《Raven》 Chapter -1 : A Not So Typical Hero vs Demon King ¡°Nee... mom, what happened to the Hero and his friends at the end of the story, after they beat the Demon King?¡± asked a 5 year-old boy to a woman, supposedly his mother, who was sitting beside him. Hearing the question, the mother smiled at her son and said, ¡°I am sure they would live happily ever after.¡± ¡°Really!?¡± said the boy, there''s a hint of excitement in his eyes. ¡°Of course dear.¡± said the mother while patting her son. The boy pondered for a while, and with furrowed brows, he asked again, ¡°But mom, when will the Hero came for us...? You said the Hero will help any person in trouble, and I think we are already troubled enough.¡± His mother seemed surprised when she heard him saying that, Her beautiful smile immediately vanished, but then instantly get replaced by another smile, only this one seemed so sad. The boy, however, didn''t understand about the meaning of her smile. He only tilted his head and patiently waiting for the answer of his question. ¡°They... they will come for us. Mommy doesn''t know when, but I am sure that they will come for us.¡± she paused for awhile, then continued. ¡°Then again, mommy thinks that no matter what happened, we will still be alright.¡± ¡°We will be alright? How so?¡± asked the boy, confused. ¡°It''s because there is already a little hero protecting the both of us.¡± said the mother with a gentle smile. The boy, upon hearing that, immediately surprised and asked his mother with doubtful eyes. ¡°Really? There is a hero protecting the both of us? Where is it?¡± ¡°Unn... it''s you, silly boy, you''re mommy''s little hero.¡± the mother chortled at her son. Then the boy laughed as well. ¡°Okay mom, I will get strong enough to protect not only us, but also everyone else in the world! I will beat the Demon King, and everyone will be happy!¡± exclaimed the boy while pumping his little fist. ¡°Hehe, I am sure you could do that. After all, you are mommy''s son.¡± said the mother, and then she moved to hug her son. ¡°Un, I swear to you mom, I will¡ª¡ª ¡ª¡ªbecome a hero that will save the world...¡± muttered a man while looking at the sky. It has been a few years since the boy promised to his mother, and now that young boy had already became a fine adult. He has a rough face, pitch black hair, well toned body, and a sharp gaze. There are 2 black colored identical swords in both of his hand, which emitting a strange aura. At this moment, he couldn''t help but be remembered about his now deceased mother. Right now, in front of him, hundreds of thousand ferocious demons with various size clustered around. In the back of the demon army, standing in mid air while continously emitting murderous killing intent, is the Demon King ¨C Zol. After conquering almost half of the world, The Demon King Zol has decided to move and claimed the remaining territory. And this was humanity''s last chance to stop it from happening. Men and women, young and old, anyone that can still fight has gathered from all over the world to stop the advance of the demon army. After all, if the demons had succeeded in conquering the world, each and every single human would undoubtedly be killed by them. ¡°Lord Raven.¡± said a feminine voice to the man. The man, Raven, turned around and faced the caller. She is a woman, seemingly in her thirties, wearing a wizard-like robe and held a long staff in her hand, ¡°Yes, Shana?¡± ¡°Reporting, sir. The preparation has been completed, all of the troops has been blessed and buffed by our Bishops and Cardinals. Paladins has been placed on the front line, supported by Berserkers and Crusaders. All traps has been laid by the scouts, and Assassins has hidden themselves to prepare for an ambush. The Wizards and Mages has also finished their casting.¡± said Shana solemnly. ¡°Good, then let us begin the operation.¡± after he said that to Shana, Raven walked forward and faced the army. As the commander in chief, he has to give some speech to raise the army''s morale. Everyone, after seeing that Raven moved to face the army, immediately ceased all activities and focused their attention to him. After ensuring that everyone had focused their attention to himself, Raven then began his speech in a loud and beaming voice: ¡°To each and everyone of you, whether you''re a man or a woman, young or old, that has been gathered here. We are all know that today, Demon King Zol and his demon army has decided to start their world conquering operation. They want us to throw our hand and surrender. They want to rob us of our home. They want to hurt our loved ones. They want us to die! ¡°In all of our previous wars with them, though with difficulty, but we have shown them our strength! For countless years, they are unable to advance through our unbreachable defense. We have fought them back, from a desperate situation into a stalemate. ¡°And now, look at them. Just because their own king has come personally to the battlefield, they want us to surrender!? I say, bullshit! Us humanity will accept their challenge, and if their shitty king wanted to hear our answer. Then let them hear it. This¡ª¡± Raven raised one of his sword and pointed it to the Demon King Zol, then continued, ¡°¡ªis our answer.¡± ¡°Uoooooooooooooooohhhhhhh!!¡± countless battle cry could be heard from all over the place. Immediately, all of the Wizards and Mages in the back of the humanity''s army, hurled their spell to the demon army. Countless giant boulders started to fall from the sky, crushing any demon beneath it. Monstrous thunder hurled from the stormy clouds and roasted everything in its wake. Inferno flame, wind blades, ice bolts, all kind of attacking spells known by humanity, casted on the battlefield with only one goal: Purge the demons! Demon King Zol immediately made his move. Dark miasma spreaded out of his body and covered his soldiers. That miasma had the power to increase the demons strength and defense, and also reduced the capability of any non-demonic creature inside it. The moment all of the demon army got covered by the dark miasma, the Paladin squad immediately moved out and used their holy magic to repel it. Supported by other melee fighters behind them, they pushed forward and started to bash the demons with their shield and weapon. Occasionally, some explosion sound could be heard from the traps that had been laid out by the Scouts. Some unfortunate demon that had unknowingly walked to the traps, had their body blown up to pieces. Archers shoot out their arrows from the distance, Assassins infiltrated and crushed the enemy''s defence from the inside, and Wizards and Mages keeps shooting their barrage of spells. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Those who get injured would fall back and get healed by the Bishops and Cardinals, then they would fight once again. Meanwhile, some changes had occurred in Raven''s body. His originally light brown skin turned black, his nails got sharper and longer, his eye color became inverted, two horns appeared in his forehead, and a pair of black feathered wings sprouted out from his back. His appearance right now is like that of a fearsome demon. Not long after he finished his transformation, he immediately used his wings to fly and approached the Demon King Zol with terrifying speed. As if he already expected that Raven would fly and attacked him directly in the sky, Demon King Zol readied his weapon, a black long sword covered in some mysterious runes, and slashed it towards Raven. A huge wave of energy blast appeared and hurtled towards Raven. Seeing that huge energy blast, Raven also slashed his pair of black swords to create his own wave of energy blast. The two blast clashed with each other and exploded in the air. Now, both of them faced each other in mid air, with a distance of roughly 10 meters between the two of them. ¡°I see, you had finally come to confront me.¡± said Zol to Raven indifferently. He pauses for a while, then continues, ¡°How long has it been since we last met each other?¡± Raven raised his two swords and glared at the Demon King. A crooked smile appeared in Zol''s face, ¡°Ah, yes, I remember, last time we met was when your mother died by her own husband''s hand, isn''t it?¡± Two energy blast suddenly appeared and attacked Zol, but he parried it with his sword. His smile then vanished, and he said solemnly, ¡°Know your place, kid, even if you are my own son, I will not hesitate to kill you if you dare to oppose me.¡± He raised his sword and pointed it at Raven, then coldly said, ¡°Pathetic, the son of Demon King, playing hero with those puny humans.¡± Likewise, Raven also pointed his two swords at the Demon King and said, ¡°While it''s true that your demon blood is flowing through my vein, but I also inherited my human mother''s blood. And her''s is far better than yours.¡± A smile appeared in Raven''s face, and he said to Zol, ¡°Anyway, I already promised her that I would get strong enough and beat the Demon King. And now is the time to fulfill it.¡± Right after he said that, Raven closed in to Zol with his godly speed and started to exchange blows with the Demon King. Each blows caused the world around them to vibrate. The humans and demons below the two of them that had been fighting each other before, stopped to watch the battle in the sky. They are all knew that whoever wins the battle, would win the entire war. Demon King Zol''s victory would ended up with the destruction of humanity, and Hero Raven''s victory would ended up with the long-awaited peace for humanity. Fights between ultimate expert usually did not last long. And that fact also applied in this fight. The two starts to fly higher and higher, until nobody could see them anymore. They could only hear explosion sound and see their energy blast that caused utter destruction to the world below them. The Bishops and Cardinals had to continuously casts Holy Barrier to protect their kin. The demons, unfortunately for them, or fortunately for the humans, had no means of protecting themselves and got killed or hurt badly from the shockwaves. ¡°Hahaha, I see you haven''t been neglecting your training, brat!¡± Zol started to gather all of his internal energy to his sword and prepared to end this battle. Similarly, Raven also did the same. ¡°Hmph.