thought with all the questions he seemed to be having, as he was hurt by what Ares said. "Whether you have a sword or not, whether you have a gun or not, these things don''t matter to your enemy who stands before you in the battlefield. A single moment of hesitation will get you killed, and hence you are not fit to stand in the battlefield. If I tell you to strike, you need to strike" Ares said in a cold voice. "Again! come at me with all your strength!." As Gus heard the words coming out of Are''s mouth, he now understood why Ares was being harsh to him. He composed himself back together and took his sword out, held it with both hands, raised his arms up above his head, intending to slash Ares. He rushed forward with great speed. "What happened?..... I thought I told you that you need to hit me didn''t I?" Ares whispered in the ears of Gus. Gus was confused. Ares who was before disappeared and reappeared beside him standing closely while Ares''s left arm was on Gus''s neck, gripped tightly. Ares was inside Gus''s defence. Gus''s arms were still raised in the air, holding the stick but he couldn''t swing it. The index finger of Ares''s right hand was on Gus''s ribs from the left side. If it had been a sword rather than a finger, the sword would have pierced Gus''s heart through his ribs. Gus couldn''t utter a single word out of his mouth. He had never experienced anything like this. The battle was over before it even began. 193 True Strength Gus had his whole body trembling in fear, Ares was nothing like how he was until now. To Gus, Ares seemed like a cold-blooded killer with a different type of personality. It was as if there were two individuals living inside the body of Ares. *"Is this how Ares carried the soldiers and still be able to stand in a stable state even after being hurt badly and even after he was unconscious?"* Gus starts to imagine the monster strength of Ares. Ares distanced himself from Gus by jumping 7 feet backwards, he even took his waster sword from Gus and clenched it near his waist, as if he sheathed it into his imaginary scabbard. He stood tall with his right foot stretched forward and left foot, fixed behind him. There isn''t much gap between his feet nor is there any form of stance in the way he stands holding the sword. Ares seemed like still water, without showing any movement and just waiting for Gus to come at him again. "Come at me" Ares invited Gus to take another shot at him. Gus is really fearful of Ares, now that he saw how fast Ares is. So he decided to play safe and took a defensive stance. He held the wooden sword with two hands tightly across his chest in a crossing manner. *"He won''t be inside my defence easily with this"* Gus tried to reassure himself while slowly taking short steps towards Ares, calculating every move carefully. "Hmm, seems like you learned a little, but since you won''t be coming...." Ares suddenly disappeared again while he was conversing with Gus. "I have to come for your head then," Ares said with a voice that echoed in Gus''s head. *"Huh? What? Ares? But how? My defence form is clearly on point. I had anticipated his move and yet... Why is he...."* Gus speculates to himself, panicking as his own waster is on his neck and the handle side of Ares''s waster is pressing against Gus''s stick from the front. Ares is not inside his defence but outside this time. Ares didn''t disappear, he rushed towards Gus while leaning forward. His elbows almost touched the ground, in a very rapid speed avoiding the eyesight of Gus, almost like he misdirected Gus''s eyes. He approached him while dashing from below Gus''s waist-level, where Gus''s eyes can''t see. As he approached Gus, Ares acted like he drew out his sword from the imaginary scabbard and slashed from downwards to upwards onto the tip of the stick that Gus is holding. Gus held his sword tightly, expecting to stop any kinds of attacks with the middle and strong part of his waster. Little did he imagine a powerful slash on the tip of his sword. And before Gus could realise what was happening, his sword is not in his control. The sword is turning around along with his wrists due to the slash on the tip. As the Gus''s waster is in line with his neck, Ares quickly sheathed his sword and thrusted the handle in the middle of Gus''s sword ,which is impossible to push back due to his uneven grip on the waster. Gus ended up hitting himself on his neck with his own waster. This is what we call trick shots in normal sports. "You would have been dead if we were holding real swords, a hilarious death by your own sword" Ares made Gus realize how low he in, in the area of strength and techniques. Gus gritted his teeth in disbelief, as tears roll off his eyes to his weakness. "Um Ares, I bought Masamune" Alex who just got here suddenly says with an awkward face as he doesn''t know what took place here, but Gus and Ares seemed so serious. As Gus watches with curiosity. Alex throws a shiny katana sheathed inside a scabbard towards Ares. "This, Fukitsuna Masamune (translates to - Unholy Sword) is a katana. A real sword." Ares told Gus as he drew and displayed his sword in front of Gus. Fukitsuna meaning Unholy (not evil), was crafted by the last bloodline of Masamune family and hence got the name Fukitsuna Masamune, resembling a Japanese Katana. "Th-that''s a real sword," Gus said as his eyes got wide in disbelief, but with admiration. "This is not just a sword. This is a Katana, katanas have curved blades and were once used by samurai''s. Ares explained to Gus. "Gus! I want to teach you the sword art that was passed down to me by my father." Ares said excitedly, In a friendly tone to Gus. Alex and Gus could not process what Ares has just said. "Ar-Ares! Are you for real? You are not supposed to do that." Alex warned Ares after realizing what Ares had said. "I''m not allowed to pass down my art taught to me by my father which was taught to him by his ancestors? On the mainland, I''m not allowed to, but if it''s this village it can be passed down and live on forever. Keep this a secret for me, Alex. Pass me the enhancers and leave. I will come by dinner time with Gus." Ares said with determination on his face. Alex handed two stones in a small black box with transparent glass which looks like a jewellery box and left with a disapproving look on his face. For Alex, Ares is a genius with swords, there is no one in the mainland that can rival Ares. And he chose to pass down such a golden skill to a village boy? He thought with an unpleasant look on his face. "Gus, the sword art I''m taught is "Unholy sword". As the name suggests, it''s purely to kill the people who stand in front of you." "It doesn''t have defensive blocks or any particular stances. Everything this art focuses is pure animal instinct and to land a blow without hesitation. But you should remember; when we draw the sword out and lands a blow, it is instant death." "You are only going to target vital points, be swift, search for loops in the opponent''s stance and take him out. All of this should happen when you rush to make a move. I really want this skill to be passed down in the future. I can only teach this to you, as I consider you my brother, who has exchanged blows with me. Would you accept this? You can choose not to if you don''t want to." Ares asked Gus for his opinion. "Even though it is an art that is used to kill people, I want to become strong like you Ares. I want to be able to protect what I cherish, especially people who are close to me. I swear I will learn this skill and will never use it for personal grudges. I will use it to fight only for what I want to protect." Gus honestly replied to Ares who had waited patiently for an answer from Gus. Ares seems to be in deep thought for a second. He then grabs a stone out of his pocket. The stone which was handed to him by Alex was a small 6mm red stone that looked like a Garnet. He inserted it inside the handle of his sword on one side. As soon as the stone is immersed and merged with the sword, the ridges of the blade suddenly start to shine as if Ares had activated the stone, just like Yang''s gloves. A red mist-like aura slowly started to spread and flow on the ridge of the blade fiercely. Ares then swung his arm normally, his swing is fast yet looked like he is getting the dust off his sword but the amount of power and strong gusts released from that one swing is incomparable. The clouds above him were separated. It looked as though the heavens were slashed into two. Gus stood in disbelief as he stared at the sky. "This is the weapon of the mainland. The destructive force from the elemental stones." Ares explained to Gus about the stones calmly. "There, heh heh, you can do this too. Let''s start training." Ares urged Gus, who could barely comprehend what had just happened. He wanted Gus to start his training, without even considering the shock on poor Gus''s face. Gus too knew that he can''t dwell on this event, so he listened to Ares and they started off their training, from the basics of the unholy sword arts, since they only have a limited amount of 5 days time. After training until the sun had set, Ares and Gus head towards home. Gus seemed exhausted and tired, whereas Ares looks like he just did a simple exercise with his sword. "Welcome back! What would you like to do Ares? Take a shower? Grab your bed and go to sleep? or maybe - take - me for yourself" Tanya says in an appealing seductive voice. "Tanya dammittt!!! Can''t you just be quiet for a minute when Ares is back?! Ares, you are the one who made Tanya act that way.." Albert cries while grabbing and squeezing the neck of Alex who was standing right next to him. "No thank you, we were hungry. What''s for dinner?" Ares asks. "Ohhh, yes, dinner... No wonder I have felt hungry for a while" Alex says with an awkward and happy face, smiling brightly. Even though Albert is squeezing his neck, he acted like nothing happened to him, while making the most innocent face in the world, screaming *please save me from this pervert* inside his head. "Ahhh yes, dinner..... But Ares, none of us can cook. If you are hungry you can take my body as dinner and be rough, hard and so..." Tanya says as she leans forward to Ares with a smirk on her face. "Huh??? Dinner is not done yet? I''m so hungry dinosaurs are running inside my stomach. Ahhhh, mom and dad, I guess I will come to you guys soon. I''m dying because of these soldiers." Gus suddenly becomes a drama Queen, while falling on the ground holding his stomach like a little kid who didn''t know any better. Everyone in Gus''s house knows that only he can cook and he just wanted to avoid getting asked to take the responsibility of cooking. *"You can''t expect me to cook after a long training my body is sore, you shit heads. Which soldier cannot cook? Are you guys even soldiers dammiitttt!!"* Gus thought to himself angrily and he becomes more frustrated by this bunch of useless soldiers. "It''s alright guys. Yang and I made the preparations. We asked Miss Rissa to help us with dinner, we''re going to go to her house for dinner" Albert said with a poker face, while not noticing blood dripping from his nose, as he imagined a picture of Rissa in his head. Yang and Albert both had plotted for this plan. Yang wanted to see Tisha again and Albert was planning to see Rissa, to hitch a hike on her. Ares and the rest visit Rissa''s house as planned and eat the dinner with lots of talks, jokes and songs with good wine like they are having a party. And after everyone is done with their dinner Ares, Albert and Rissa passed out due to drinking alcohols, Gus passed out due to the exhaustion and so does everyone else as they sleep soundly. Yang was the only one that was really sober, he comes out of Rissa''s house to sit on a hill and stare at the black, starry night sky that lit up like a lamp. He sits on the stone, breathing in the fresh air that he hasn''t been able because of the continuous war happening in the mainland. "Do you - um, do you like watching the night sky?" Tisha suddenly emerged from behind and asked Yang with an innocent smile. She crouched beside him, wearing a long sky blue coloured gown with a lace yoke around the neckline. 195 Confusion *"Why is everyone waiting near the shore? Are they expecting the enemy to show up? Do they know where the enemy is going to come from, or are they expecting them to show up from the same entrance as last time?"* Ares stands in between the barricades wondering as the whole area is silent. Only the sounds of wind blowing can be heard as no man standing is uttering a word. *"As someone who came to the island from outside, I know how hard it is to enter the island through the whirlpools and giant storms that always lurks around the island. Half of your forces will get wiped out before they reach the shore"* Ares started to have a really uneasy feeling about the air around him. It''s been hours since the sun has come out, all the soldiers were still being put in the positions they were offered to. The sun now reached above their heads. Some of the soldiers were getting impatient little by little. They had been standing here for 6 hours already, and the heat of the sun was taking a toll on them. However, the waves of ocean were very pleasant as there are no visible objects in sight. Nero, the chief provided water to the men at shore with the help of the women of his villages. It was eve already, the sun was setting down. Every villager was too tired to even move their limbs, they were standing on the shore all day. Even the supporters had been searching other places to see if the enemies are coming from other parts of the island. Yet, no signs of enemies were found. Alex who was looking inside the island on his own for the traces of enemies or enemy camps, could spot nothing. "This is quite a situation isn''t it?" Gideon, the General of Caracus village nervously asked Ares while he repetitively gripped the handle of his spear over. "It is indeed an unexpected situation, we don''t know what to do from here on out either." Ares replied while smiling. "I don''t see one of your friend anywhere" Gideon asks about Alex with a hint of suspicion on his face. "Ah, he is actually the youngest of us all. The younger don''t have much endurance so he went to back to camps to rest, but be assured we will be the one fighting. He is someone who repairs our weapons and upgrades them to be useful in battles" Ares told Gideon to avoid him from suspecting on them. "I see." Gideon said while his eyes scanned around, counting the soldiers and villagers from Mindoro. If anything, Ares and his gang do not want to anger the Caracus village. After all, Mindoro will be the one that would have to take the responsibility for any misdoing done by them, since these four are from Mindoro. Alex comes back from searching all over the island but nothing abnormal came into his sight. Ares realized this with one look from Alex''s disappointed face. The sun has been set down and the waves of the ocean became rough as soon as the moon is up and it started showering snow. The cold is biting the bones of the soldiers that are still on the shore. Nero decides to call back the villagers since everyone is tired, sitting on the shore and staring at the ocean will just make the villagers more tired. Meanwhile Ares''s heart is beating fast and he can''t help but feel uneasy. If the enemy showed up as they''re supposed to and get into fight, things would have gone smoothly. They would have a chance to win, but now the enemy is not showing up like they said they would. Are they plotting something elsewhere? Or are they going to attack at night? Or hiding already on the island? or is the enemy near Mindoro as they keep waiting for them here? Ares have been bothered by these doubts