¡± Raven snorted coldly and released his ultimate technique, ¡°[Blade Fury]!¡± Instantly, thousands of shadow swords with demonic energy appeared and attacked Zol at the same time. Upon seeing that, Zol couldn''t help but shudder inwardly, ''This kid, to actually had an attack of this caliber!'' He then also released his strongest technique to repel all of those shadow swords, and hopefully, killing Raven in the process. ¡°[Genocide]!¡± He leaped backwards and shoots 2 gigantic shockwaves from his slashes at the same time. Those 2 shockwaves actually succeeded in slashing aparts any shadow swords in its path, eventually reached Raven and slashed off his left arm! But Zol didn''t get away unharmed either, the other shadow swords that hasn''t been destroyed by his strongest technique eventually also reached and stabbed him from all direction. As his last ditch effort, he used another one of his main technique and aimed it at Raven. If the [Genocide] from before was a material attack, then the target of this attack were to directly affecting the soul of the opponent! ¡°[Cuuuuuuuurrrrrssseeeeeeee¡ª]!¡± he succeeded in sending his attack towards Raven before one of the shadow swords pierced and destroyed his head, eventually ending his life. His eyes filled with disbelief. ¡°Dear father, would you please just die-eeeeaAARRGGHHHH!!!¡± Without any obstruction, Zol''s attack impacted Raven''s soul, and eventually destroying it. Unable to withstand the pain, he fell from the sky at a terrifying speed. With his fading consciousness, Raven once again remembered about his mother¡ª¡ª ¡°Okay mom, I will get strong enough to protect not only us, but also everyone else in the world! I will beat the Demon King, and everyone will be happy!¡± I said that while pumping my little fist. ¡°Hehe, I am sure you could do that. After all, you are mommy''s son.¡± said my mom, and then she moved to hug me tightly¡ª¡ª ''I did it, mother. I had become the hero. I beat the evil Demon King. I had fulfilled my promise to you. With this, I¡ª¡ª'' His consciousness, vanished. *** 372 year after Demon King Zol descended to this world. Hero Raven and his companions fought the last battle against the Demon King Zol in the Vanadium Plain, ultimately defeating him and his demon army. Unfortunately, Hero Raven also lost his life in one on one battle against the Demon King. The long awaited peace eventually came. But not one without great prices. Many has lost their life to achieve this victory. But then again, is it really over? Nay. Nobody knows the answer of that question. Maybe, just maybe. What if.... their true adventure had just begun? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A/N: thanks Xagnam. Chapter 0 : Afterlife - A New Beginning ''Where am I?'' mused Raven. Raven, or rather, a soul that was known as Raven before, regained his consciousness. He looks around, and then he immediately feels confused. Around him, as far as his eyes could see, was an endless dessert, spanning to the horizon. And that he wasn''t alone. In fact, there were too many creatures of all kind that was also standing there. There were also many creatures that he thought didn''t exist. At least, in his world. However, they all share the same trait. Including Raven himself, their body seems transparent and doesn''t have any clothes whatsoever attached to them. Yes, man or woman, young or old, or even animals and plants for that matter, all of them were naked. Oddly enough, Raven didn''t even feel the slightest bit of embarassment. He only thought that this was a natural thing. ''I should try to gather some information... huh?'' to his astonishment, he found out that he couldn''t move his body from the spot he was currently standing in. He could only turn around to see that there were actually many people that was as confused as himself. Unable to do anything, Raven decided to just wait for anything to happen. Minutes passed, then it became hours, days, weeks, years, centuries, milleniums, and what it seems to be eternity, but still no great changes happened. Raven was still standing on the same spot with both of his eyes closed. He didn''t sleep, as he couldn''t. His mind was always awake, constantly observing his surrounding. Occasionally, there would be some new creatures that popped out from undearneath the endless desert, and just like Raven in hist first day, they would scan their surrounding with bewildered expression. But other than that, nothing happened. They were all waiting, waiting for something, or anything to happen. Then suddenly, after that endless desert were packed full with so many creatures, until there weren''t any single free space left, IT happened. ¡°VUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOO¡ª¡° A sound, so loud that the entire world seems to be shaken, could be heard from the sky. Following that, a huge crack appeared in the sky. From the inside, 13 winged humanoid figures flown out and scattered to every direction. All of those winged figures actually doesn''t have any facial features. And with those blank faces of theirs, they could somehow said with an unknown language, together with the other winged figures in the distant at the same time: ¡°¡±¡±¡°Kneel!¡±¡±¡±¡± Instantly, each and every creatures that were standing in the endless desert, get down to their knees. Nobody actually understood what had just happened, they were just doing what they were doing, guided by their instinct. ''What kind of language is that? It should be one that I don''t know, but how could I understood about what they just said? I, and the others, even did this naturally...'' said Raven to himself. The winged figures, once again, said at the same time: ¡°-We- are Gabriel, Celestial Being that has been assigned by the Almighty One to deal with the departed souls of this universe.¡± Celestial Being? Almighty One? This universe? Suddenly, Raven feels like he, and the other creatures in the endless desert, was nothing but a small grain of sand that was floating in the infinity of space. ¡°As per the order of the Almighty One, this universe has existed and expanded for too long, and now is the time for it''s destruction. Therefore, all of the inhabitants of this universe, namely all of you, would have to enter the next phase of your life. ¡°Of course, the place where you''re all going to will be depended on how you''re living your life, before your death. Now then, without further ado, let us begin.¡± After saying that, the 13 winged figures raised their arms. Bursts of divine energy shoots up from their body to the sky and revealed six gigantic gates with myterious runes. And then, all of the gates opened at the same time. For a few moment, nothing happened, as the departed souls watched the gates with curiousity and nerveously. Some of them, afraid of what would happened to themselves, started quivering and crying. Raven meticulously watched the gates, as if to search for the true meaning behind the gates. ''There were foreign words carved on there, but he seems to somewhat understand about what was written there. ''Six Path of Reincarnation, Deva Realm, Asura Realm, Human Realm, Beast Realm, Preta Realm, Hell Realm... I see, so every souls that goes through the door will be reincarnated to the afforementioned realms. They said, the place we''re going would be depended on our previous life. But how would they do that?'' Raven pondered to himself. Not so long afterwards, however, he got his answer. Suddenly, the six gates in the sky lets out huge suctioning force. Almost everybody on the endless desert got sucked out from their standing place and flies through the sky, eventually reached to one of the gates and disappear behind it. Oddly enough, Raven didn''t feel the slightest bit of that suction force. He stood there, watching the other souls get dragged to the gates. And then, he saw something, or rather someone, that he''d never thought that he would see her again. It was his mother, who was also got dragged to one of the 6 gates, the Gate of The Human Realm. ''Mother!'' Raven, using all of his available power, desperately tried to move and reached out his hand to his mother. A pair of horns suddenly sprouted out his head, his transparent skin somewhat turned darker, eyes color become inverted, and pair of black feathered wings appeared in his back. By using the accursed power of his demon blood, he really wanted, to once again, meets his beloved mother. His thick black aura spreaded out to his surrounding, affecting and blowing the other souls out of their predestined paths. But his body didn''t even budge from his original spot. His mother, however, caught sight of those black auras and stared back down at the desert. When she saw what was actually the being that was spreading those black aura, her eyes widden. She recognized his face, her own son''s face. And then she too, tried to reached out her hand towards Raven. Both of their gazes meets with each other, but the distance between them keeps getting further and further. Unable to do something about the current situation, tears started to flow from their eyes. Just before his mother disappeared behind the gates, she smiled and moved her lips. From the distance, Raven could clearly saw it with his exceptional eyesight. His mother was saying, to him: ¡°I Love You.¡± Then her soul get swallowed by the gates and disappeared from his sight. His black aura started to shrink and eventually disappeared, revealing his normal appearance again. He clinched his fists and gritted his teeth, ''I have stood in this place for what it seems like eternity, and had never met with anyone that I know. But now, when I thought that all of this would be over, I saw her. Yet once again, she got snatched in front of me, and I couldn''t even move to prevent it!!'' This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. After what it seems like minutes, almost everybody was gone from the desert, and only 12 people left, including Raven. 9 of them were humanoid creatures like Raven, but with extra unusual bodily features, and the rest were actually animal-like creature. The 13 Gabriels flew down and approached those people and gathered them in one place. Then they, once again, said at the same time: ¡°Congratulations, mortal. Those of you who have gathered here had already proven your worth.¡± One of the few people left, a man with slim figure, feminine face, long blond hair, and long pointed ear, spoke up, ¡°Congratulation for what... huh? I can talk now?¡± the feminine man looks confused and tilted his head. The other also started to imitated him and tried to talk. ¡°We gave you our congratulation because... the Almighty One had decided to give you all, a gift!¡± said all of the Gabriels together with a hint of laugh. That statement immediately made the rest of the people, including Raven, really startled. The Almighty One had decided to give them all a gift? What does that actually meant? Raven pondered for a while, and then decided to ask, ¡°Lord Gabriel, would you please kindly explain, what does that statement meant? And what did actually happened to the other souls that got sucked to the six gates?¡± The Gabriels laughed and said, ¡°We know that the 12 of you had done something incredibly good to save the lives of many in your own world. And thus, we will present you with a gift, to prepare for something in the future. As for what that something is, you don''t need to know it yet. You just have to train in the Deva Realm, the Realm of the Gods, and get stronger than your current self. ¡°About the other souls, they would be reborn in their respective realm, and you don''t really need to worry about them. Their memory of their previous life will be wiped out, and they will once again start from the bottom. However, the 12 of you will get the chance to remember your previous life! That''s one of the present given to you by the Almighty One.¡± The 12 people started to murmured to themselves, so did Raven too. ''We have to train and get stronger in the Deva Realm? It seems that there is something secret going on behind these whole situation. But, if I were to go to Deva Realm, then...'' Raven kneeled and said solemnly, ¡°Lord Gabriel, forgive my impudence, but this one does not wish to go to the Deva Realm.¡± Hearing that, the 13 Gabriels couldn''t help but felt startled. What does the Deva Realm meant? It was a place where the Gods, immortal beings with unimaginable power lived, and not everyone could ascend and goes to that place. And the man in front of them, whom had just been offered the chance, actually refused? Suddenly, the 13 Gabriels'' bodies lit up and disappeared one by one, only leaving one body. But this one body was different than the previous one. It had the appearance of a handsome man in his 20s, with long golden hair, clear blue eyes, pale white skin, well toned bodies, and had 3 pair of white feathered wings. And naked. The 12 people watched with astonishment, and then the ''new'' Gabriel said, ¡°This is my true form. Let me introduce myself again, my name is Gabriel, an Archangel who serves as a messenger of the Almighty One. And thus, my role here was to inform you 12 about these ''extra'' procedures of reincarnation.¡± He then smiled and turned to face Raven, who was still dumbstruck, ¡°Speak, young one, why did you not want to ascend to the Deva Realm?¡± Hearing the question that was addressed to him, Raven felt startled and hurriedly said, ¡°My deepest apologies, Lord Gabriel, it is not that this one wished to refuse the good will of the Almighty One, but this one would like to be reincarnated in another realm.¡± Gabriel raised his eyebrows and asked curiously, ¡°Then, which realm do you want to go? But let me tell you, if you choose to not be reincarnated in the Deva Realm, then you will also had to start everything from the bottom, once again. Your power would be gone, and there is no guarantee that you would get another chance like this.¡± ¡°This one wished to be reincarnated in the Human Realm,¡± answered Raven. ¡°Human Realm, is it? Is there any reason behind your decision?¡± asked Gabriel. He really doesn''t know, why would anyone refuse the chance to ascend to the Deva Realm? When he looked at the other 11 people, they also looked at Raven with confused expression. Raven raised his head and firmly said, ¡°This one wished to protect someone important to this one, that had just been reincarnated in the Human Realm. It doesn''t matter whether she remembered this one or not, this one would still be willing to do it. Milord, this one could only reached this point, only because she was there for this one.¡± Gabriel pondered for awhile, and then said, ¡°I see, it''s not like I had to force you to choose the Deva Realm. My duty was to only inform you about your available choice. But first...¡± he raised his hand towards Raven, and a surge of divine energy entered Raven''s body. After he did that for a few minutes, he then said, ¡°This is the gift from the Almighty One that should''ve been given to you. With it, you had the potential to reach the Realm of the Gods, even if you were born in the Human Realm.¡± Raven bowed and said sincerely, ¡°Thank you, Lord Gabriel. This one would forever remember this gratitude.¡± Gabriel nodded and said to Raven, ¡°Now then, imagine that someone in your mind, and try to focus your newly attained divine energy toward that image.¡± After that, Raven closed both of his eyes and tried to feel his divine energy. His body started to emit white bright light and floated to the Human Realm Gates. Below him, the 11 other people watched him in awe. They too, would of course liked to have that sort of godly power. Soon, he reached the Human Realm Gates and poured his divine energy to the inside, ¡°This time, I will not let you down again!¡± ¡°Shua!¡± without hesitation, he entered the gates. After waiting for what it seemed like eternity, Raven, once again reincarnated in... another world! Chapter 1 : Path to A New Life Upon entering the Gate of the Human Realm, Raven was immediately greeted by darkness. No matter how hard he tried, he still couldn''t see anything. Currently, his soul was floating without any direction. ¡°Where? Where is it?¡± Raven began to felt panicked, but then he immediately remembered about the hint which Gabriel gave him before. ''Imagine, that''s right, I must create a strong image of her in my mind...'' His mother face, when she smiled, when she cried, when she''s happy, when she''s sad, when she''s angry, and when she''s nearing death, holding his hand. And at least, when their gazes met with each other before she disappeared behind the Human Realm Gate. A surge of divine energy suddenly bursted out of his body and formed a thin line, which emitted bright light, heading to somewhere in the darkness. Raven grabbed on to that thin line and immediately, he flies trough the darkness with astonishing speed. ¡°More, more faster, I have to go faster!¡± His body began to transforms, but his current transformed forms actually seems different than before. Now, there were 4 pair of black feathered wings on his back. The color of both of his eyes still seemed normal, but there was a vertical slit appearing there. From the hips, a three pointed tail actually grew and swaying wildly to left and right. His black hair grew longer and reached his tail, and lastly, a black feathered mask suddenly appeared and covered half of his face. His skin still looked normal, but the hardness and flexibilities it has was incomparably high. Feeling the various changes in his transformed state, and the unimaginably high power behind it, Raven couldn''t help but felt confused and astonished, ¡°This, this it.... what had just actually happened?¡± He didn''t know what was happening to his body, but he could felt that his speed and power was multiplied by hundreds of times! How could he knew that it was actually the result of the merging of his old demonic power and his newly attained divine energy? That kind of strength was actually nowhere near enough to reach the top of Deva Realm, but in the Human Realm, he could already be considered as one of the best. He felt joy in his heart, but his joy gradually disappeared and turned to anxiousness, ¡°I had flew for a very long time in my highest speed, but I still couldn''t see any changes in this darkness. What if...¡± Raven felt afraid that when he reached his goal, before he could even protect her mother''s soul, she would already passed away and awaits her next reincarnation. If it really did happened, then he might just be getting crazy. But he would never gave up. He already swore to himself that he would finished it until the end. Continuously attacked by anxiousness, Raven suddenly saw something in the distance, in the direction of the thin line of his divine energy. It was a small point of white light. But for Raven, it was his light of hope. He''s getting closer! That small point of light gradually getting bigger and bigger as Raven moved to approached it. When he reached the boundary between the darkness and that light-filled space, to his astonishment, he discovered that there was actually an invisible barrier barring his path! ¡°Wha...! But, why!? My divine energy clearly pointed me to this direction, and I could even see that this thin line actually could still stretched out inside that white space!¡± He tried to go around, but no matter where he goes, his divine energy still pointed at the same direction, and that he was still blocked by the invisible barrier. He then tried to punch the barrier, but alas, it didn''t even budge. Suddenly, both of his eyes turned red, and he roared loudly, ¡°THIS DAMN BARRIER WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO STOP ME!¡± Thick black auras suddenly bursted out and covered his whole body, only leaving his eyes and mouth opened. Sharp nails and fangs grew from within his body, and he began to bash the barrier with his full power, again and again. After a long time had passed, a little crack had appeared. The crack didn''t even reached 1 inch long. But it was enough. Raven smiled and said, ¡°This proved that this damn barrier could be destroyed.¡± and then he began to concentrated all of his attacks to that little crack. Gradually, that crack started to widen and spread out to a wide area. When it seemed like that barrier would finally get destroyed by his attacks, suddenly he could heard someone shouted from the distance... ¡°STOOOOOOOOP IIIIIIITTTTTTTT!! WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALMIGHTY ONE ARE YOU DOING TO THE REALM''S BARRIER!