in his mind. Meanwhile in Mindoro, Infants'' cries are heard, the air was violent, Gus had a serious look on his face and holding only his wooden sword with a despaired face while he stared at something burning near the shrines on the hill. Are the shrines and village on fire? . . . . . . . . "Achoo~~ " a villager of Mindoro sat with Gus beside him guarding the shrine on the hill with a campfire. Gus is staring at the campfire while reminiscing Ares''s words. "Gus, knock that look off your face already, brother. Just because Ares didn''t take you to war, you have been staring at the fire for a long time. It''s creeping me out. Anyway, why would we have to guard this shrine at night too? We only have a tent here and it''s too cold." A villager complained while getting impatient. "We can''t help it. The other day when Ares and his friends visited the shrines on each of these hills, they told us that our village will be in grave danger if a foreigner is to find about these shrines. So we need to guard it at night too. We shouldn''t let anyone who is not from our village to approach these shrines." Gus replied to the villagers with a serious look on his face "Ehh, but these shrines are in bad shape, I wonder who would want these stupid shrines. And why are those infants from that house at the foot of this hill crying all night??? I can hear them from here. Gosh, feed them something, stupid parents" The villager mumbles grumpily. "You heard what Ares said, there is some energy flow and oscillation here. I didn''t understand what they said, but it must be important. I have never seen Ares that surprised, so we better do our jobs correctly." Gus told the villager patiently. Gus had been ordered to guard the village and he was carrying his job out well. *At caracus* The war however, didn''t seem to happen any time soon, no enemy was showing up. All of the barricades and shields had come down. The whole army is in deep sleep, while villagers from Mindoro are guarding the sleeping warriors of Caracus. "Why did you accept to guard these people voluntarily Edward? We could go back to let our chief know." A villager asks Edward. "It can''t be helped. They have been carrying barricades and heavy armor all day. And they''re hurt from defending their village already. Let us be the guards and I have sent 5 messengers back to Mindoro to relay what happened here. If this is how it will be and the enemy doesn''t show up. We can go back to our village and live peacefully."" Edward replies to the villagers. "Oh right, how old are your two daughters now?" The villager asks brings up about Edward''s daughters. "They''re two years old now, they never go to sleep without me and cry a lot if I come home late. Hope they''re not giving trouble to their mother." Edward smiled slightly to himself as he recalled his daughters who would call out to him happily each time he was home from work. In Mindoro, "Ahhh, calm down, daddy will be here by tomorrow. Please calm down the whole village will get mad at us for not letting them sleep" Edward''s wife, placed at the foot of a hill near the shrine, tried her best to calm her crying children, while she herself was crying inside, worried about her husband. "Man, these kids are never going to sleepppp" The villager guarding with Gus, yelled out loudly with frustration. And the next day after acknowledging from the reliable messengers that no enemy had the temerity to show up at Caracus, Gus stormed out towards the war field. "Good Gracious , what do we do with this kid now? I hope he will be ok. You guys can go now and aid to Caracus and see if there are any signs of war today or tomorrow. If not; we will withdraw from Caracus in a week." Mars narrates the message of whole planning to the five messengers and sends them away on their way. *In Caracus* "General Gideon, a young boy has arrived claiming he is from Mindoro and wants to meet the villagers." One of the warriors of Caracus informed Gideon about the unusual arrival of Gus. "Take him to wherever he wants to go. We''re not confiscating anyone here. Moreover tell him to find his people, himself." Gideon roared agitated while Gus is standing near the door listening to all and at the same time despising him and Caracus. Even though the villagers of Caracus changed. It doesn''t mean anything for Gus, even if Caracus repents or mourn for the blood of the people they killed, his parents won''t come back to life. So he will keep hating them more and more, gradually bubbling the poison within him. "Ares! I''m here. How have you guys been doing?" Gus casually strides up towards Ares and his friends and tries to initiate a talk with them like it is just another normal day in his village. "Yo Gus! Did you sleep we.... You BASTARD! what the hell are you doing here?" Ares growled with half surprise and suppressed anger. "Gus you stalker, pervert, pedo. I''m older to you why did you come all the way for me?" Tanya says with a grossed out expression. "What? Why would I come for you? Wait and Eh how am I the pedo here? I''m the younger one among all of us. And no- I actually came for Ares." Gus replies explaining and defending himself gulping the insulting words. "Ahhhh! I see forbidden love!" Alex chips giving a smirk. "Ohhhhh Ares, how can you? Is this the reason you are not accepting my love all these years? Are you into boys, perhaps? That too younger ones?" Tanya questions Ares while her face becomes hot red as her imagination ran wild about boy love (her secret fantasy). Gus and Ares are both astonished. "Knock it off guys, I''m not in a mood to laugh at your jokes."Ares says with an angry irritated tone. "Hai hai let''s leave them both for a while guys, they got mad that we''re between them and disturbing them" Albert adds fuel to fire while him and Alex try hard to control their giggles. This is their chance of getting back at Ares who is ridiculously popular among girls. "Ah Gus, did Tisha ask about me? Did she tell you anything to pass onto me? Did she give you anything for me?" Yang inquired breathlessly to Gus ,curiously while leaning forward. "Umm.." Gus doesn''t know what to say since he ran out of his village, without even informing anyone. And everyone around Yang gives him an odd more likely grossed look. *Spit* "We''re going, thu thu blehhh." Albert spits on the ground before leaving. He used to look up to Yang with the way he deals with other girls. Yang is the known cold blooded soldier, who rejects every girl that comes to talk to him, but now, the cold hearted Yang is whipped and madly in love with a girl? *"All this time he acted like a tough rigid guy and that was just a bluff after all"* Albert convinces himself and walks away. "Umm.. it''s ok to love another man.. I also love men. If you guys have free time you can come to have a drink with me." Among all the chaos with everyone, thinking whatever comes to their minds, an old man from Caracus with a white tank top and pot belly offers to Ares and Gus while blushing. *Ares and Gus dies internally* *"Ah no I''m wasting time. I came here for a reason"* Gus thinks while disparaging himself. "Ares, train me more in the way of unholy sword. I want to learn more and more. I''m still no good in sword arts." "Isn''t that the real reason why I was left behind in the village? If I had learned everything and if I was good at the art of sword, I would have been by your side in the war field. So- teach me more Ares. I want to learn -everything." Gus sounded like a warrior hungry for power. Ares leaves a sigh in delightfulness seeing Gus with full energy, he also at the same time knows that lust for power sometimes leads you to a wrong path. So Ares wanted to lead Gus in the right direction and make him strong."Ok let''s go, I will train you more." Ares tells Gus and they both walks along the shore a little far from people, heading towards terrains. Ares teaches Gus about the rule of strike and the basics. Getting inside of the defence against the opponent is the most important thing. The unholy sword got the name from it''s free style manner, the techniques are not fixed of any particular forms and stances. It''s all freestyle and hitting an opponent at the same time while defending a blow. The most important thing however, is having the sword closer to your body and feel the sword as if it''s an extension of your hand, that has merged with you. The sword that doesn''t follow any sacred methods or forms, hence called unholy sword arts. "My sword, Fukitsuna is a rare blade passed down to me by my elders. This sword has a soul of its own and chooses its masters. You need to keep training hard to be worthy and make the sword choose you."Ares says with a commanding voice. "And.." He pauses for a while, sits on a large stone nearby to continue. "If this sword doesn''t choose you, as it''s master. Then it''s going to get rusty and old, eventually fading away." "This is because the sword needs to be wielded by a master when swinging it. So try and make up to the desired level on your guts and hard work." Ares advice Gus telling him the rules and the importance of the sword, making him aware of the long path he needed to travel in order to achieve his desired power. 196 Caracus "I was still unable to summon the divine power within it and couldn''t get it to accept me. Another failure like previous times. It used to shine bright, glittering divinely with golden colors along with radiating celestial energy, it''s incomparable power -while it is in the strong hands of Ares, but all the enchantment faded away and slowly lost it''s charm and power. It was no more than a normally wielded , cheap and dull sword in my hands. I wanted to gain that power of sword no matter what, it can make me strong I''m quite positive."* "Got it. " Gus replies while he kept reminding himself that he needs to become stronger in order to be get chosen by the sword. Ares and Gus continued the exhausting training for another five days. And after that specific time of strenuous bodily exercise Ares as a token of appreciation handed a book over to Gus which consisted of the teachings of Unholy Sword and inquired him about- to leave the warfield. "It''s been five days already, if the enemies won''t show up until tomorrow we will head back to the village. So you go ahead of us now and forward the message to Mars." Ares assigned a task to Gus who nodded at first. "Ok. I will be waiting for you to teach me more Ares." Gus took off with a smile yet with a hint of disappointment that Ares still doesn''t want him on the Warfield even when there is no enemy to fight, probably . [Yawn] "Guarding Caracus while they''re sleeping for five days straight is taking toll on all of us, isn''t it Ares? If it isn''t for you and your friends, we wouldn''t have gotten those 2-3 hrs of sleep." Edward appreciates the work Ares and his soldiers did as to guard Caracus and letting the Villagers of Mindoro to take naps as well. People from Mindoro slept for 2-3 hours while Ares and his party watched over them, to oogle for any peril. This shows the amount of hard work they had gone through to stay awake by going without sleep for days and be cautious at the same time rather than drowsy. But If there is any chance for enemy to show up while they''re in this bad situation, the enemy might get an upperhand on the two villages effortlessly. "Yes it is, I really want to go back to the village and sleep for a week straight ,haha." Ares replies to Edward with a hint of playfulness half laughing and yawning. "I really thank your village for not only guarding us but also for help rebuilding our village, Edward. And I see you guys will leave after tomorrow. If no enemy shows up until that time, let''s have a toast tomorrow then. Again I really want to thank you warmly for coming here to our help." Nero chips with grateful eyes. "No no let''s not do a toast ,haha. We agreed to help you so we are not going to accept anything in return. Let us all get along together for tonight. We will be leaving tomorrow evening anyway. " Edward declines his frank offer with a smile. "Ahh I see. Too bad... but It''s ok." Nero replies crestfallen with a disappointed face and heads back. [At night] "Looks like some dark clouds are heading our way, we will get soaked haha. Let''s search for a hill to take shelter for tonight." Edward''s looks up above the skies while commanding his units. Predicting a fierce storm at hand. As Edward keeps watching, the sky seems to be lighting up slowly. He is confused as to why the sky seems to be burning up with anger. As he realises gradually he could see huge fire balls falling from the sky highly aimed. And they were bigger in size too as much as the size of a two combined cannon balls. "Fuck it''s ENEMIES! Bring the barricades. We''re gonna get hit by Mortars!" Ares yelled loudly panicking for everyone to wake up from their slumber. Suddenly the ground that everyone was sleeping began rumbling and shaking vigorously as soon as the cannon balls hit the shore of Caracus. The shockwave shook everyone who was deep into slumber. The cannon balls were leaving huge trenches wherever they made contact. Every warrior rushes to the scene with their barricades, shields and their weapons. No one is following the formation that they did on the first day. Every one was horrified and is standing at whatever location they found to stay rooted , they are standing together ready for a huge battle that is about to take place. Two huge battle ships can be seen from the mist, slowly approaching towards Ares and the villagers. There will be at least five hundred soldiers in those both ships combined. Numbers wise, Caracus and Mindoro are a hundred more but the people in the battleships are elite soldiers, deadly trained with highly weaponry compared to normal villagers who were braced with ordinary ones. Out of nowhere all of Mindoro villagers and Ares party is standing inside surrounded by Caracus warriors that rushes and positioned outside with the barricades and shields seeming to protect them from the enemies. *"What is this uneasy feeling? Something is not right"* Ares keeps hesitating while trying to process what was happening in front of him. Suddenly the barricades and shields which are supposed to protect them from the enemy attacks are turned inside. It''s like Caracus is not holding barricades to stop enemy, but holding it inside surrounding every villager of Mindoro as if they have made a cage of barricades with Mindoro inside. What is this new turn of events when everything is already in chaos? 