¡± The voice was so loud that Raven couldn''t help but be blown for a few meters back from his original spot. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Huh, wha... what?¡± Raven looked around back and forth, but he couldn''t see anyone. Not long after, however, he could see a tiny man approached him from the inside of the barrier. As the tiny man got closer, his body seems to be getting bigger too. Actually, way too big... When that man reached the near-destroyed barrier, Raven could clearly saw that actually this man... had a body that was bigger than the biggest mountain he himself ever saw! Imagining himself getting crushed by that gigantic man, Raven couldn''t help but felt shudder in his heart. But when he remembered about his purpose, he firmly stared back at that gigantic man. ¡°May I ask, who are you?¡± asked Raven rather nervously. The gigantic man looked kinda taken aback by the question, clearly he didn''t thought that this puny man in front of him, not only wasn''t afraid of him, but he actually even dared to asked a question? ¡°BY THE GODS, IT IS I WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN ASKING THAT!! WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL IS GABRIEL DOING OUT THERE, LETTING A HELL DEMON INSIDE THE GATES OF THE REALM??¡± the gigantic man roared furiously, and once again, Raven is blown back for a few meters. ¡°THIS IS WHY I HATE THOSE DAMN ARCHANGELS, SO INCOMPETENT IN THEIR ASSIGNMENT.¡± the gigantic man then raised one of his hand and tried to swat Raven. Seeing that, Raven hurriedly removed his black auras and reverted back to his human form and said, ¡°Stop, please hear me, I am not a hell¡ª AAAAARRRGHHHHHHH!¡± Too late. *** ¡°BWUAHAHAHAHA, SO YOU ARE ONE OF THE CHOSEN ONES!¡± said the gigantic man with a hint of amusement. Currently, Raven was standing in the shoulder of the gigantic man. His face was sullen. How could he not, when he just got slapped by that gigantic arm and almost had his soul destroyed? He rolled his eyes and sarcastically said, ¡°Really, thank you for not immediately killing me. By the way, my name is Raven.¡± He tried to introduce himself and began everything a new. But what he get as a response was... nothing. The gigantic man was just picking his nose and yawned loudly, not even paying his attention to Raven. The somewhat pissed Raven gathered his dark aura in his leg and stomped heavily at the gigantic man shoulder. The gigantic man, feeling that there was a slight disturbance at his shoulder, turned his head to look. ¡°YES, WHAT IS IT?¡± though there aren''t any hint of hostility in his voice, the pressure he lets out is still absurdly huge. Feeling like a helpless person, Raven didn''t know whether to cry or laugh. He smiled bitterly and said, ¡°I want us to introduce ourselves to each¡ª¡° ¡°BY THE WAY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE PATH OF THE HUMAN REALM? WASN''T THE CHOSEN ONES SUPPOSED TO GO TO DEVA REALM? ARE YOU LOST?¡± the gigantic man didn''t wait for Raven to finish his sentence before he asked the question. Raven placed his hand on his face and sighed, then said, ¡°I came here to be reincarnated in the Human Realm by my own volition. Lord Gabriel said that I could go to the Human Realm by following my divine energy, but I really didn''t thought that I will be stopped by an invisible barrier.¡± ¡°BOOOO, YOU ADDRESSED GABRIEL AS A ''LORD'', YET YOU DIDN''T DO THE SAME TO ME?¡± Raven placed his other hand to his face too, covering his whole face, and said, ¡°I didn''t even know your name...¡± Hearing that, the gigantic man laughed and proudly said, ¡°I FORGOT, MY NAME IS CRONUS, SON OF URANUS, THE GREAT GUARDIAN OF THE HUMAN REALM!¡± he then placed his hand on his chin, pondering for a while, and then said to Raven, ¡°YOU SAID YOU WERE FOLLOWING YOUR DIVINE ENERGY, ISN''T IT?¡± ¡°Yes, what is it?¡± Raven tilted his head. ¡°YOU SAW HOW YOUR DIVINE ENERGY COULD ACTUALLY GOES THROUGH THE BARRIER? WHY DON''T YOU COVER YOUR BODY WITH THAT DIVINE ENERGY AND JUST GOES THROUGH THE BARRIER, INSTEAD OF TRYING TO FREAKING DESTROY THE BARRIER?¡± said Cronus, who also tilted his head. Upon hearing the question, Raven felt greatly startled and dropped his jaw. ¡°I... I really didn''t... what...¡± ¡°BWUAHAHAHA, I LIKE YOU KID, IT''S A WONDER HOW A DUMB PERSON LIKE YOU COULD BE SELECTED AS ONE OF THE CHOSEN ONES. WELL, NOT THAT IT REALLY MATTERS TO ME, BWUAHAHAHA!!¡± Then, the both of them flies through for a few hours before they reached their destination. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A/N : A bit short this time, but I couldn''t find a better ending for this one. At least it isn''t a cliffhanger... Chapter 2 : Heavenly Seal A/N: Please read this before you read the chapter content. I had wrote in the last chapter that Raven''s power would be counted as one of the best in Human Realm. You might had thought that this story would be getting chaotic with the sudden OP-ness, but worry not, as Gabriel said, Raven had to start from the bottom again. Expect this story to be a long ride, as Raven wouldn''t start killing or bashing any Gods or other mighty beings in a few chapters, just like Tang San wouldn''t fight and won against a Title Douluo, or Linley killing any Deities in the first few volumes of their books. If I did that, well, imagine a certain reincarnated NEET vs a certain Dragon God round 1, except there would be no a certain masked woman to save the day. Even if this is a fantasy story, it just seemed so impractical... Yes, Raven would had more advantage than some other person, however, it wont be like he''s riding a jet plane, while the other is walking with their own legs. And some of you might had thought that this story had a really slow pace in the last 3 chapter, but, I want to dwell deeper in the so-called ''reincarnation'' process, which was usually skipped in the other stories, with the MC suddenly woke up in his or her new body. Well, I think I already said enough so, without further ado, let''s begin the chapter... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cronus and Raven had to pass through more barriers, with each one being stronger and more durable than the last one, to the point that Raven also had to be covered by Cronus'' divine energy to be able to go on. When Raven thought about it again, he couldn''t help but felt disheartened. Before, when he was blocked by the invisible, he thought that he would be able to destroy it. And that barrier was actually the first and the weakest of the rest. ''But, now that I think about it, of course the barrier should be strong. I mean, it''s the barrier protecting one of the six realms. To think that I tried to destroy and force my way through it, hah...'' sighed Raven. The closer they get to the destination, the higher the pressure that Raven had to bear. It got to the point that his whole body seemed to get crushed by a heavy mountain. But, when the two of them passed through the last barrier, that huge pressure suddenly vanished without a single trace of it left. That sudden change caused Raven to felt really dizzy and unstable. The place they were in right now, was a huge invincible sphere, almost as big as a whole planet, covered with unknown shiny runes. In the middle of the sphere, there was actually another person, a gigantic woman that was almost as big as Cronus himself. Upon seeing Cronus entering the invincible sphere, the gigantic woman moved to approached him. ¡°HAVE YOU FINISHED CHECKING ABOUT THE DISTURBANCE IN THE PATHWAY?¡± asked the gigantic woman. Cronus pointed at Raven that was standing on his shoulder, ¡°IT''S THIS LITTLE ONE HERE, HE ACTUALLY TRIED TO DESTROYS THE BARRIER! COULD YOU IMAGINE THAT? BWAHAHAHA!¡± The gigantic woman seemed to be shocked when he heard Cronus'' answer, but then she asked doubtfully, ¡°BY THE GODS, CRONUS, HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE, A HUMAN SOUL STRANDED IN THE PATHWAY? AND HE TRIED TO DESTROYS THE BARRIER? YOU SAID THAT EVERY SOUL FROM THE PREVIOUS UNIVERSE HAD BEEN REINCARNATED ALREADY, BUT HOW COULD IT BE THAT THIS ONE HERE IS LEFT ALONE IN THE PATHWAY?¡± Hearing what had just been said by the gigantic woman, Raven felt greatly startled. ''They... they had been reincarnated already?'' Cronus felt somewhat wronged by the accusation tone of the gigantic woman and hurriedly said, ¡°NO, DEAR, I DID MY JOB CORRECTLY! IT''S JUST THAT, THIS LITTLE ONE IS ACTUALLY ONE OF THE CHOSEN ONES, AND HE WISHED TO BE REINCARNATED IN THE HUMAN REALM!¡± ¡°Wa- wait, please, Lord Cronus, and umm, Lady Giant? Please hear me out!¡± Raven tried to interject their conversation. The two of them turned their head and looked at Raven, who was currently unable to stand up with his two legs, due to the huge pressure emitted by the two of them. ¡°¡±YES?¡±¡± answered the both of them at the same time. ¡°Please excuse my impertinence, but could the both of you speak with lower voice? Your conversation just now literally blowed me up!¡± shouted Raven at the top of his lung. The two giants looked at each other, and then laughed out loud. Suddenly, their bodies emitted a bright light which forced Raven to cover his eyes with both of his hand. After some times had passed, Raven could hear a voice calling him, ¡°You could open your eyes now.¡± And so he did, and what he saw really made him felt astonished. In front of him, stood a man and a woman. The man had a bald head, dark chocolate skin, and a really bulky body that made Raven''s own body looks like a joke, while the woman had a slim, sexy, and curvy body, with long red hair, pale and smooth skin that didn''t even lose to Gabriel''s, and a face so beautiful that it could even made Raven stared blankly at her for a few seconds. ¡°*Cough* Raven, that is my wife you''re staring at, so if you don''t mind...¡± said the bald man, which made Raven greatly startled. He immediately realized his mistakes and promptly apologized, ¡°Um, I am sorry, Lord... Cronus?¡± The bald man laughed and said, ¡°Aye, it''s me. I couldn''t blame you though, this wife of mine really could make any man''s heart goes wild!¡± Embarrassed, Raven could only hung his head down. The woman then smiled and introduced herself to Raven, ¡°My name is Rhea, Cronus'' wife, and also his sister.¡± ¡°Huh? How could Lady Rhea be Lord Cronus'' sister and wife at the same time?¡± asked Raven, confused. While Rhea seemed to be a little embarrassed, Cronus hugged her from the side and blatantly said, ¡°When you had a beautiful sister like her, how could you let any other man steal her! So I made her mine! Bwuahahaha!¡± Hearing the answer, Raven''s eyes and mouth couldn''t help but twitched, ''I didn''t know whether this man is genius or retarded.'' *** ¡°So, Raven, are you sure about your decision?¡± asked Rhea solemnly, which is then answered firmly by Raven, ¡°Yes, Lady Rhea. If I''m not sure, then I wouldn''t be here, am I?¡± The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Rhea sighed and said, ¡°You know, you should have tried to forget about your past. Usually, or rather, almost all of the people that got reincarnated, except for the few Chosen Ones, wouldn''t be able to remember their past life. That is the whole point of the reincarnation itself. What do you think would be happened if there are many people like you, who''s unable to forget their loved ones, even after they got reincarnated? They wouldn''t be able to move on and will always comparing their new life with their old life. ¡°You said that you''re going to protect your mother''s soul, isn''t it? I am sure that your mother didn''t even remember you anymore. In fact, your mother could even get reincarnated as a male, and you didn''t even know it anymore. What is it that you actually tried to accomplish by doing this? Why did you go this far, even to the point that you abandoned a chance to ascend to the Deva Realm?¡± Raven just stayed silent while pondering everything Rhea had said to him. He actually didn''t think that far. He just wanted to protect his mother, nothing else. But when confronted by the question directly, he actually felt kinda lost. Then Rhea moved closer and gazed directly into his eyes, ¡°Please think about it thoroughly. There''s bound to be an accident with your choice.¡± Confused, Raven tilted his head, ¡°Huh? Isn''t that the reason why I''m coming here, to prevent that accident?¡± Rhea only sighed mumbled to herself, ''That is exactly what I am talking about.'' After a few moments of silence, Cronus approached them from afar, ¡°I have finished setting the runes for... what happened here? Why did the both of you seemed so frustated with each other?¡± Shaking her head, Rhea said, ¡°It''s nothing. Anyway, you said the runes has been set up? Fine, Raven, come to the center of this sphere with us.¡± motioning Raven to follow her, she immediately flies to the center of the sphere. ¡°Dunno what happened to the both of you, but let''s begin the process anyway,¡± Cronus shrugged his shoulder and began to follow Rhea. After standing silently for a while, Raven also started to follow Rhea and Cronus from behind. Because of their large difference in speed, Raven is forced to transform into his, as stated by Cronus, ''Hell Demon'' form. When the three of them reached the sphere''s center, Cronus and Rhea immediately started their ritual. It was the reincarnation ritual, that could only be performed by the 6 pair of Primordial Gods, Cronus and Rhea being one of them. The runes covering the planetary sphere began to glow and spinning faster and faster. Various complex formation appeared and surrounded the three of them. ¡°Before we''re going to reincarnate you in the Human Realm, we must first do the Heavenly Seal ritual. It is in order to seal whatever power you had in your previous life and changes it to some kind of ''Potential Blessing'', as we call it, or better known as ''Talent'' in the Human Realm,¡± said Cronus solemnly. Rhea then continued from where he left off, ¡°Gabriel might had already told you about this but, your body and soul would regress back to that of an infant. This ritual should''ve also erased your memories, but because of you being one of the Chosen Ones, we would skip that part. Remember, you wouldn''t be any different from a normal baby when you''re just born later. You need to train really hard if you want to reach your current level of power, or even higher. Do you understand?¡± Raven nodded and answered firmly, ¡°I understand. Please place the seal on my soul.¡± Countless white lines of divine energy emerged from the various complex formation that surrounded the three of them, and began to penetrated Raven''s body. When Cronus saw that, he clapped his hand and said, ¡°I forgot to say this, but you should prepare yourself. This process is so painful and could make you go insane. That was actually part of the reason why we had to erase a person memory. It''s just THAT painful, you know?¡± ¡°What do youuuuuaaaAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH¡ª!!¡± the pain attacked Raven before he could even finished his question. Cronus just shrugged his shoulder while watching the process and mumbled to himself, ¡°Told you so.¡± The process was so painful, even more painful than when he died. His soul body was spasming non-stop. Part of his soul keeps getting ripped out from his main soul, and then got attached back, only with smaller size. This process continues for a few hours until Raven''s whole body turned into a small spirit orb with almost no power left. He couldn''t even talk anymore. ¡°Well, congratulation, you had just finished the reincarnation process! Now we only need to send you to some unborn fetus,¡± chortled Cronus. Rhea just sighed and moved both of her hands closer to each other, and suddenly, a pitch black hole appeared between her palm. She then said, ¡°Remember, don''t ever regret your decision. I had already warned you, so you must finished it until the end, no matter whatever happened to you later.¡± Cronus then grabbed Raven''s spirit orb and said to him while grinning, ¡°See you later kid, i''d like to meet you again when you''re dead.¡± Unable to talk back, black lines appeared in Raven''s orb, as it seemed to dislike what Cronus had just said to him, ''You already want me to dead, even before I''m born in the new world? Seriously?'' After that, Cronus throws Raven''s orb to the black hole in Rhea''s hand while shouted, ¡°See ya!¡± Raven, for a moment, could see a bitter smile in Rhea''s face, before his consciousness faded into nothingness... *** Shortly after Raven got absorbed in the black hole, Rhea sighed and mumbled to herself, ¡°That idiot, what does he think would happen, when he...¡± ¡°Huh? Did you just said something?¡± asked Cronus curiously. His superior hearing were sometimes annoying, thought Rhea. ¡°Nothing.¡± answered her flatly. Cronus shrugged his shoulder and didn''t pursue the matter anymore, ¡°Up to you then. Bwahahaha!¡± Just like that, their ''ordinary'' life returns, once again. Chapter 3 : Soul Energy A/N : Nico is my goddess! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ''Uhh, how could something be that painful!! Anyway, where am I? According to Cronus, as of now I am probably residing in some kind of unborn fetus.'' After getting sucked by the black hole, Raven regained his consciousness. Surrounded by the darkness, Raven found out that he couldn''t move. However, he could felt some kind of energy hovering in his surrounding. That energy seems... different. It doesn''t felt like his divine energy or his demonic power. Even so, his instinct said to him that this new energy wasn''t something harmful to his soul. Raven tried to manipulate his innate divine energy and reached out to those new energy. When his divine energy touched it, to his astonishment, his divine energy literally swallowed those new energy. ''What kind of energy is this? I really hope that these energy wont bring some bad effects to my soul.'' Raven carefully watched as the new energy flowed through and merged with his own spirit orb. At first, he didn''t feel any changes, and so he tried to gather more of those energy. Sometime later, when Raven absorbed more and more of those new energy, he discovered a good surprise. His spirit orb was actually getting bigger and bigger! His spirit orb, originally had the size of a human eyeball, was currently as big as an adult''s head. And the bigger the size, he also felt more stronger and comfortable, ''Ah, this feels really good! The amount of my divine energy and demonic energy seems to be fixed, but this new energy keeps increasing... I should''ve given it a name. Right, it strengthen my soul, so I will name it ¡°Soul Energy¡±!'' By this point, Raven really didn''t care anymore, and he just started to absorb every last bit of the Soul Energy available in his surrounding! Oddly enough, the Soul Energy in his surrounding didn''t decrease one bit. Each time Raven absorbed a part of the Soul Energy, a new batch of Soul Energy immediately appeared and filled in the previously empty spot. Eventually, his current orb''s size is that of an adult body! By manipulating his Soul Energy, Raven successfully created a humanoid body, complete with a pair of hands and legs, with his spirit orb acting as the head. Suddenly, when he''s busy absorbing the Soul Energy, a tiny hole with the size of an eyeball appeared in the darkness. From that tiny hole, a bright light could be seen. Raven curiously gazed at the bright light from afar, when abruptly... ¡°Shooo¡ª!¡± Countless white lines of divine energy, similar with those in the Heavenly Ritual, appeared from the tiny hole and wrapped Raven''s spirit orb! Afterward, without any prior warning, those white lines dragged Raven''s orb towards the tiny hole. For a while, Raven didn''t do anything and simply allowed his soul to be dragged. When he get closer to the hole and could clearly saw the size, however, he suddenly had a bad premonition, ''Wait, isn''t that hole seemed like a bit too... small? Am I supposed to go through that tiny hole?'' Then he remembered about his original size, which is about the same size as that tiny hole... ''''Damn! It''s not that the hole is too small, but as of now, my soul is already too big! Uh, ooooooh!'' eventually, Raven tried to resist with all of his might, but alas, his soul didn''t even budge an inch. ''If it''s like this, then I will change my form into that of a long needle. Yes, I will... huh? I can''t? What is this!'' When he tried to change his form, he suddenly discovered that actually, the white lines which were currently dragging his soul to the hole, were removing his control over his soul! Unimaginable pain, just barely lower than what he felt in the Heavenly Ritual, attacked Raven when his huge soul got forced to goes through the tiny hole. Unable to bear the pain, he... cried, ''Uuuuuuuuuuu....... *** ¡­.....waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!