500 warriors of Caracus surrounded the puny 100 Mindoro villagers. As everyone from Mindoro is perplexed. An old guy with an evil smile walks towards this mob while his hands are crossed behind him as if he is pulling something. And literally behind him are the corpses of supporters and messengers who belonged to Mindoro Village being dragged down by Nero and the rest of the Caracus villagers. Every villager standing inside the cage of barricades realised they were tricked!.They were betrayed and trapped "simply blinded by trust" and everyone lost hopes on their lives. "WHAT THE F*CK ARE YOU DOING NEROO!" Ares shouts on the top of his lungs while watching the villagers who helped him, came to fight for him were now lying lifeless while Nero is laughing like a maniac- a madman. The battleships were docked at the shore and a whole battalion of 500 soldiers are walking towards Ares and the handful of people, the sound of the movements of the cluster echoed like a thump of giant causing the ground to shake while reaching the party who was supposed to fight against them. The looks on the faces of the enemies filtered the arrogant smirks as if they had already won this battle, as though they had anticipated this would happen from the very beginning. . . . "Oh Ares ! We''re supposed to do this on the very first day you lot has arrived. If it isn''t for you to make us aware of your overwhelming strength when my warriors visited Mindoro asking for aid in battle." "And if Mindoro didn''t show us that they are training villagers to wield weapons to fight us, this would have happened long before on the first day itself, heh." Nero chuckles with cocky voice and groans at Ares and Mindoro like an eccentric. Ares belong to the nation called Aztec, Aztec''s foe is Agartha. Both the Nations have been at war for more than a decade. The war being fought was not for resources or food. But for the war for power struggle, supremacy, democracy and religious feelings. The soldiers from the battleships of Agartha have stationed at the shore and the captain of the two ships walks up to Nero with 10 soldiers following his lead, trailing behind like loyalists . "We are almost done cleaning them here. It''s just like you said hahaha! They are weak when we make them guard us at nights for five days straight." Nero narrates how he tricked them in order to pave way , to captain Zoilas who just arrived there with his jury . It was all the plan of Zoilas from the start to send Caracus to Mindoro asking for help and drawing out wounded Ares to war along with the villagers of Mindoro sleeplessly guard Caracus at nights. "The captain of their''s, is it Ares? I have been told by my higher ups to not take him lightly. But seeing him in this shape, we are ashamed that we brought an entire battalion of 500 soldiers and battleships to wipe him out." Captain Zoilas chips while mocking at Ares''s current condition. And sarcastically eyeing him. "Nero, please spare me. I have two daughters waiting for me at home, I will run away with my family. I won''t ever show up in front of you, please let me go." Edward pleads Nero for mercy half yelling with a crying face, fear settling in heart while on his knees-begging. "Hm, kids huh ? I can understand if you have a family but everyone here have a family of their own. Everyone would ask me to forgive them won''t they? Hah! hah! hah!. However, you are the best fighter in your village and I wanted to have you in my army since I first saw you. So let''s say, if you swear loyalty to me and help me slaughter Mindoro then I will consider letting you go. How''s it ?" Nero challenges to Edward testing his loyalty which was perhaps already lost somewhere. Edward became confused as he rapidly have many thoughts crossing through his mind, many colors coming and fading on his face. He was being asked to kill his friends and family and burn the village he grew up in, but for him his life was also important. He wanted to see his daughters grow up, he wanted to provide them with a good living rather than leaving them alone for the rest of their lives in misery. So he made a very selfish decision to survive. "I pledge you my loyalty, please let me fight with your soldiers and spare my life for that." Edward surrenders lowering his head with eyes full of regrets. He shamelessly switched. "Then prove it to me" Nero smiled evilly. "cut both of your thumbs from your hands, so you won''t be able to swing the sword you are known for and become an errand boy in my army for the rest of your life." Nero orders Edward with the most psychotic look on his face as eyes bulge out in hunger for blood. Edward is rained with insult one after another and he was treated like the most useless human and now he is asked to cut off his thumbs which means he can never hold the sword in his hands which he loved, growing up with. "Edward don''t do it, you wanted to become a swordsman from your childhood. It was your ambition and dream to serve the village and protect it as it''s guard." "Please don''t do it Edward, it is better dying a honorable death than living such a plight." "Don''t give up your talent for such a life Edward." All the villagers of Mindoro started shouting to stop Edward and to make him realize what was right, in desperation. For Edward however, watching over his two daughters growing up happily was more important than his dreams, he cuts off his thumbs wincing in pain while people continued telling him what was better. He shut their concerns and looks up at Nero with determination. "Eehahaha, awesome Edward, you really wanna live badly don''t you hahaha. Ok you are free now. Let him out of those barricades." Nero says with excitement as if this is the best entertainment he ever saw. A narrow way opens up for Edward to walk out from the soldiers and Edward starts walking his way out slightly feeling happy that he is going to see his daughters from here on out. His thumbs are bleeding. It''s as if his heart had been crushed completely yet he felt happy because he was doing this for his family. Nor does Ares say or do anything. Until last week, he hasn''t been able to move his limbs freely if it''s not for nanoresucts. Yet he kept pushing himself for the village. And now he is in even worse state with no sleep and high fever. He just keeps looking down helplessly and keeps breathing heavily. A spear suddenly struck and pierces Edward''s Adams apple from the side and out of nowhere. Edward falls down to his knees hard on the ground going limbless. He couldn''t even prepare himself to die in this horrible way, but he seems to be still alive while his body whispers with all the blood gushing out "The blood from your decapitated thumb has dirtied my shoes, so this is your punishment! DIE! you worthless piece of shit." Gideon yells happily to the lifeless Edward on the ground. Gideon''s face clearly grimaced with disgust and everyone of Caracus and Agartha starts laughing loudly. The old man Nero never intended to let Edward go free, he just want to see him struggle like a fish without water and strangle while his heart was filled with hope to live. "My wif....e and daughters.." Edward leaves his last breath while tears rolling off his eyes regretfully. "Hahaha you deserve it you worthless scum!. I hate your village to the core of my body!. And don''t you worry about your wife. We will rape her over n over until she dies." Nero yells with a most evil pedophile face as he licks his lips like some pervert was ready to catch their prey and at same time his eye balls are gauging out and his crooked teeth show up as he laugh insanely like a crazy person. All the villagers are triggered instantly and rushes to the soldiers with their weapons. Albert and the rest also runs forward with rage filled faces. All the barricades are closed and the soldiers started to Pierce the flesh of villagers with the spears through the gaps between barricades. Mindoro people were getting slaughtered mercilessly. One of the spear was shove into the gut of Ares, multiple spears pierces through Alex''s body as he tries to save Ares shielding him, and the same happens with every villager that are trapped in the barricades. The ground is soaked wet with blood like a sacrificial ritual is being taken place. "Ahhhh! this is so fun to watch!. Now let''s go slaughter all of Mindoro and erase them from the island now!". Nero orders his motive out loudly as his eyes glint dangerously flickering with hunger. 197 Broken Trus "Yes.These five are our responsibility." "We will rebuild our village as many times as we can than letting these five go." "Please soldiers, help us fight for our lands and our lives." The words pleaded by the villagers echoed in the ears of Alex, his subconscious mind could hear people screaming, woman crying, children wailing. His eyes are closing slowly but yet glaring upon a body lying lifeless in front of him. Alex with the last strength gathered in his body reaches out to his bag on the hips in desperation, extracts an injection and injects It into Ares who was lying unconscious in front of him, not dead yet. "Ares, I''ve always wanted to ask you for your help to train me and make me stronger. But I felt like I don''t deserve to ask you of a favor, hehe." Alex chuckles gently as saying his last words. "Ares, can you do me one last favor of keeping the villagers alive? I want to pay them back somehow for being very kind to us." Alex muttered while he holds the hand of Ares with little strength left in his. The face of Alex displayed a sign of relief and hope as he realised that Ares is gaining his consciousness and feels that the villagers will be in good hands now and they will be protected. He smiled as his eyes were closing slowly into a deep silent never-awakening slumber. Ares thought he was in a dream and is shocked by what Alex is asking from him. And he struggles to open his eyes and feels like his body has been put through lot of scissors as if he was hit by the thunderous rain of arrows and spears right through himself. He slowly gets up on his knees, without having a single clue of what has happened. The sight in front of him is unrealistic to him but undeniable . The whole ground is red in color as he looks around him recognizing the faces of his companions and friends. "Alexxx!!! What ha...." Ares halts while uttering and roots frozen in thoughts, he gets the glimpses of everything that happened that he forgot for a moment, the massacre that happened when he was passed out came back into his memory like a cloudy mist. Ares forgot previously the tale of bloodshed that has happened while he was passed out due to the stress on his head and injuries. He bursts into tears and wails loudly as he sees the dead bodies in front of him. His friends and villagers all dead -gone . The cries of Ares pricked the ears of one of the Caracus warrior, who then called out for his chief and captain Zoilas and informed them of this situation. "He was up and unscratched? It must be the nano resucts." Captain Zoilas tells to a soldier who came to report to him, predicting the possibility. *"But we were informed that they doesn''t have any more nanoresucts left with them by our person from Mindoro. How can they possess one? Anyway it''s just one weak captain. We can take him down easily."* Zoilas thinks to himself as he joins hands with Nero without letting one mere soldier stop him from showing off his own pride moment which could earn him medals and promotion for what he has done for today. Ares is still looking at the ground while on his knees and sobbing frantically. "Uwahaha this is quite a surprise Ares, I was a little sad all this while that I couldn''t torment you the way I did to Edward hahaha." Nero says arrogantly to Ares reminding him the insult as he stands behind with 30 of his warriors, 20 feet away. Ares stops sobbing recalling about what he heard and saw. What has happened with Edward right in front of his eyes. He is scared of remembering those moments yet his memory flows back in-in a worse way. Tears keep falling off his sockets, he keeps trembling and grasping for air, in a panicking state. "That greedy bastard asked us to spare his life for his wife and daughters hahaha, but no worries we will send them to where he is now." Nero keeps adding salt to the injury and wounds. The memories keeps flashing back in Ares''s head like images one after another of Edward and how he told Ares about his two daughters, the way he smiled, the way he was proud to see his daughters grow up, the way he cut his thumbs for them, the way he was laughed upon by the Caracus villagers and Zoilas and the reason he was killed for gets imprinted on his mind. It was all traumatic to Ares as he mourns louder with the helplessness his eyes which starts turning dark all of a sudden as his anger rises like an erupting volcano, about to burst with fire of hell. "We will kill all of Mindoro, we will kill the children and infants! After killing the men in the village the women becomes our public property, uwhaha!" Nero laughs insanely as he kept shouting out his atrocious plans. While Ares remains rooted listening to him standing still as if he is about to unleash like a beast set free. "We will ra*e them with different number of our men and make them bear our children! And later the child will grow up and kill their dirty mothers! Yesss! Yes this is a perfect plan to have our revenge..." Before he can finish his sentence, Nero gets interrupted while he was screaming out the sadistic ways of wiping out Mindoro with such a pleasing and pleasuring face. Suddenly, a sword is in the face of Nero out of nowhere. His face is cut into half from his nose to the back of his head as if someone split half of his face with a slash of the sword. "Ahhh~ such nice words from your mouth, but you''re not supposed to act psychotic in front of a real one ! " Ares murmured with a really creepy smile while he kneels down on the badly butchered body of Nero. "Such a nice person like you isn''t allowed to live in this world at all Nero." Ares utters sarcastically with an evil grin and slowly shoves the tip of his sword down into Nero''s heart. "Huh? Oh you miss your villagers and warriors? And who? Oh also the soldiers from battle ships? Aww~ it''s ok Nero I will send them... RIGHT BACK TO YOU!" An aggressive Ares with a rage filled expression on his face adds, his voice too changed completely more like the sound of a psychotic demon looking down upon this mere useless toys like people. His blood vessels are bulging from temples in rage as he keeps gritting his teeth, swaying the sword playfully. All of the villagers and soldiers are in shock to see the abnormal behaviour of an average person like Ares, and nobody understood how he killed Nero who was 20ft away in between the thick cluster of soldiers in an instant. Ares attached a red and a green stone onto one side of his sword handle calmly and he attaches another black stone on the other side of the handle and grips his katana tightly. His katana seems to be vibrating vigorously. Only one person knew how big threat Ares became the very moment. Zoilas clearly had fear engulfing his heart as black aura starts to radiate from Ares like a combination of Yin and Yang. "No fucking person told me that he is the only black element user in the entire FUCKING WORLD ." Zoilas utters in disbelief as he stands there completely in shock. "Warriors from Caracus, hurry and move away from him." Zoilas yells at the small cluster of Caracus villagers on a small slope who surrounded Ares for killing their own chief. "Move away? He will not be able to fight back if all of us attack him at once." A warrior amongst them speaks "He will pay for his wrong doings." In a proud and arrogant tone. Ares calmly starts walking forward as the warriors around him aims their weapons at Ares yet hesitating to attack. "Sword arts - Iaido of the demon" Ares flicks his sword guard making the sword to draw out from the scabbard but immediately replacing it back in his scabbard before the blade of his sword is exposed. Nobody understood what sort of technique it is, his sword didn''t even come out of his scabbard. Yet Ares seemed filled with air of confidence and with a smile curling from the corner of his mouth. "Teleport." As Ares mumbles and it looks like he is about to take off, light and gentle cuts starts to appear above the bodies of the warriors around him. Cuts on this arms, chest, across the face... Nobody seems to swinging any sword. Yet more cuts were appearing on their bodies. Even though the cuts don''t seem deep the blood is creeping out enough to evoke panic in the warriors. Ares teleports from warriors to the foot of the slopes and walks towards Zoilas and his army completely ignoring the cluster of warriors around . The cuts which seem not deep suddenly starts digging into their flesh and bones. As if the attack of Ares has an delayed effect. Within seconds all the warriors are cut down and becomes meat sack. Maybe Zoilas knew this would happen hence he warned the warriors who were arrogant and did not heed his advice. "It''s definitely the black elemental stone. How are we going to deal with him? No captain can maintain more than two elemental stones of different attributes in one device and yet - He used three of them in one go !? That is a general class feat. He is a mere 20 year old captain of a naval ship.. how can he..."Zoilas muddled nervously while witnessing Ares striding towards his direction and the soldiers. 198 Unexpected outpu All the 1000 people soldiers of Zoilas and warriors from Caracus takes their positions in an order in front of Ares, aiming for his head. "It is 1000 Vs 1. You better give your self up and surrender. I will make sure you will walk out of here alive." Zoilas utters words of a cowardice to Ares. "Uwahh!" Right after uttering big words Zoilas gets startled by the sudden start of his ship''s siren. "So you think 1000 of you can stop me?" Ares is still walking towards the 1000 people with the same arrogant smile as his armour clacks against the wind. Ares starts to cut down one soldier after another repeatedly in a really close combat, he cuts their necks, Pierces their hearts and decapitates their heads off their bodies without any emotion of mercy visible on his stone face. It is too graphic to even watch him and the gruesome bloodshed. He just seems to be moving at a very fast speed, he does not even seem to be swinging his sword against his enemies and yet the soldiers on either side of him are getting cut down by blades. Their limbs and their body parts flying above him like a blood shower as it rains down on him. 200 soldiers are down in a snap of 5 mins. Ares hands have been adorned with blisters yet he seems not to feel any pain. "Give me my weapon! get our elites to back the Caracus villagers. Bring the snipers and push with the best fraggers we have. We are going to take him down!" Zoilas gives orders to his soldiers in desperation as snake of fear crawls into his heart. The elite snipers comes to the front, there are two types of sniper rifles, one is emitting purple color and the other is emitting green color, resulting of the purple and green elemental stones that are placed in their rifles. The sniper rifle have two small turbo fans, one at the handle that they hold onto and other one at the middle near the stones. "I got him locked in the scope, ready to fire at anytime!." A soldier holding a purple colored rifle shouts out. "Take the shot." Zoilas says to the soldier. "HURRY!" Suddenly the dark clouds from the sky starts to gather above the land sheltering Ares as he keeps moving in a flash. "Zap!!~" an astonishingly lightning with thunder bolt from the cloud emerges and hits Ares in a blink of an eye and hitting all the region which becomes misty with dust and turned black like charcoal carpet spread throughout. The purple colored sniper rifle locks on to a target, when the trigger is pulled the purple stone forms a small cloud in the atmosphere through which a thunder bolt gets launched onto the person the gun is locked on to. And the green colored rifles manipulates air by compressing and gives air bullets that are invisible and at a long range making them perfect guns for stealth kills. The assault rifles on the other hand emits red color which packs a lot of destructive force, the size of the bullet to be fired is up to the wielder. You can shoot something of the size of a small magnet ball to the size of a cannon ball. "It''s a hit!" The soldier shouts out proudly. "Great... We got him for good" Zoilas starts to celebrate happily and his fears starts to settled down. The dust clears out and everyone is ready to have a look at the burnt body of Ares. While is on his knees, though the attack was incomparably violent, the lightning didn''t just strike on his body but the electricity entered his flesh and bones burning his skin and evoking acute sharp pain to his bones. The burns leaves visible marks on Ares along with smoke. "He is down! Fast! The archers finish him!"Zoilas face is lighted up, he rub his eyes in disbelief. The man who was going around like a crazy monster , slashing everything that comes in his way was down because of one lightning sniper? Great, this is his moment now for Zoilas. The archers takes their positions and releases arrows enhanced with green stones on the head of the arrow. These arrows are faster , the spin and trajectory is less compared to the real ones. "Gasp~" Ares swings his sword powerfully when the arrows are close into his zone. All the arrows that were heading his way in a fast pace have suddenly stopped in the mid air, they lost the momentum and their flight and just dropped down as if they lost their force. The strong gust release from the swing of Ares with his sword cancelled the momentum of the arrows. *Clack~. * An arrow Pierces the flesh of Ares. "How do you like it? Don''t underestimate me kid, I''m a captain myself." There is a bow in the hand of Zoilas with three green stones. A captain can handle stones of same attributes which boosts the power to greater lengths but stones of different attributes is not a feat that a captain class can pull off. The bow Zoilas holding itself is shiney green in color and long with a steel like bow string and the green stones are situated at the front of the bow. Ares eyes gets wider in surprise as Zoilas draws the empty bow string as if he is about to release an arrow, small winds twirls like a very small cyclone forming near the bow and the bow''s string of Zoilas. The air takes the form of a solid arrow, an arrow of compressed and pressured air pierces Ares again and this time strongly. The weapons of soldiers and Captains are in different league. That is what differentiates a captain from his squadron, Ares bleeds as his chest is pierced with two arrows, he breathes heavily and stands still without moving a muscle in his body. The dark clouds in the sky started to rumble in thunder as if the gods were angry, right on cue the rain begin to fall from the sky, small bands of rain drops felt warm to Ares as he gets drenched, it''s as if he is being hugged by the warmth of the heavens. Zoilas draws his bow string back to shoot another one of his arrow. *"Please hear my wish Ares, protect the village"* *"My daughters can''t live a day without me, I will go back to them soon and there will be no further raids from Caracus, my daughters can have a peaceful life unlike me"* *"You guys are our responsibility, we will go to war with you"* Ares remembers the words of Alex and Edward and the villagers rushing back inside his ears as he is exhausted. Zoilas shoots his arrow which pierced the rain drops in its way creating a path to itself into Ares. "AARGH!!!" Ares''s whole body is filled with rage, his eyes turns red and he lets out a cry as he swings his sword that is emitting green colored light. The power released from that one swing of Ares''s sword nullified the arrow that Zoilas shot, let alone the arrow the rain itself is delayed for a moment with a very strong wind released from the spot Ares is standing. "Sni... Snipers fast!" Zoilas shouts without wasting any moment. Another shot of lightning sniper is fired at Ares. This time the lightning traveled from cloud to cloud gathering more electricity all concentrated at one spot, above Ares. The sniper and Zoilas instantly knew that this lightning from the steel dark clouds is 10 times more ,powerful than the previous one and they are assured this will be an overkill. Ares removes the stones from his sword''s handgrip, which is covered in white cloth, the whole sword shines divinely as though the soul of sword is visible. "God arts - Heaven''s Arsenal" Ares utters the words calmly as the lightning drops on him. "God Arts - Heaven''s Arsenal." Ares says with a calm and cocky voice. "~~~!" Without a warning a spear shaped thunderbolt as if it was made of a soul appears beside Ares and goes upwards piercing through the lightning made from sniper rifle, right above Ares in an instant. The huge lightning fired by the sniper is scattered throughtout the sky which was in wrath, to fragments and even the dark smoke like clouds in the sky were scoured like dust dispersion . It was an unimaginable power, the spear is as powerful as the lightning bolt of Zeus, with enough energy to split up the earth. It''s not over yet, the katana that Ares is holding seems to be shining brightly aming the bleak atmosphere while emitting pieces of soul fragments. Those soul fragments are taking the form of weapons, after a while the sword in Ares''s hand disappeared completely leaving an insane amount of weapons of every kind a spear, straight sword, trident, arrows, dagger, staff, bident which is a two-pronged version of trident, hammer, crescent axe, scythe, spiked cudgel, mace, Dacian Flax, club, javelin and many more other weapons around Ares. Glowing and aimed, seemed to be made of the soul of sword and are emitting heavenly aura as if the Gods granted Ares those gifts, bestowing their blessings in white radiance of divine weapons. It''s almost like all the weapons used by heaven''s guardian surrounded Ares assembling in a sphere like structure around him. Zoilas is more than scared at his wit end. His pants are wet like he peed himself as he witnessed the power that resembled the Gods. -*"Wh- whaa- what i-i-n-in the world is this? Are all those weapons made of his spiritual power, all alone?"* Zoilas stuttered terrified as his mind tried to process out what he just saw. "NOT EVEN THE FIVE STAR GENERAL WHO IS HAILED AS THE ONLY MORTAL THAT CAN RIVAL GODS, POSSESSED SUCH POWER!" Zoilas shouts loudly as he trembles and whimpers in fear acknowledging his end. *Swoosh~~* all the weapons around Ares out of nowhere are released and are shot toward the soldiers at a very fast pace. The weapons travelled piercing the air at an enormous speed like a huge storm of light sweeping away an entire city. Before Zoilas could grab a hold of the situation , all the soldiers along with rest of Caracus villagers have been cut down, thrashed and decapitated like something invisible slaughtered them all. Zoilas is the only person now standing alive in the entirely vast stretched cemetery along with Ares. Zoilas immediately runs towards Ares like a coward, without any pride he kneel and begs Ares to spare his life. The arrogant man ran for his life, turning from a lion into a mouse. "Ares, Ares please I have a family. I never wanted to do this from the first. I was forced by the higher up''s I''m from Aztec not Agartha, really. I''m one of the ground support regiment. Please let me live Ares... please" Zoilas keep blabbering Ares all sort of excuses that came into his mind repeatedly, to make Ares take mercy on him, but Ares whose heart had completely turned into a blood pumping machine devoid of emotions, gazes down upon Zoilas with a grin- dark expression and no emotion can be sense from him at that moment. "Cut your neck off by yourself, it will be an easy death." Ares mocks Zoilas as he did with Edward, without any trace of softness. "You won''t get away with just this! you will know how big of a mistake you are doing! You don''t even know who is involved in this." Zoilas threatens angrily once he was so sure of dying a horrible death, setting a symbol of terror for generations. A spears runs down on the head of Zoilas from his temple and comes out splitting his body into two. while he is on ground with a thump. "GoodBye" Ares says as he looks up at the sky, thinking about all the villagers and his friends that died here. And also the thought of soldiers crossed his mind that he killed mercilessly. He looked sad as if he didn''t wanted to kill anybody, as they too had their own families. *Meanwhile in Mindoro a couple of hours earlier* "Mars! the skies rumbling and I definitely heard something big, I doubt a huge bomb is dropped at the shore in the direction of Edward and our men, the place they were camping at." A guard from Mindoro wakes up Mars by jerking him ranting with a rather surprising news. "Chiefff!!! Chieffff!!!!! I saw a blast , heavy smoke and I saw the trees and woods withering after the huge blast. Something wrong is definitely going down there. Let me go chief!" Gus who has run here worrisome requests to the already surprised Mars in paniced state. "Guards! prepare for us to leave, gather all the men in the village, we''re gonna head out to our brothers and lend them a hand!" Mars commands his men of what they should be doing immediately. It''s a panic in village. Every family of the warrior that went to assist Caracus along with Ares are in desperation to hear any news from them or to go along with Mars to see what had happened to their loved ones. Mars and the guards had to delay their departure to calm the villagers down. The wife of Edward stares at the crimson moon while worrying about her husband while the two daughters laid sleeping in her arms soundly. The crimson moon is naturally defined as a sign of massacre in some places, a very bad omen. This makes her even more worried about the well-being of her husband. "Chief I will be heading out first, I will be fast with my pulleys." Gus says the words and heads out without stopping to listen to what Mars had to suggest . "This kid, never listen to us! He is heading out in the dark without worrying about his own safety!" Mars shakes his head in frustration and yells at Gus and sets out to the shore of the battle following the lead of Gus. *"I''m sure of it, Ares will win, he will be standing and protecting my villagers. Tanya, Albert and Alex used to make fun of me for worrying about Ares. And Yang would keep his grumpy face on and ask me about Tisha. Alrightyyy!! Ares, here I come.* Gus murmurs to himself , unsure of what was ahead of him while he is set on the way to the battle scene. *"It''s now or never, it''s finally time for us to end our fued''s with Caracus. We will become brother in arms now, everything will be peaceful once tonight passes by."* Mars thinks about the well being of his villagers and bonds with other villages while on his way not knowing what lies ahead of him. *Coming back to the shore of battle in the present* A group of 5 whips with a sharp spearheads tied to their tails suddenly pierces the flesh of Ares from the backside. The whips sprouted from his chest. Ares couldn''t help but notice how familiar the whips are to his eyes, It''s as if he knew the familiar weapon used many times before by someone who fought alongside him since he became the captain. 199 Tragedy "A-And? What happened to him later on?" Theodore asks in a tense. "Nobody knows." Hades walks inside the castle after saying. Nor did Theodore dared to ask Hades again. "It is her." Uzume comes out inside the door, Theodore realised by looking at her face, she listened to it all. "Her?" Theodore asks in a surprise. "I- I see, so that''s how it is Tanya. You were a member from Zoilas squad? Ha ha" Ares chuckled and coughs blood as he turns around to face her. Tanya stands with a different attire than her soldier dress and is giving a really cold look towards Ares as her hand grips on the whip sword in her hand. She pulls the whip sword back slashing the flesh of Ares from inside. She looks very dominating and no traces of emotion can be seen from her cold aura. "Don''t hold a grudge on me in your afterlife Ares, I''m not a spy of other nation. What Zoilas uttered in pure fear is true. He is from Aztec I''m his messenger, I was ordered to do this." Tanya says to Ares without any hint of remorse or sadness in her tone. "I see, so it''s our own generals that wants me dead? I see. Anyway, I''m happy that atleast you are alive of our squad Tanya... *Coughh!!