¡± Baby cries could clearly be heard from the inside of a huge room. In front of the door, just in the outside of the room, a middle aged man could be seen to be nervously walking around. The man had a huge body and seemed strong, with a gentleman-like mustache in his face, dressed in an elegant clothes, and had an aura like those of a nobleman. However, as of now, his whole body seemed to be drenched in sweats, and his face was so pale. Both of his legs and hand arms were trembling hard. But when he heard that cries, he suddenly stopped in his track. His eyes widen, and his body had stopped trembling, ¡°This... oh my God!¡± The man immediately barged to the room with excited face, only to be greeted by a punch by an old woman in his face. Though the punch seemed to had some effect, as shown by the bloods flowing from the man''s nose and mouth, the man didn''t seems to care about the pain and keeps walking toward a beautiful woman with long blonde hair, which was currently resting in a huge bed while carrying a small baby in her hand. Ignored by the man, the old woman who punched him before shouted angrily at him, ¡°Edward, you crazy son of mine! What are you doing, barging inside the room like that! Have you lost your mind!¡± The man, Edward, as if he didn''t heard about what had just been said by the old woman, who was supposedly his mother, approached the woman in the bed. His eyes keeps moving between the woman and the baby in her hand. ¡°This baby... Elena... and, me?¡± asked Edward nerveously. Elena, the woman in the bed, chuckled and smiled at Edward, ¡°It is, dear. Would you like to hold him?¡± Edward reached his hands toward the little baby who was still crying and picked him carefully and began laughing, ¡°Oh... oh, my son, haha, this is my son! I did it! Hahaha, look Elena, he has your blonde hair and my blue eyes!¡± Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! He laughed so hard that the baby in his hand stopped crying and only stared at him confusedly. Seeing that scene, Elena just laughed, while Grandmother in the side shouted at Edward, ¡°You brute, don''t laugh like that, look at that boy, he seemed to be in huge shock to the point that he stopped crying and just stared at you!¡± ¡°Hahaha, don''t worry, my son is definitely a strong baby! After all, look, he has... huh?¡± when Edward glanced at the baby, he couldn''t help but felt greatly startled and stopped laughing. The two maids, who helped Elena in her labor, Grandmother, and Elena herself, looking curiously at Edward, and then at the baby. To their astonishment, a round crystal with the size of a gold coin appeared from within the baby''s chest. Unbeknownst to the other people in the room, the baby somehow also looked rather shocked at the sight, as if actually knew about what was currently happening in the inside of the room. The round crystal shone so brightly that everyone had to close their eyes for a moment, and when they opened their eyes, the sight in front of them made them felt even more shocked. The little baby in Edward''s arms suddenly floated up and hovering in the air, while the round crystal, which also floated in the air, began spinning wildly. Suddenly, a sound could be heard within their mind. ¡ª.......me... R¡­..ven...¡ª ¡°Huh?¡± All of the people present seemed to be confused and looked at each other. Edward then asked to the others, ¡°Did any one of you just said something?¡± Grandmother shook her head and answered, ¡°I didn''t, but I also heard something. I thought that was just my imagination?¡± Elena and the two maids also said that they heard something, however, the three of them also claimed to not be the one who said that. The five of them looked at each other confusedly, and then at the floating baby and the spinning round crystal in the air. ¡ª......Name... Raven...¡ª ¡°It''s the baby!¡± said one of the maid. While the other people also had the same thought, but they''re still unwilling to believed it. They looked at the baby, and then they immediately felt surprised, because the baby is actually looked back at them with confused face and furrowed brows. Did the baby understand about what they were talking about? Impossible, they thought. However, not long after that, they once again heard the same sound in their mind. Only, this time, it was a bit longer and clearer. ¡ªThe baby''s name... is Raven... worry not... he is indeed, your... own son... however... the name is... ours to decide...¡ª When the 6 people, including the baby, was still dumbfounded over the event that had just happened, the round crystal had stopped spinning in the air and swiftly went back to the inside of the baby''s chest. The baby then started to drifed down and slowly approached the still wide eyed Edward, whom also forgot to close his opened jaw. For a moment, silence had descended upon them. Only the sounds of ticking clock could be heard inside of the room. Elena muttered, ¡°Oh my...¡± and suddenly fainted in the bed. The two maids hugged each other while trembled and cried hard, while Grandmother seemed to be unable to process whatever it was that had just happened in the room, and could only stared blankly. In the midst of the chaos, only Edward who seemed to be unfazed. In fact, he had an excited expression on his face while grinning widely. He raised the baby in his arms and laughed loudly, ¡°My son has been blessed by a God! Hahaha, when was the last time I heard about a baby being blessed by some God? Not even once! Haha, what did I say, my son will definitely become a great person in the future!¡± Edward brought the baby to his face and directly gazed at his eyes with a hint of excitement, and he said while licking his lips, ¡°Raven, is it? Don''t worry, daddy will definitely help you to be a great person! With some training here and there, you''d be perfect! Hahahahaha!¡± Unknown to the laughing madman, the baby seemed to instinctually shudder when he heard the word ''training'' from his dad. On this particular day, a boy, who will shake the world with his many deeds, had just been born anew! *** In another realm, 10 figures could be seen sitting in a huge round crystal table. ¡°I think, what you did just then was a bit overboard.¡± said a mysterious voice to a particular Archangel. The Archangel mentioned above just chuckled and said, ¡°I actually thought the same, but that''s okay. I like that boy, and I could feel that there are huge potential hidden within his soul.¡± ¡°That doesn''t justify your conduct,¡± said another mysterious voice, who then continues, ¡°I know that he is one of the Chosen Ones, but your involvement could directly effected his life, Gabriel.¡± Gabriel just smiled and doesn''t answer. One of the mysterious voices sighed and said, ¡°Whatever, we''re already busy enough here. You go deal with your own problem.¡± The other 9 figures immediately vanished from their respective place, and now there was only Gabriel sitting alone. He stared at a distant place, as if directly looking at something, or someone, and then he grinned and said to himself, ¡°You won''t disappoint me, wouldn''t you?¡± And with nothing but a thought, he also vanished. Chapter 4 : Magic & Martial Arts A/N : Thank you for those who has voted in the previous chapter. Since there are more than 50% who had chosen "No", so the title will stay as it is. Also, larkan had decided to change his title. I still felt somewhat guilty about it... And also, thank you very much for the readers who had commented. It really boosted my motivation, you know? Someone actually paid attention to me! Kyaa!! *screaming excitedly in the corner of my room* If there are any mistakes, please do tell me. English isn''t my native language. And no, this author note thingy isn''t an attempt to increase the word count of the chapter... if you had any critics or suggestions, feel free to throw it directly at my face. Anything helps, it might even help me in gaining some inspiration. Well, this is too long already, so without further ado, please enjoy the chapter! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A long time had passed since the chaotic birth of the little baby. Everyone had accepted that the little baby was a somewhat special kid. As per the request of the mysterious voice, Edward had named him Raven Lind. The name seemed rather feminine for a boy, but they had no other choice either, since Lind was their family name. In fact, in these years, Raven had grown into a quite... beautiful little boy. Other people whom didn''t know about him personally would often mistook him as a little girl, as he has a slightly long golden hair, long eyelashes, clear blue eyes, thin body, and cute face. No one would''ve thought that Raven was Edward''s son, since his biological father seemed like a brute and rough person. He actually had a rather similar appearance with Elena, when she was still at that age. In addition of having feminine name and appearance, Raven also rarely goes out of his house, so he didn''t have many friends. Or rather, he almost had no friends, since he himself felt annoyed when he, a kid with the mind of an adult, had to deal with a brat. Especially those arrogant brats from another noble houses. He mostly spent his spare time with his family, or studied at the library. Since Edward and his family were a family of nobles who lived in a rather big city, they had quite a bit of resources. He and the others also deemed it important that Raven should''ve gotten the best possible treatment and education. Raven also seemed to be very cooperative towards others, and he diligently studied about all kind of knowledge available to him. ¡°I felt rather guilty about tricking them,¡± Raven sighed to himself dejectedly while reading a few books about monster, magic, and martial arts. He didn''t tell anyone about his past life memories, since he wasn''t so sure whether that was a good idea or not. Even so, his behavior was clearly far above those kids of the same ages. And the result was, his new family always thought of him as a genius kid. Last year, he had reached 5 years of ages. And three month from now on, he would be a 6 year old boy. When he was 3, Raven had already learned about how to read and write. And in the age of 4, he began to read the books in the library. Actually, most of the books in the library were about various political scheme, but since Raven didn''t care one bit about those kind of things, he obviously decided to ignore it all. He mostly read a few books about martial arts, which was his favorite subject, and the many different cultures in the world. Occasionally, when he read a book about martial arts, there would be a certain man secretly peeking at him from the library''s window with a wide grin... ¡°I am a bit curious about the history of this world, or rather, this realm... the language in this realm were actually the same as the language in my old world, but with different letter and pronunciation.