* I''m happy, but don''t go after the village." Ares says with relief as his body falls to the ground. Tanya was not ready for the words, she just cut this man''s flesh and yet he still was treating her as his friend and forgave her? Is the reliever expression on his face denotes that he is happy to die in her hands so that he won''t kill more people in his future as he rank up in the military? "We agreed to wipe out Mindoro as a part of our deal with the Caracus village. The deal happened when the Caracus saw our power, when we wiped out Sable as our first target. Caracus after witnessing our powers begged to be spared and that they will help us in killing you and in return we burn Mindoro to ashes. But, now that the caracus is wiped out, I don''t care about Mindoro anymore. Still I didn''t think it would come down to me to kill you, you are too powerful." Tanya tells to Ares with a tear falling from the side of her eyes and she turns her face away from Ares to not let him see her tears dropping. Sable was wiped out at first to see the weapons and the powers the people use on this island. And for the good of the soldiers the Islanders only use natural weapons without any strategies. However Caracus witnessed the power of Zoilas and his army and they beg Zoilas to spare them in exchange, they need to help Zoilas kill Ares. Both of the parties agreed to it and sent an official and guards to Mindoro to lure them by asking them for their help, but after witnessing the power of Ares in Mindoro against the guard with the blade who was about to kill Gus, the soldiers and villagers of caracus came up with a plan of Making the Mindoro and Ares wait for days and nights without any sleep. They try to gain Mindoro''s trust, make them weak and make them drop their guards against them and then they would begin the slaughtering of Mindoro as per their plan, taking advantage of sleepless soldiers who has lost their ability to think and fight due to dizziness and attacking at the most unexpected time. Ares lays on the ground lifeless, Tanya walks up to him, sits on her knees, grabs and places the head of Ares on her lap and brushes his hair while her tears keep rolling down on the face of Ares. "It was hard on me Ares, forgive me.. forgive me.. forgive me." Tanya begs for a few minutes and she then wipe away any traces of her tears from her face and then leaves the island to report the successful plan of wiping out Ares with the whole island. Mars, Gus and the rest arrive at the scene of horror and are left in disbelief. There are corpses of more than 1000 people lying on the ground with blood under their feet. Gus pulls himself together and starts searching for Ares and his villagers desperately believing that they are alive. *"They are alive, they are alive, why am I getting sad at seeing this. They are really alive, because they have Ares with them. He will keep them alive no matter what"* Gus was having a panic attack, but he keeps running and searching wildly hoping to not be wrong and giving himself the courage to believe all of his people were alive among the piles of dead bodies. His leg stumbled upon a metal. It was the sword of Ares. The cloth wrapped around the sword is shredded and the sword lost all of it''s divine brightness and it looks like a dull katana which cannot even cut a piece of paper. Gus eyes searches for nearby area and he comes across Alex lying dead with a smile on his face and beside him is Albert and Yang. A few feet away from them is Edward, his face shows how scared and full of regret he was before dying. Gus couldn''t hold himself together and cries out loud uncontrollably. Mars and the villagers who just reaches the battlefield were heart broken at the sight of what they witnessed and are left speechless. The eyes of Gus suddenly catches something as he opens once more to make sure this wasn''t a dream "huh?" The eyes of Gus catches a glimpse of something - "HE IS ALIVEE! COME HERE! I CAN FEEL HIS PULSE." Gus shouts out desperately. "I-I see" Theodore replies without understanding why the tears are not stopping from his eyes. Did he know Ares? Or did he felt his pain as a fellow soldiers. 200 Parted Ways The weapons of soldiers and Captains are in different league. That is what differentiates a captain from his squadron, Ares bleeds as his chest is pierced with two arrows, he breathes heavily and stands still without moving a muscle in his body. The dark clouds in the sky started to rumble in thunder as if the gods were angry, right on cue the rain begin to fall from the sky, small bands of rain drops felt warm to Ares as he gets drenched, it''s as if he is being hugged by the warmth of the heavens. Zoilas draws his bow string back to shoot another one of his arrow. *"Please hear my wish Ares, protect the village"* *"My daughters can''t live a day without me, I will go back to them soon and there will be no further raids from Caracus, my daughters can have a peaceful life unlike me"* *"You guys are our responsibility, we will go to war with you"* Ares remembers the words of Alex and Edward and the villagers rushing back inside his ears as he is exhausted. Zoilas shoots his arrow which pierced the rain drops in its way creating a path to itself into Ares. "AARGH!!!" Ares''s whole body is filled with rage, his eyes turns red and he lets out a cry as he swings his sword that is emitting green colored light. The power released from that one swing of Ares''s sword nullified the arrow that Zoilas shot, let alone the arrow the rain itself is delayed for a moment with a very strong wind released from the spot Ares is standing. "Sni... Snipers fast!" Zoilas shouts without wasting any moment. Another shot of lightning sniper is fired at Ares. This time the lightning traveled from cloud to cloud gathering more electricity all concentrated at one spot, above Ares. The sniper and Zoilas instantly knew that this lightning from the steel dark clouds is 10 times more ,powerful than the previous one and they are assured this will be an overkill. Ares removes the stones from his sword''s handgrip, which is covered in white cloth, the whole sword shines divinely as though the soul of sword is visible. "God arts - Heaven''s Arsenal" Ares utters the words calmly as the lightning drops on him. "God Arts - Heaven''s Arsenal." Ares says with a calm and cocky voice. "~~~!" Without a warning a spear shaped thunderbolt as if it was made of a soul appears beside Ares and goes upwards piercing through the lightning made from sniper rifle, right above Ares in an instant. The huge lightning fired by the sniper is scattered throughtout the sky which was in wrath, to fragments and even the dark smoke like clouds in the sky were scoured like dust dispersion . It was an unimaginable power, the spear is as powerful as the lightning bolt of Zeus, with enough energy to split up the earth. It''s not over yet, the katana that Ares is holding seems to be shining brightly aming the bleak atmosphere while emitting pieces of soul fragments. Those soul fragments are taking the form of weapons, after a while the sword in Ares''s hand disappeared completely leaving an insane amount of weapons of every kind a spear, straight sword, trident, arrows, dagger, staff, bident which is a two-pronged version of trident, hammer, crescent axe, scythe, spiked cudgel, mace, Dacian Flax, club, javelin and many more other weapons around Ares. Glowing and aimed, seemed to be made of the soul of sword and are emitting heavenly aura as if the Gods granted Ares those gifts, bestowing their blessings in white radiance of divine weapons. It''s almost like all the weapons used by heaven''s guardian surrounded Ares assembling in a sphere like structure around him. Zoilas is more than scared at his wit end. His pants are wet like he peed himself as he witnessed the power that resembled the Gods. -*"Wh- whaa- what i-i-n-in the world is this? Are all those weapons made of his spiritual power, all alone?"* Zoilas stuttered terrified as his mind tried to process out what he just saw. "NOT EVEN THE FIVE STAR GENERAL WHO IS HAILED AS THE ONLY MORTAL THAT CAN RIVAL GODS, POSSESSED SUCH POWER!" Zoilas shouts loudly as he trembles and whimpers in fear acknowledging his end. *Swoosh~~* all the weapons around Ares out of nowhere are released and are shot toward the soldiers at a very fast pace. The weapons travelled piercing the air at an enormous speed like a huge storm of light sweeping away an entire city. Before Zoilas could grab a hold of the situation , all the soldiers along with rest of Caracus villagers have been cut down, thrashed and decapitated like something invisible slaughtered them all. Zoilas is the only person now standing alive in the entirely vast stretched cemetery along with Ares. Zoilas immediately runs towards Ares like a coward, without any pride he kneel and begs Ares to spare his life. The arrogant man ran for his life, turning from a lion into a mouse. "Ares, Ares please I have a family. I never wanted to do this from the first. I was forced by the higher up''s I''m from Aztec not Agartha, really. I''m one of the ground support regiment. Please let me live Ares... please" Zoilas keep blabbering Ares all sort of excuses that came into his mind repeatedly, to make Ares take mercy on him, but Ares whose heart had completely turned into a blood pumping machine devoid of emotions, gazes down upon Zoilas with a grin- dark expression and no emotion can be sense from him at that moment. "Cut your neck off by yourself, it will be an easy death." Ares mocks Zoilas as he did with Edward, without any trace of softness. "You won''t get away with just this! you will know how big of a mistake you are doing! You don''t even know who is involved in this." Zoilas threatens angrily once he was so sure of dying a horrible death, setting a symbol of terror for generations. A spears runs down on the head of Zoilas from his temple and comes out splitting his body into two. while he is on ground with a thump. "GoodBye" Ares says as he looks up at the sky, thinking about all the villagers and his friends that died here. And also the thought of soldiers crossed his mind that he killed mercilessly. He looked sad as if he didn''t wanted to kill anybody, as they too had their own families. *Meanwhile in Mindoro a couple of hours earlier* "Mars! the skies rumbling and I definitely heard something big, I doubt a huge bomb is dropped at the shore in the direction of Edward and our men, the place they were camping at." A guard from Mindoro wakes up Mars by jerking him ranting with a rather surprising news. "Chiefff!!! Chieffff!!!!! I saw a blast , heavy smoke and I saw the trees and woods withering after the huge blast. Something wrong is definitely going down there. Let me go chief!" Gus who has run here worrisome requests to the already surprised Mars in paniced state. "Guards! prepare for us to leave, gather all the men in the village, we''re gonna head out to our brothers and lend them a hand!" Mars commands his men of what they should be doing immediately. It''s a panic in village. Every family of the warrior that went to assist Caracus along with Ares are in desperation to hear any news from them or to go along with Mars to see what had happened to their loved ones. Mars and the guards had to delay their departure to calm the villagers down. The wife of Edward stares at the crimson moon while worrying about her husband while the two daughters laid sleeping in her arms soundly. The crimson moon is naturally defined as a sign of massacre in some places, a very bad omen. This makes her even more worried about the well-being of her husband. "Chief I will be heading out first, I will be fast with my pulleys." Gus says the words and heads out without stopping to listen to what Mars had to suggest . "This kid, never listen to us! He is heading out in the dark without worrying about his own safety!" Mars shakes his head in frustration and yells at Gus and sets out to the shore of the battle following the lead of Gus. *"I''m sure of it, Ares will win, he will be standing and protecting my villagers. Tanya, Albert and Alex used to make fun of me for worrying about Ares. And Yang would keep his grumpy face on and ask me about Tisha. Alrightyyy!! Ares, here I come.* Gus murmurs to himself , unsure of what was ahead of him while he is set on the way to the battle scene. *"It''s now or never, it''s finally time for us to end our fued with Caracus. We will become brother in arms now, everything will be peaceful once tonight passes by."* Mars thinks about the well being of his villagers and bonds with other villages while on his way not knowing what lies ahead of him. *Coming back to the shore of battle in the present* A group of 5 whips with sharp spearheads tied to their tails suddenly pierces the flesh of Ares from the backside. The whips sprouted from his chest. Ares couldn''t help but notice how familiar the whips are to his eyes, It''s as if he knew the familiar weapon used many times before by someone who fought alongside him since he became the captain. "I- I see, so that''s how it is Tanya. You were a member from Zoilas squad? Ha ha" Ares chuckled and coughs blood as he turns around to face her. Tanya stands with a different attire than her soldier dress and is giving a really cold look towards Ares as her hand grips on the whip sword in her hand. She pulls the whip sword back slashing the flesh of Ares from inside. She looks very dominating and no traces of emotion can be seen from her cold aura. "Don''t hold a grudge on me in your afterlife Ares, I''m not a spy of other nation. What Zoilas uttered in pure fear is true. He is from Aztec I''m his messenger, I was ordered to do this." Tanya says to Ares without any hint of remorse or sadness in her tone. "I see, so it''s our own generals that wants me dead? I see. Anyway, I''m happy that atleast you are alive of our squad Tanya... *Coughh!!* I''m happy, but don''t go after the village." Ares says with relief as his body falls to the ground. Tanya was not ready for the words, she just cut this man''s flesh and yet he still was treating her as his friend and forgave her? Is the reliever expression on his face denotes that he is happy to die in her hands so that he won''t kill more people in his future as he rank up in the military? "We agreed to wipe out Mindoro as a part of our deal with the Caracus village. The deal happened when the Caracus saw our power, when we wiped out Sable as our first target. Caracus after witnessing our powers begged to be spared and that they will help us in killing you and in return we burn Mindoro to ashes. But, now that the caracus is wiped out, I don''t care about Mindoro anymore. Still I didn''t think it would come down to me to kill you, you are too powerful." Tanya tells to Ares with a tear falling from the side of her eyes and she turns her face away from Ares to not let him see her tears dropping. Sable was wiped out at first to see the weapons and the powers the people use on this island. And for the good of the soldiers the Islanders only use natural weapons without any strategies. However Caracus witnessed the power of Zoilas and his army and they beg Zoilas to spare them in exchange, they need to help Zoilas kill Ares. Both of the parties agreed to it and sent an official and guards to Mindoro to lure them by asking them for their help, but after witnessing the power of Ares in Mindoro against the guard with the blade who was about to kill Gus, the soldiers and villagers of caracus came up with a plan of Making the Mindoro and Ares wait for days and nights without any sleep. They try to gain Mindoro''s trust, make them weak and make them drop their guards against them and then they would begin the slaughtering of Mindoro as per their plan, taking advantage of sleepless soldiers who has lost their ability to think and fight due to dizziness and attacking at the most unexpected time. 201 sympathize Ares lays on the ground lifeless, Tanya walks up to him, sits on her knees, grabs and places the head of Ares on her lap and brushes his hair while her tears keep rolling down on the face of Ares. "It was hard on me Ares, forgive me.. forgive me.. forgive me." Tanya begs for a few minutes and she then wipe away any traces of her tears from her face and then leaves the island to report the successful plan of wiping out Ares with the whole island. "He was a monster! An-and I saw the same in this child." Yang told the captain on the phone. "We are not able to hear you, hello? Yang?" "Huh? Hello? What are you saying young captain? Hello?" The phone call got disconnected. None of them knew what the reason was. No one was able to realize that they are going to get hit by a storm that is never seen before. *"I have seen a kid that is exactly like Ares. Because I have seen him doing it."* Yang thinks to himself. - A huge loss could have happened that day that would have brought the family of Gus to their graves. Gus is fighting with the evolved wolves to protect Faust and Bella from being eaten. He has already suffered an injury that made his left hand totally paralyzed. But, the villagers were shocked at the sight of wolves which were torn apart and dissected, they walk up to Gus who has become unconscious and takes him in. One of the villagers hears a rumble from the foot of the cliff, as he and the villagers saw what is below them, they were scared and dazzled. A pride of lions which were guarding Faust are starring up at the cliff towards the villagers, the lions stayed with Faust without harming him and left him like a gift to the villagers and they make their way back into the forest. *"This truly seem like a work of God, which lion who eats humans, protects the kid from the wolves and has been doing that until help arrives?"* The villagers thought to themselves and takes Faust, Gus and Bella back to the village to treat them. Before they realised that the lions protected them. Only Gus saw what had happened and he told to Yang about it. "Grandpa!" Faust who suddenly wakes up with a fright, tries to open his eyes slowly to see if he is alive or in a dream. He feels as though he is flying in the air, his body hasn''t touched the ground like he thought he would when he fell down the cliff from the push of Gus. He can feel the cold breeze grazing his cheeks and so he thought he must be dead and his spirit is floating in the air- *"ah I must have died due to the hard fall and I''m in afterlife"* Faust thinks to himself and he once again closes his eyes believing his once happy life is over. *Chirp chirp~~* *"Huh? It somehow feel so good, the smell of damped earth combined with old fallen leaves and the sings of bird, is this heaven? It is so calming and comfortable here."* Faust muddles and opens his eyes to hear for the beautiful sound of chirping birds. He wasn''t expecting the sight he saw once he open his eyes, he was hanging from the vines of trees. The vines coiled around his limbs making him feel like he was floating in the air, his eyes watched the green leaves rustling in the bright sky swiftly. The clothes that Faust is wearing have been shredded and blood drips due to his fall into sharp branches and he was held by the vines of the trees without hitting the ground. *Awhoooooo!! awhoooooo!!* *"What is it? What is happening?"* Faust comes back to his senses panicking and watches in the direction of the sound, his eyes seem lifeless as he sees two wolves running down the cliff and howling as if it''s a signal to the pack of wolves on the rocky mountain that they have discovered the location of Faust. *"I see, it''s basically useless trying to run away now, I was so stupid and useless today. I don''t want to create anymore chaos. I''m tired of running."* Faust thinks to himself and closes his eyes as he accepted his fate with the wolves without intending to even fight again for his life. Being an introverted kid Faust never stood up for himself, he always put below everyone and belittles his own self. No matter the situation he still apologizes to whoever he is talking to and takes the blame onto himself rather than blaming other. He accept what comes his way as his own fault and hence he closes his eyes waiting for death, letting the wolves do what they want with him since he is too tired to try and run and change his destiny. *Thud~~* *Thud~~* The body of Faust seems to resonate all of a sudden as if someone is thumping him to wake up. The wolves who were happily charging towards Faust were stopped in their trace suddenly as they faintly sense a weird aura forming around Faust. The wolves cower right away as though they have come across something they shouldn''t have. *swisshhhh!!~* The vines around the the limbs of Faust were sliced into tiny bits and Faust lands on the ground facing towards the wolves while his eyes are still closed. "Why won''t you creatures just won''t leave me alone?" Faust says in an innocent naive voice as his head tilted to the side. The atmosphere around Faust gets uneasy, the winds are increasing. The birds in the vicinity flies away leaving their nests and all the other small animals and deers run away from the presence of Faust as if a calamity is heading their way. Even the rest of the wolves and Raka on the cliff were stopped in their traces of toying with Gus and watches towards the direction of Faust and the two wolves. *Grrrrr* The wolves groans quietly and tries to come forward to Faust moving slowly. "Fuck with me and you will never be pardoned" Faust opens his eyes fiercely like the wolves have just irritated him even more. His eyes are sharper than before when the wolves saw him on the cliff. The look in his eyes showed despise and anger, but what really stands out is the corner of his eyes, the white part(sclera) of his eyes in the corners are painted in blood red, he''s like a completely different person. This pair of eyes was different from when the moment Gus was narrating him the story of Ares and his eyes reacted strongly, but this time it''s different. Because at that time the whole white part of Faust''s eyes were bright red, where as now only the corners are glittering red with green Iris which is shining like a jade glass. "There''s no letting go of this now, I didn''t want to kill animals, but you are an exception" Faust says while being really calm even when the two big wolves was standing in front of him. This is a very different Faust from a while ago where he cried like a baby at the sight of just one wolf. "Prepare to get purged." Faust says with a carefree look on his face. His face shows displeasure as if the wolves never stood a chance with him ever. "A-wooooo Awo- ooooo" the wolves communicates with the rest of it''s pack with continuous anxiety howls, their howls are not even completed like usual as they are greatly intimated with the Aura that keeps building around Faust. *Rumble~~* The earth starts to shake and the small stones near Faust and the wolves seems to be vibrating violently as if a great disaster is approaching them at a great speed. The wolves senses a pack of 5 lions to be charging towards Faust at great speed as they stare behind Faust. The lions which live in the caves on the other side of terrains divided by a small valley charges towards Faust as if they are panicked or just charging forward because of the fear of Faust like most animals which tend to attack when they''re feared. The wolves are a bit relieved as they see the lions too sensed the aura of Faust and came to attack him and kill him. The wolves are waiting for the lions to land a blow first and then they can steal the lifeless body of Faust from the lions. The lions come more closer to the Faust, one of them which was thrice the size of Raka, bared it''s fangs right behind the head of Faust. The wolves decided that Faust is going to die and are waiting patiently to grab Faust. "RAWRRRR!!!....." The lion suddenly jumps over Faust while roaring from it''s lungs. The roar was so loud that it resonated over 5 miles and paralyzed the wolves. The sound of it''s roar up close is as loud as the sound of a mountain falling down. The lion then grabbed one of the wolf by it''s spine, lifted the wolf up with his jaws and slams the wolf onto the stone to death. Immediately the other three lions approaches the second wolf. One grabs the neck, one grabs the limbs and other dogs it''s teeth on its chest and tears apart the body and limbs of the wolf in a brutal way. It was like they were tearing a soft toy apart through its fiber without considering the blood spilling from each of the wolves. Faust is just standing all this while while the air is blowing through his hair and his cold eyes looking down on the wolves. The fifth lion stands behind Faust as though it was protecting him. The eyes of Faust comes back to normal and his bright mist like aura around him disappears and Faust falls down like a worn out vessel, which has used its power too much and beyond it''s capacity. The thoughts of his Grandpa flows in his mind and the lions respond as though they understand Faust''s intentions. Four of the lions goes up the cliff while the last lion keeps the unconscious body of Faust in between it''s front and hind limbs and watches it''s surroundings as if it''s protecting Faust. Faust can hear the whimpers and cries of the wolf while his eyes are closed, he still thinks he is dreaming. *"Why did the lions help Faust?"*Gus who was badly injured from the attack of the wolves, but was still able to survive, was watching what has happen for the whole time. He was having all fuzzy thoughts about what just happened and trying to process the information he has just gathered, when one of the lion suddenly roars at him standing at the edge of the cliff. Gus being badly wounded gets carried over to the edge of the cliff by another lion, he sees Faust safe and sound in the protection of a lion and he drops his guard down and lays down on the ground while holding onto his wounds. Gus and his family are rescued and are protected by Faust. No one including Yang knew why or how the lions helped Faust. And the next day. Faust wakes up after staying days in the hospital surrounded by his friends. "Huh lions? They were protecting me?" Faust asks Tim as if he doesn''t remember anything that took place. "Yes, you even have the favor of many animals, they won''t attack you or behave badly with you while we go to hunt together with my dad, even though they do all the things with us. But this time lions too? Mehhh, you must be lucky or something." Tim says to Faust with mocking tone, but a hint of relief can be seen on his face. Faust vaguely remembers what happened, his memory is foggy and uncertain but he remembers lions killing the wolves in front of him. Everybody thinks that falling off the cliff might have made his memory a bit sloppy and he himself think that might be the case too. "Manh ! you are lucky, you would have become meal for wolves if the lions didn''t come, but how cool is that Faust, being saved and protected by lions. I''m so jealous of you." Says the excited Nick who visited Faust in the hospital along with Tim and Roy. "Yes Fausty, everyone''s calling you a gifted kid. You have been blessed with a miracle of God, though I''m happy you didn''t get hurt." Roy says while he make gestures to cheer up Faust who looks rather sad and heart broken. 202 Broken Ability Faust did not know what to tell to his brothers. "Um... Tim, I''m really sorry for going towards the dens, even after you told me not to." Faust tells Tim with a hint of guilt in his tone as he lowered his head not daring to look at Tim in the eyes. "It''s ok, we know you won''t be able to hold your excitement anyway haha. That''s why I came to play with you, knowing you will be either feeling sad or bored because I told you not to go there, but who would have imagined your little butt would go there already, hmphhhh." Tim pout and says to Faust as a big brother who is scolding his small brother, but also showing love and caring side at the same time. "Ah, how is my grandpa? How is Bella? Let me get up and walk now." Faust deeply reflect on his action and that''s when he remember something and ask his friends and as he tries to get up from the hospital bed. "No! It''s ok, you need more rest Faust. And your grandpa is ok you know...." Nick holds back Faust not letting him get out of the bed and looks a bit gloomy, same with the rest of the friends. It seems they are all sad and hesitant to tell Faust about the well being of his only family, that is his grandpa and Bella. "Well your.. .. " Nick hesitates, " Well..they said that grandpa Gus needs to take a 7 month bed rest, his muscles have been cut- slashed and many broken bones, but it''s not life threatening. Where as Bella...." Nick who is talking about Gus suddenly stops talking when it comes to Bella. "We don''t know if Bella can make it, she is getting operated now and lost lot of blood. Chances of her making out alive are less." Roy continues for Nick and breaks it down to Faust, being a noble he knows how to control his emotions and feelings very well unlike Nick. "I see, thanks for letting me know. I want to sleep now. I will come meet you guys later when I''m recovered." Faust immediately lays back and covers himself in the blanket as his tears roll down. Tim and others leaves the room knowing what Faust is going through and they sadly leave even when they don''t want to. *"I need to become strong, I need to figure a lot of things out first"* Faust keeps saying to himself while he digs his thumb nail into his point finger trying to suppress his hate and anger towards his own self as a way to punish himself. A few days later, Faust is recovered and he go to meet up with Gus who is still on the hospital bed "How are you doing grandpa?." Faust says with a low voice standing at the door as he tries to control his tear from rolling down from his cheek. "Oh Faust," Gus mumbles as he could barely say anything as he sees Faust. Faust looks tired and black shade can be seen under his eyes. Gus realizes that Faust is not sleeping at all. "Faust, I''m doing really good now, I hope you take better care of yourself, don''t spoil your health because your grandpa is not there to feed you forcefully and take care of you, I will be up and running in no time." Gus says to Faust to try to ease his worries. "Ok grandpa, I will be going home without you and take care of the animals and keep our house clean and do the works for you." Faust says with calm tone, but you can see he''s trying his best to not sound sad and want to make up to Gus. "You don''t need to do that Fausty, I asked Tim''s mom to take care of our house while we''re here, so don''t go doing adults work kiddo just sleep with me here. Me, you and Bella can go home in 6 weeks." Gus says to Faust with a smiley and goofy face to make Faust feel like everything is back to normal and that he don''t need to be hard on himself with his feeling of guilts. "Ok grandpa." That''s all Faust says and heads back to his room without mumbling another word. Faust collects his belongings and greets the doctors that helped him and leaves out to his house not listening to what his grandpa told him before. For the next 6 weeks Faust stays at his house. Everyday Faust does every work needed in his house before Tim''s mom visits to do her works and eventually she stops coming after realizing that Faust wants to do it himself. He goes into the forest and eats fruits and whatever he finds since he doesn''t know how to cook. Most of Faust''s daily routine included him waking up before sun rise, running around the village which is daily exercise