¡± Raven pondered for a while. It really bothered him a lot, when he thought about it, ¡°Does the one who spread this language was the same person? But then, he would have to be able to cross into another world... Is it one of the Gods in the Deva Realm? Or was it an Archangel like Gabriel? Or maybe... it was the Almighty One itself?¡± After some time had passed without gaining a definite answer, he decided to stop thinking about that. ¡°As of now, what I really had to do was, to gain control of my power and energy. What Gabriel and Rhea said were true, all of my power were suppressed heavily in this world. That Heavenly Seal were truly marvelous,¡± Raven sighed in amazement. When he was in his spirit body form, he could easily controlled his divine and demonic energies. Even when he was in his spirit orb form, he could still controlled his divine energy to absorb those Soul Energy in his surrounding. But when he was born in this new world, he immediately lost his ability to control it all. He could still felt the divine energy and demonic power laying dormant in his soul, but he couldn''t materialized it. As for the Soul Energy... ¡°This Soul Energy is truly a mysterious thing. Even in this world, I could still feel it in my surrounding, though it isn''t as many as in that place I had been before. And also, the Soul Energy seems to be mixed with a similar kind of energy, however, it''s far weaker than the Soul Energy. But I still didn''t know about what uses it has.¡± Before, Raven could directly absorbed those Soul Energy with his divine energy, but now he couldn''t use the same method. ¡°Somehow, I couldn''t even let out any divine energy at all. If this goes on then, how could I search for my mother''s soul?¡± Actually, Raven felt rather happy with his current family. All of them loved him, especially his two new parents. Until last year, he would sleep together with Elena and Edward every night, and they would always told him many stories about various things in the world. As it turns out, the House of Lind had a warrior bloodline, and they were awarded with a title of nobility in the past because of their ancestors deeds. That''s why, Edward always expected Raven to be a great warrior in the future. Also, while it wasn''t some kind of top secret information, very few people knew that Elena actually had the blood of a magician running in her veins. Even so, Raven didn''t wish to forget about his initial decision. He had refused an offer from Gabriel to ascends to the Deva Realm, and with his own accord, he had chosen to be reincarnated in the Human Realm, so that he could protect his mother''s soul. If he was to suddenly change his decision at this point of time, then that would be really dumb of him. That''s why, he diligently learned about all kind of things in this new world, so that he would be prepared when he sets out in the future. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Deep in his heart, however, he has already regarded the House of Lind as his own family. *** In one particular day, Edward called Raven to his study room. Raven sat in his father''s lap, while Edward caressed his son''s hair. ¡°My son, tell me, what is the meaning of martial arts to you?¡± Edward asked his son curiously. Though he already knew that his son was interested about it, he just wanted to make sure. Raven pondered for a while before answering, ¡°It is a codefied systems and traditions of combat practices, which are practiced for a variety of reasons including¡ª¡° hearing the answer, Edward hurriedly interrupted and said, ¡°No, duh, you know that''s not what I am talking about. What I meant was, are you interested in martial arts?¡± Raven nodded and firmly answered, ¡°I do!¡± ¡°Great, just like what I''d expect of my son!¡± Edward said grinningly, ¡°I had actually planned to train you when you were just 2 years old, but your mom and grandma strongly opposed my idea. They were adamant with their opinion, that I could only begin to train you when you''re already 6 years old. Now that you''ve almost reached that age, I want to ask you directly, do you want to train in martial arts?¡± Hearing the question, Raven exclaimed, ¡°Yes!¡± and immediately stood up, then faced his father directly. And then, all of a sudden, he suddenly kneeled and solemnly said, ¡°Disciple greets his master!¡± ¡°Eh?¡± Edward was rather taken aback with the sudden change of his son''s behavior, and could only stared at him blankly for a moment. ¡°Uh...?¡± Raven immediately realized his mistakes and rebuked himself in his heart, ''Stupid me, how could I unconsciously acted like in my past life? Seriously Raven, there aren''t any 5 years old kid who does stuff like this!'' He thought hard for a moment and then nervously said to his father, ¡°Father, that was... something I read in one of the books in the library. It was said that a disciple must paid his respect to his master when he was about to receive a tutelage by doing something like this...¡± ¡°Eh... um... okay?¡± Edward was clearly felt rather confused about the sudden development, and thought to himself, ''Was there really something written like this in one of my books? I thought I had already read all of the books about martial arts in the library, but it seems like I am still missing something? Well, whatever...'' Ultimately, he decided to forget about it. ¡°So you''re that eager about learning martial arts, hmm. Then, what about magic?¡± ¡°Magic?¡± Raven thought for a bit. While it was true that he had already knew long ago about magic from his past life, since there are many human who used it when he fought together with them, but he had never once be able to used it personally. It was because just like the other demon, the demonic blood in his body rejected any kind of magic. Even the Demon King Zol, his own father, wasn''t an exception. That was why all of them focused to train in martial arts. Truthfully, Raven was also interested in magic. The power to bring heavy destruction to enemies from afar, controlling elements of nature, utilizing it to gain advantages over others, who in the 6 realm doesn''t want a power like that? Even without the advantages of magic in his previous life, Raven could already reach that kind of power. When he thought about what he could do with both magic and martial arts, he couldn''t help but grew excited. He answered to his father, ¡°Father, I am also interested about learning magic. But unlike martial arts, I am not sure that I could learned it easily.¡± Edward then laughed and said, ¡°So you say you could learn martial arts easily then?¡± ¡°Well, my father is a great warrior, isn''t it?¡± said Raven while grinning widely. ¡°That''s my boy! But then again, even if you''re willing to learn magic, you might not been able to do so...¡± Shaking his head, Edward said: ¡°To learn magic, you must had the right aptitude. Only 1 in 100 had the right aptitude to learn it, and only 1 in 1000 would be able to reach a high level of power. Also, if you didn''t have the affinity to an element, then you wont be able to learn it. In fact, your mother had an affinity with the holy element magic, but it''s not that high.¡± ¡°But there''s more of it to magic. What the public generally know is, magic has 8 elements, which is fire, water, wind, earth, light, darkness, thunder, and spirit. As you had guessed, most of them had the power to control a certain element, but spirit magic is a bit different from the rest. The caster could summon a being or spirit from another world to help them in battle.¡± The explanation of magic really made Raven''s heart grew excited. After all, from a long time ago, he already wished that he would be able to use those crazy strong magic to help him in battles. But that particular wish got crushed by his demonic blood. Now, with a new life in a new body, he might had the chance! Edward continues his explanation, ¡°Outside of those 8 elements, there''s another one. A less known element, but not one bit weaker than the other 8. That element is... the Unknown!¡± ¡°Father, what is this Unknown element?¡± asked Raven curiously. ¡°There''s a reason about why it goes by the name ''Unknown.''¡± answered Edward solemnly. Then he stood up and walked towards the door while saying, ¡°Do you know about the reason, my son?¡± Raven shook his head and answered, ¡°I don''t know?¡± ¡°Exactly!¡± Edward laughed and shrugged his shoulder, ¡°If I were to know about the reason, then it wouldn''t be ''Unknown'' anymore, isn''t it?¡± he then just walked out of the room while still laughing out loud, leaving the dumbfounded Raven alone. ¡°...Eh.¡± After some time had passed, Raven chuckled a bit, then also followed his father while shouted, ¡°Wait for me, father!¡± Chapter 5 : Acceptance ¡°How long are you gonna stay in the same place?¡± A voice addressing me could be heard within my mind. The voice seemed so familiar. I mean, that was my own voice. I opened my eyes and looked around. Currently, I am in a somewhat strange place. Well, actually, this place wasn''t so strange to me, since I had been here before a lot of times in the past. There are only huge chunks of rocks wherever my eyes could see. Many of them has been destroyed or had huge holes, as if there was a great battle taking places in here in the past. And then, there was him, a man¨C no, a little boy, standing in mid air. ¡°Umm, long time no see...?