for guards to circle the village for 10 times. Faust too decided to join the guards and run around the village for three complete times as best as he could. He then comes home, cleans the whole house, takes the sheep''s and other animals to the area of good forage. He keeps an eye on the animals while he himself punches a tree over and over harder each time as he keep blaming himself for what happen to his grandpa and Bella and also as a way to make himself strong. Until the animals are done grazing. He brings them back safely to home and works on his body for hours. Faust also is practicing moves that looks similar to hand combat martial arts used long time ago. He collected some sand, heated the sand in a pot and collected all the heated sand in a bag and started training his wrists, forearms, shin and foot by hitting the sand bag. He put the sand bag on the ground and threw few punches and tied the bag to a pillar to kick and make his feet and shin strong. The martial art that Faust is practicing is "The Art Of Vital Points" it is an ancient martial arts which has its origins in "Hodu", one of the most ancient country with rich tradition and history, also known to be the birth place of "Buddha" a human who reached higher state of all beings and was even worshipped as a religion and God in ancient times. How did Faust got his hands on "kyusyozyutu" ( The art of vital points) which is depicted as a secret art of body knowledge and vital points. It has no concern of an opponent''s well being, the sole purpose of this style is to inflict as much pain as quickly as possible, which often includes deliberately ending a life with no remorse. *One year ago before the wolf incident* In the past, Faust came across the sight of Yang teaching something to Tim which seemed to be some kind of move that involved in Tim charging at Yang and trying to land a hit on Yang in close combat. Faust is very much impressed by the style and the way Tim moves in this martial arts. "Grandpa Yang! I also want to learn with Tim. Will you please teach me along with him?" Faust storms into the training place and asks Yang eagerly while he is training Tim. Yang is struck with displeasure, the face of the grumpy old village chief turned really ugly. "Faust this art only passes down in my family, I would never even in my dreams think to pass the art of kyusyozyutu to an outsider. Don''t ask me again." Yang scolds Faust sternly and asks him to leave from the door that he came from. Faust despite being rejected by Yang, peeks into the training and the movements that Tim is practicing, and that day later he goes home to practice the moves he saw from Tim. Yang who is aware that Faust is peeking on the training of Tim everyday, doesn''t seem bothered as he knew that the art is extremely tough to learn on one''s own without a proper guidance under a well versed master. Without the knowledge of vital points, pressure points and meridians of one''s body, this martial art is just like throwing random punches in air and so later on Faust lost the interest in practicing and training alone and stopped going to the training grounds of Yang and Tim. *Present* After the incident with the wolves, Gus, who is still recovering in hospital reveals to Yang that Faust is somehow special in his own way. Gus mainly tells Yang about Faust landing a hit on the wolf as if he teleported, it also piqued the interest of Yang however, he is still not convinced as to teaching his martial arts to Faust. Yang wanted to test Faust himself and take him in if he feels like if Faust could be a good successor to the martial arts he is trying to pass down to Tim, maybe Faust could be a better one than Tim as Yang thought to himself carefully. And so Yang and Tim visit Faust after he was out of hospital. "Faust, Gus want me to teach you the martial arts form that you were fascinated with a year ago." Yang told Faust. "I see." Faust sadly thought to himself *"even after all this, I''m still being defended by grandpa."* He looks down to the ground and tries to stop himself from crying in front of Tim and Yang. "But I''m not convinced with what Gus told me, I need to see your talent with my own eyes or I cannot train you." Yang coldly states the bitter truth and doubt. "So after six weeks from now, you and Tim will have a spar against each other while me and Gus will watch your fights and give you our results. A martial art using hand combat is equal to an eternal treasure. It is not something you can learn easily. So to gift you such powerful skill, I''m going to make sure that you have what it takes." Yang says to Faust and Tim. This leaves Faust with lots of doubts in his head as to why he have to spar with his own friend,Tim? Him and Tim are good friends and he doesn''t want them both to fight and end up with either of them getting hurt. The feeling is mutual for Tim as well. "So for basic, train your body and harden your wrists, knuckles, legs and shin." Yang continues telling Faust about his deal and he ignore the feelings of the two boys as their eyes appear with doubts and sadness. "Uh, huh? Ahh grandpa Yang! Oh I have a question to ask you" Faust pauses for a few minutes and he wonders how to exactly ask the questions he just said he need to ask. *"How the hell am I supposed to train my body and make it strong?"* Is the question that Faust have in his mind for Yang. Yang realizing what was in Faust''s head says "You can try punching a sand bag filled with heated sand which makes your skin harden and your arms stronger." Yang gives him an advice. "Thank you both." Faust says while he bows his head low and heads back to home to start the training as soon as possible once Yang told him what to do. And so Faust has been training his body for 6 weeks straight to make himself stronger and each day his determination grow as he continues to thrives. After 6 weeks, Gus is finally discharged from the hospital, but is not able to walk without the two clutches and people from the hospital assist him and Bella to their house. Both Gus and Bella are covered in bandages in the areas they received fatal wounds in. Faust with enthusiasm comes running out of the house after he realizes who the old man and the dog are as they continues toward his house. And he rushes to hug Bella and Gus whom he met after the first time in 6 weeks. But Gus is in loss of words as he is shocked to see Faust looking so different then he last saw him. Faust has become so thin than he normally is. His eyes are decorated with dark circles around them and you can also see the puffiness under each of his eyes causing his eye bags to swell . It is as though Faust has not eaten or slept from these past 6 weeks and his bones are clearly visible through his fragile body. "What have you done to yourself Faust!?" Gus asks Faust with disbelief and grief. Gus is not taking this well as his only grandson, who he had nursed ever since be was a tiny little baby, is looking so bad like he hasn''t been taking care of him as a good grandpa should. He was bitterly heartbroken. "Nothing grandpa, I''m fine" Faust says with a smile on his face trying to cheer up his grandpa with the best smile he got. Faust comes over to Bella and try to hold her, to which Bella doesn''t agree. She just licks Faust''s hand and goes inside the house slowly. As if it''s her way of saying she lost her trust in him and just licks his hands so Faust doesn''t completely gets heartbroken. Its as if a way of saying we are not siblings anymore but just friends who care about one another''s feelings and happiness. 203 Master Gus realizing the way Bella acted, comes and holds Faust in his chest. " let''s go inside, grandpa." Faust calmly tells Gus as if he is avoiding any hugs or love from Gus as he still feels he is responsible for everything that happened and he thinks he is being hated by his family too now. As soon as Gus enters inside the house, he sees his house has changed drastically. The wall paper on the pillar comes off at some spots as the result of countless kicks Faust have done and the floor too seems to has multiple places that have been broken and renewed with pieces of planks placed on top of the broken floor. Gus really saw through the amount of hard work Faust has put in and so did the people from hospital, who came to accompany Gus to his house. "Is the spar with Tim tomorrow grandpa? I''m all ready for it " Faust says to Gus as Gus is observing the shape the house is in thoughtfully. "Faust, let''s not do any sparring, you barely look alive to me. Let''s not do this for a while." Gus worriedly tells Faust as he couldn''t bear watching his skinny grandson take another beating from Tim as Faust clearly looks like a malnourished boy and he seemed to be lacking sleep and Gus can definitely tell that Faust has been completely taken over by depression. "if I cannot prove myself now, I will never be able to return to my normal self anymore." Faust replies with determination, ignoring the despair in his grandfather''s look. He wanted to really take this as an opportunity to vent out all his anger and sadness that he has been locking up inside and he is all set for the spar no matter what. *On the day of sparring* Faust seems to be searching the wardrobe restlessly for something. "Grandpa! Where is my cape I used to play superhero with? I''m not able to find it." Faust asks Gus while his head ducked into the wardrobe. "Huh? Why do you need the cape Fausty? We are going to a spar with Tim not to play heroes." Gus seems to be puzzled, this kid just said yesterday that he is serious about getting strong and moving on. So what took over his head to be searching for a cape now? "Oh I found it... Heh heh heh. I did not use this cape all these days while training... If only I did I would have been more strong, heh heh heh." Faust says to himself while laughing with an evil laugh. Gus is jaw dropped listening to Faust... Is this kid really grown up? What''s he talking about? Gus is blown out of his worries. Maybe Faust is Faust after all by thought and continued. Faust did not stop there, while leaving the house with Gus, he took the thread with two small bells from the neck of Bella and wears it around his neck. Like it was a charm or maybe he was preparing himself for a sacrificial activity ! Bella is giving a rather displeased look while pouts and looks away but Faust just smiled and moved on. "Faust! That is Bella''s collar replacement... What are you doing?" Gus is getting tired of how Faust is behaving. He really wanted to give Faust a good beat up and put some seriousness in his head. "This is good luck charm grandpa, just watch. I will beat Tim with the lucky cape and lucky bells." Gus gave up on Faust at this time when he wears a cope around his neck and wears the thread with bells that made sound for every step he took . Yang invites Gus and Faust to the place to test the capabilities of him after he is immersed in training for 6 weeks. The training grounds of Yang are below the ground level in Yang''s place, the floor is made up of concrete and tiles which seemed to be spread out to four corners to form a rectangle ground totally for the purpose of practicing hard blows and free falls with a one feet small Dias with two chairs in the middle for Yang and Gus to sit and observe the spar. "Oh hello.. Fa-Faust!" Yang is caught off guard seeing Faust. First his in natural way of dressing and then his very gloomy face, his body muscles looks like they''re twitching and his knuckles are painted in red. "Faust!! What is wrong with you Bo...." Tim says while he runs towards Faust to treat his wounds, but was interrupted by Yang who asked Tim to go back to his position. Yang realizes that Faust wants to change himself and his coward heart by working hard and so he did not pity Faust or show him mercy, rather than that Yang showed his respect to Faust. "Hello grandpa Yang, hello Tim" Faust greets them both. His face doesn''t show the signs of any happiness or cheerfulness even though he was invited to spar and train and have a big chance to learn from Yang . "Faust, try to land at least three hits on Tim. If you succeed, I will let you train with Tim." Yang tells Faust. Faust seems a little interested in this, as his face glow up a little because of what Yang says. But Tim seems to be concerned about Faust. "Grandpa, you said our style doesn''t have defense only moves, if I were to defend myself I would land blows on Faust. I don''t wanna hurt him." Tim says as he is concerned with the present condition of Faust. "Did I say you are supposed to show mercy to your opponent''s? When I say fight you both need to show me what you got." Yang says with cold eyes. A master needs to be strict at times in order to make their disciples succeed. And so the time to spar each other comes by "Start!!! "Yang starts the fight with commanding voice as both Tim and Faust gets ready in place for their spar. *Swoosh!!!~~~* Faust starts off by dashing towards Tim at great speed. *"Woah fast!!"* Tim compliments Faust in his heart, but smirks from the corner of his mouth as if he is confident enough to counter Faust''s speed. *"Hmm.. decent speed but charging forward naively, this shows the lack of combat experience."* Yang and Gus thought to themselves. Tim is buckled up anticipating Faust''s move which is straight on punch. *Whiff!!~* *"Huh? What happened? What is this?* Tim is confused by what he is seeing. The cape of Faust is right in his face. Faust did not just recklessly charge towards Tim. He removed his Cape in the way and flung it over onto Tim as soon as he approaches Tim. Tim''s vision is totally blocked off as of now. He puts his hands up and takes his guard. He knows Faust is going to kick him from outside the cape while blinding Tim using the cape. *"So this is why he was carrying the cape? Did he calculate all of this already?"* Yang and Gus feels as though Faust is not a kid anymore. *Cling clang!* Tim heard Faust running towards him from his left side. *"Hmm my eyes sight may have been blocked but my ears are still working."* Tim focuses smirking to himself and dashes towards his left but suddenly lost his balance and falls down. "One hit" Yang yells loudly. Tim was confused and petrified, he did not even know what happened. As soon as the cape falls off from his face. To his surprise to his left are two bells and Faust is actually in front of him. As soon as Tim was blinded by the cape. Faust threw the bells which he had taken out along with the cape and throws to the left side of Tim. Tim turns left trusting the sound blindly while Faust lands a hit on Tim''s feet making him loose balance and fall down. With this Faust already earned his first hit on Tim. Before Tim snaps back from the shock he sees Faust again trying to land a kick on him from below. Time rolls back and gets back on his feet before Faust''s kick can reach him. "Hehe, that was good Faust. I never expected you would be doing your comical trickery fights. But ok I will respond back with the same passion." Tim says while taking his stance. "But you won''t be able to reach me anymore." Tim is finally serious. His stance itself is pretty impressive. His left legs was behind him and slightly bended while his right foot is in front. He was focusing his balance on his left foot, his right feet slightly float in air easy to move around or attack. In addition to his two upper limbs which can already attack and block. His right arm also acted like his hand in defending moves or punches from below. Faust again, dashes forward and throws punches which Tim blocks easily using his wrists and elbows, deflecting Faust''s punches. The martial art moves of Tim looked very well crafted than Faust''s, whose standing stance itself is unbalanced and there is no change of power from his lower body to upper body when landing a punch. Yet Yang''s eyes are wide open and are glittering with admiration for Faust. *"Is it a coincidence or did he really just aimed for the heart meridian of Tim?"* Yang quietly whisper to himself. Every punch from Faust is not a clean hit, but he is aiming his punches in the central line of point that is on nose, on throat and on heart. Only central focused punches. If one punch if made a contact, it would definitely close the heart meridian of Tim. Yang seemed more focused on Faust to see if Faust just is just throwing punches or is he targeting the meridian. *"Is it just a coincidence luck or did he figure out the martial arts."* Yang is getting excited to see Faust''s moves, expecting him to do some uniqueness. Faust tries to land more blows on Tim who is just evading all the punches with ease without having a need to fight back. And Faust tire fully falls forward while stretching his legs trying to reach Tim. "Heh, I thought you said you want to prove yourself and get rid of the guilt, but guess you were all talking and no work huh?" Yang mocks Faust with his words intentionally *"Dammit!!!!"* The words really hurt Faust to his core. He balls his fist in fury and gets back up on his feet to try and land a hit again. Faust keeps failing to land a blow and Yang keeps mocking Faust. Faust looses his focus and foot on every insult Yang throws at Faust. In the end, Faust just lays on the ground with his face covered with dust and his head buried in the ground and cries. "Faust! The fear you feel makes you brave if you can overcome it and the pain you feel will make you stronger if you endure it. Learn to fail, make new mistakes and learn from them" Gus shouts to Faust in a cheering tone. Faust gets up on his feet slowly while wiping his tears. Those tears were not tears of cowardice or helplessness, this time they were the tears of not being able to do anything and feeling worthless. *"My element of surprise has been used up already in my first attack. I don''t have any more aces up in my sleeves. Nor am I as fast as Tim to evade. But I have seen most of the moves now. I might be able to do this."*Faust muddles to himself determinedly. Faust carefully recalls the foot movements of Tim. The way he was moving fast, the spins, the body balance and the defence and strike at the same time. *"This time, I''m going to do it"* Faust thinks to himself and charges forward towards Tim once again. Blocking and evading Faust is easy until now for Tim, but this time somewhere in his head Tim is having a feeling that Faust is catching up to him. The round house kicks, hand movements, blocking every move of Tim''s with his wrists and blocking and guiding away the punches of Tim with the back of his fists and with every move, Faust is looking as if he is imitating Tim. It''s is almost Tim is fighting himself in the mirror, perplexed. *"What is this? Is this really someone who doesn''t know the martial arts? His moves are suddenly sharp and matching Tim''s. Did he just learned those moves while watching Tim move on the ground just now? This is Impossible yet miraculous!" Yang thinks in his head loudly as he keep getting more surprised by Faust''s abilities. *Bam!!~~* It''s a hit on Tim. "This is bad, Tim has got hit on a particular meridian of the heart, his meridian will be closed and it is life threatening! His all working meridians will be closed now!" Yang''s face becomes creased with a sense of tense and danger in his voice. He''s worried for Tim, but then at the same time he still want to know what Faust got with his skills. "Huh? Hahaha You got me Faust." Tim laugh and smiles at Faust naturally. Faust did not hit the meridian, he just tapped Tim after getting close to Tim. This is what his intentions were all this while. To just touch Tim as a tap after getting close to Tim. "I don''t want to hurt those that I meant to protect." Faust says and withdraws with a sense of relief and happiness. He doesn''t wanna continue spar anymore, he reached his goal and that was more than enough for Faust to prove himself. A satisfactory smile graced his lips as he accomplished his goal. "Gus! Did you notice it too? The level of understanding and grasping everything after witnessing it for just his first time is amazing and he implemented them in a minute. Your grandson turned out a genius!" Yang makes an excited statement in astonishment. "Faust, please become a student of mine and let me teach you." Yang walks up to Faust and requests him politely as if he could never get a student like Faust and teaching this style to Faust. "Please take care of me master." Faust agrees and willingly nods with a bright smile. Gus, Tim and Yang are more than delighted to see Faust smile for the first time in a while. Faust is smiling all the way while going back to home. As soon as Gus and Faust reaches home. Faust sleeps beside Bella in her little bed "Bella, I swear I will never abandon you again and will protect you with my life." Faust quietly whispers to Bella eventually falling asleep with a smile still on his face. The next day, Gus calls for Faust who just finished his rounds around the village. "Faust, I want you to help me with finding a book for me." Gus says to Faust. "Sure grandpa, where did you keep it?" Faust is all ready to help his grandpa and make himself useful. "It''s in the attic, in a black wooden box. Take this key to open the box and bring the book down here." Gus tells Faust as to how to do his little errand. Faust goes ahead to find the box and unlocks it, he is caught off unguarded with what he saw, a book with a drawing of a long katana on it. 204 Different things "I''ve got it grandpa, please take it." Faust was curious but brings the book that seems to be some kind of manuscript to his grandpa, but Gus didn''t take the book, instead he told Faust to read and study the first ten pages. "Read what it says on the book cover" Gus told Faust. "Hmmm... Unholy sword arts? That''s what it says." Faust reads carelessly while looks up at his grandpa with a questioning expression appearing on his face. "I''m going to teach you how to use a sword" the words said by his grandpa echos in Faust''s ears, while he is mopping the floor with a long broomstick but in place of the brush and stiff fibers, this broom stick has braids of cloth as brush. And when it''s soaked in water it gets wet and makes it hard to move the broomstick even on the ground because of the massive amount of weight on the braids and for a kid like Faust it''s like tons of weight to move. "In a zig zag motion Faust." Gus tells faust while resting on the couch behind and watching Faust mop the floor. "I know grandpa. I know." Faust says while pouting, fully exhausted. *"He said he is going to teach me sword techniques but I am mopping the floor for 2 hours already like an idiot. I''m pretty sure grandpa tricked me tsk, how did I fall for this?"* Faust thinks as he mops the floor with disappointment. *Moments ago* "Sword arts? What is that grandpa?" Faust asks Gus as he holds and read the book that he brought from the attic. "It''s about the art of swords Faust, I''m going to teach you how to wield a sword. And this book is the manuscript of a powerful technique that your grandpa is going to teach you." Gus says proudly as he crosses his arms and his nose seemed to grow long like a Pinocchio. Faust''s face is sparkling brightly upon hearing what Gus said. Poor Faust had forgotten that one time when Gus said he doesn''t even know how to hold a sword, but now, he was saying something about teaching a sword art to Faust? "Ohhhh grandpa, you''re the best! I will put my body and soul, my muscle and bone to learn this and will master it." Faust shouted loudly while he holds both of his hands together in gratitude as happy tears roll off his face. "Wahhhhh I know my grandson, no one is suitable than you to inherit my legacy of unholy sword." Gus says while holding Faust close to his face and both of their faces sparkle brightly like little kids all over again. *Groan~~~* Bella groans as a way of sigh watching Gus and Faust as if they''re a couple of idiots who is disturbing her sleeping time and closes her eyes to go back to sleep. "Here Fausty, take this." Gus places a broom stick in Faust''s hand. "Huh?" The happy tears and sparkling face of Faust disappears in an instant at the sight of a broom stick. "Now mop the floor for 4 hours a day, after your daily exercises. Also I will add one or two more routines to your exercises which will help build your forearms and the strength of your calves." Gus mischievously says with that goofy idiotic smile of his as he closed eyes at the same time for a nap. *Present* *Rawrrr... Arghhhh..... Grrrr.....~~* Faust makes all kinds of sounds while mopping the floor to vent out his anger. "Yes. Fausty yesss, you got it." Gus says while throwing his arms in front of his face and giving thumbs up to Faust. "Stop it, grandpa." Faust is getting more annoyed with his Grandpa''s gestures. "gomu gomu noooooo-Thunder bolt... Fire bolt... arghhh~~~" Faust yells out annoyingly louder as he mops the floor harder and his anger increases towards Gus more each time. Bella watches all of this peeking with one of her eye open. *Grrrrr* she grabs her small bed with her teeth and goes outside to sleep peacefully while staring at Faust and Gus with the corner of her eyes with all the fuss they are making. "How are your arms feeling Faust?" Gus questions after 3 hours of continuous mopping. He is sitting on the chair with his legs crossing each other as he holds up his chin with his hand. "They''re hard as a rock and pains like hell, I can''t even move them freely anymore." Faust replies to Gus while struggling. "Good, now hold the handle of the stick with both of your hands and soak the dreads of cloth more." Gus says with a smile on his face as if he know exactly what he is doing. Gus makes Faust hold the handle like a swordsman would hold their swords with two hands. "Now mop again in zig zag way until the dreads looses all the water and becomes dry." Gus says to Faust. "Grandpa, I will definitely die. This is hard to move when I hold the broom stick in the middle but not the handle? the weight distribution on the dreads makes the stick heavier like a ton. Your grandson will be dead before even learning your sword arts" Faust says desperately as he seems to almost break down in tears from the endless pangs of pain. "Oh heh heh I thought you were determined to get stronger, so this is the only lengths you are willing to go?" Gus tries to mock Faust with his words. "I will do it!" Faust says willingly with determination after he thoughts for a few second about what Gus says to him. "Heh, use your right hand to push the broom left while balancing the handle with your left hand and use your left hand to push the broom right while balancing with right hand, move your legs apart, bend your knees a little forward and balance ur feet. It helps with the weight distribution and gives your arms strength." Gus says to Faust knowing exactly what to do. Faust mops while standing In a stance which seems as if he is riding an invisible horse, his arms and shoulders still hurt more and more as he constantly move while making the horse stance every time he move to different location and mop in a zig zag way as Gus has instructed him to do. "Ok you can stop and take some rest for today. We will train the same way tomorrow." Gus told Faust as he seems to be satisfied with the work. The words Gus uttered sounded like the words of God that is saving his disciple from dangerous work, to Faust, because Gus reduced and stopped the training in only 3 and half hours this is a huge relief to Faust who is experiencing hell. *Knock knock* Gus and Faust hears someone knocking on the door. "I will go get it" Faust heads towards the door and opens it. "You little, how dare you do this to us on your first day?" The mysterious person standing near the door yells to Faust with cold eyes, tilting his head backwards and looking down on Faust with a deadly glare. "Ehhhhh~~~ Tim? what are you talking about?" Faust says while panicking. "My grandpa told you that he is gonna teach you martial arts and you dare not show up on time huh!" Tim shouts while gritting his teeth and sounding like one of the high school delinquent. And this makes Faust even imagines Tim with a mohawk and leather jacket as he talks. "Uh-uh- anooo I was so tired today Mr. delinquent p-please forgive me?" Faust says while stuttering and not knowing how he can ask for forgiveness to Tim. "Huhhhh? Who are you calling a delinquent, huhhhhh?" Tim bring his face so close to Faust''s face as he was asking the question that it seems like Faust can''t even breathe any longer. "I''m taking him grandpa Gus!" Tim grabs the collar of Faust and drags him out towards his home in a rush. "N-n-nooooo! Tim my arms are sore, let me rest for today. Grandpaa, help me" Faust says while grabbing onto the door tightly, but Gus is only smiling and waving his hand as he send Faust off. "I had to come all the way up this stupid hill because you didn''t show up on time, come you little....!" Tim pulls Faust forcefully out and starts dragging him with anger. "Ahh Bella, Bella help me!" Faust cries as a last resort when he see Bella sleeping outside the house in her small bed. Bella opens her eyes to see the fuss again, turns her face away from Faust, closes her eyes and goes back to sleep again as if she doesn''t know him and have anything to do with Faust. "Ahhh Bella, even you...!" Faust gives up as his people have turned their backs against him and so he goes along with Tim without a choice of revolting. Tim brings Faust to the training room. It''s dark all around and there seems to be a throne like chair on a small stage and someone is sitting on it. "Did you bring the ungrateful pupil of mine who didn''t show up to training." Yang says while his eyes are glowing red burning like fire. "Ehhhh Im- I''m sorry grandpa Yang, but I''m here now we can solve this with words." Faust says as he feels the chill going up to his spine from Yang''s voice and falls to the ground and tries to crawl backward. Both Tim and Yang seems like thugs at this point to Faust and he will do anything to keep himself safe from then right now. "You are going to get punished if you come late, but I will forgive you since it''s your first day. Come by 5 from tomorrow. And as you are here now. Let''s start the training of the art of vital points." Yang told Faust in a epic threatening tone. "You need to train hard so you would be selected in a handful of people that goes out to mainland for their schooling. And when you go out to mainland to study, you will become stronger and learn about the world soon becoming a member of a noble family one day." Yang proudly tells the whole future tale to Faust while training him. "Mainland? For what? I don''t wanna leave Mindoro and my friends are here." Faust said without even understanding what Yang foretold. His ears only pricked like of rabbit''s to the part where he just need to leave Gus and his friends and go to mainland to get strong, that''s all he understood he did not catch the rest. "Haha of course Tim, Roy and Nick have all enlisted in the program. By the time you guys join middle school you will be in the mainland and be studying in the best schools on this world. You just need to get stronger to be selected. I will recommend you to the people who evaluates so you two can go to the mainland with the rest of your friends." Yang chuckles and smiles, because of how innocent and naive Faust is without having a proper planning or strategies. "Tim, Roy and Nick are going too?" Faust ask as he got lost in thoughts and he''s getting more confused.