¡± I tried to greet him, but he just sighed and rolled his eyes. After I ignored him for so long, I guess it was understandable if he felt angry towards me. The boy then approached me from afar. When he get so close to me, I could see his appearance clearly. He seemed so different from the past. Basically, he looked the same as my current appearance, but with slight difference in some places. His face was an exact copy of mine, except that his eyes color was red and had a vertical pupil. Unlike my golden hair, he has long black hair, reaching to his waist. There were a pair of horns near his ears, and I obviously doesn''t have one. His fangs and nails were sharp and pointy, just like a predator that was ready to claim it''s prey''s soul. In his back, there were 3 pairs of ominous black feathered wings. There was a three pronged tail sprouting out from his butt, and a familiar round crystal was embedded in his chest. It was the same crystal which appeared when I was just born in my new world. His name was... Raven. Or rather, Raven was our name. ¡°I say, Raven, have you forgotten about your purpose for coming in this world?¡± He asked me that. I shook my head and answered him. ¡°Of course not, I was¨C¡° ¡°Then, tell me, what exactly are you doing?¡± Before I could gave my answer completely, he interrupted me. Clearly, his tone were full of anger and helplessness. He then gritted his teeth and shouted angrily, ¡°Since you were born in this world, you had been doing nothing! Day and night, you just played the role of a kid!¡± ¡°No, I¡ª¡° ¡°You what!? You didn''t even seriously tried to search for our mother!¡± ¡°I tried, damnit! It''s just that, I can''t use any of my power!¡± I shouted back at him. Then I saw he raised his hand and tried to punch me in the face. Boom! His fist landed perfectly, and my body were thrown miserably to the ground, destroying some of the huge chunk of rocks in the process. I desperately tried to stood back, and glared at him. This time, his expression made me startled. He smiled bitterly and glanced sideways while clenching both of his fists. ¡°Do you really can''t use it, or is it because you DON''T want to use it?¡± I fell silent when he said that. Then once again, he asked me: ¡°Do you really hate me that much?¡± Again, I couldn''t answer his question. ¡°I know that you can''t use your divine energy, since it has been sealed. But, you didn''t even tried to contact me once... no, you tried to seal me too, isn''t it? That Heavenly Seal was a strong one, I know it. However, it could only temporarily halt our connection. You were just afraid, that you will becoming closer and closer like Zol, if you''re using too much of my power, right?¡± I could only hung my head down and muttered, ¡°Sorry...¡± He then sighed and waved his hand, ¡°That''s okay, as long as you understand. Remember, you are not the only one who had wished to protect mother. I didn''t forbade you to live your life like this, however, I just wanted to remind you about your wish. Our wish.¡± ¡°This power, our power, isn''t as simple as you think it is. In your previous life, you had barely touched the surface of it all. Part of it were because you hate me, but the other reason was, your talent wasn''t as good as it is now. This round crystal inside of our chest had opened a new path for you to thread on. Don''t let it get wasted.¡± I nodded and walked towards him. He also, flies down and approached me. When we were facing each other, he smiled at me. Though the smile seemed like a sad one, but it doesn''t seems to be forced. I smiled back at him. That''s right, it wasn''t his fault. He too, was created together with me, as a part of me. He has always helped me in the past, and even though I tried to pushed him back, he would still willingly tried to help me. Even though in the past, I only came here just to forcefully borrow his power to fight. Not even once I had tried to openly speaks with him. Yeah, I won''t be running anymore. I will face him, and accepted him for what he was. When I thought of that, his body suddenly emitted countless lines of dark rays. Wide eyed, he stared at me with his mouth hanging open. I, who also doesn''t know what was actually happening right now, felt really confused. I tried to reach out my hand towards him, but... it actually passed through his body. ¡°What happened?¡± My question seemed to woke him up from his daze, and then he smiled at me. Only this time, his smile seemed like a happy one. His body was gradually fading out, starting from his legs, to his head. When there are only his upper body left, he whispered softly to me: ¡°Thank you.¡± And then, his body vanished completely. After that, I woke up. *** Raven opened his eyes and looked at his surrounding. The morning sun could be seen outside of his window. Currently, he was sleeping in his own room. He then immediately sat up, and just like every other day, he would always tried to feel his energies. ¡°My power... is back,¡± though faintly, he could felt that his demonic energy had been reawakened. Raven fell silent for a moment, and then he smiled and raised his head, and muttered, ¡°Thank you...¡± ¡ªYou''re welcome¡ª someone answered him. ¡°Huh?¡± Raven felt greatly startled, and he immediately looked at his surrounding. And then he found out that there was no one else beside him in his room. When he began to ponder whether that voice was his hallucination or not... Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡ªSay, what are you searching for?¡ª once again, the voice could be heard within his mind. Then Raven, as if he understood something, widen his eyes and dropped his jaw, ¡°Yo¨Cyou? How...?¡± Suddenly, black mist could be seen seeped out from Raven''s chest. The black mist keeps increasing, until it actually covered the whole room. And then, all of the black mist gathered into one point and formed a small pitch black ball. After that, a thin curved line appeared n the middle of the black ball. The curved line opened and revealed... a mouth, complete with it''s own tongue, teeth, and gum. Then, another thin line appeared directly above the mouth, which was then revealed to be an eyeball when it opened up. ¡°A... ah... test, ah, it seems like my first attempt at materializing directly is a success,¡± said the black ball while grinning. Raven, still hasn''t recovered from his daze, could only stared blankly at the black ball. After what it seemed like minutes has passed, he regained his bearing and asked with hushed tone, ¡°What are you doing here? How do you do that? Were you the one who reawakened our energy? What''s with that appearance? Also, what¡ª¡° ¡°Whoa, whoa, slow down! I would like to answer your questions, but slow down, okay?¡± exclaimed the black ball. Raven reached out his hands and grabbed the black ball, then he covered it''s mouth and said, ¡°Sssh, don''t speak too loud, there are other people here. I wouldn''t want them to think that I was going crazy for talking to myself! Especially, since your voice sounded exactly the same like mine.¡± The black ball nodded and began it''s explanation, ¡°For your first question, the answer is... I just wanted to see, how the outside world feels like. Can''t I?¡± It seemed as if Raven saw the black ball tilted it''s whole body in a cute manner and looked at him with upturned eye, so Raven just sighed and nodded, ¡°Fine, it''s not like you being there would''ve created an utter catastrophe.¡± The black ball smiled and continued, ¡°About how I do this, it was actually simple. It works using the same method as when you tried to transform, but instead of applying the demonic energy into your whole body like you usually did, I tried to materialized it into the outside world. And here I am!¡± Raven pondered for a while, then he asked, ¡°If you could do this, then why is this the first time you¡ª oh...¡± ¡°I think you already know the answer for that question, and also for your question about who''s the person reawakening our energy,¡± the black ball chuckled. Raven sighed and hung his head down, ¡°I''m sorry.¡± ¡°Haha, don''t worry, I don''t mind it anymore. And about my appearance, this is the best I can do for now. Currently, our energy were too weak. When you''re getting stronger, I could take on a bigger and stronger appearance, and even actively helping you in a battle wouldn''t be something impossible. As I had said before, this power isn''t so simple as you think it is.¡± ¡°Say, could you tell me about what actually are you and this power?¡± asked Raven. The black ball seemed to think for a while, then answered with, ¡°I don''t know.¡± ¡°Hey, that kind of answer doesn''t help me at all.¡± ¡°I mean, even I don''t know about what exactly am I,¡± the black ball sighed, ¡°Just think about it, what kind of power that could be brought even after you were dead and reincarnated in a new body? Heck, even when you''re in your soul form, you could still use it. For sure, it wasn''t something as weak as a power that came from Zol''s blood.¡± Raven felt greatly startled when he heard that, ¡°Wait, so you mean, all this time, I was just misunderstanding about you? Now that you mention it, I didn''t have any demonic blood running through my veins anymore...¡± ¡°Basically, yes...¡± ¡°.... I need time to think about all of this,¡± Raven put his hand on his head and let out frustrated sigh. ¡°Are there any other things that I should''ve known?¡± ¡°Maybe it''s enough for now. I also didn''t know much about myself. However, I am sure that you and I could get much stronger than before. Maybe Gabriel also knew, or had a hunch about that. I felt something weird about him,¡± said the black ball. ¡°And you should hurry greets your family, I know they are waiting for you. Today is your birthday, isn''t it?¡± ¡°No,¡± Raven shook his head. ¡°No?¡± the black ball seemed confused. Then Raven smiled and said, ¡°It isn''t just my birthday. Today is our birthday.¡± The black ball stared at him in astonishment, then laughed. Raven also laughed and said, ¡°One last question. What should I call you from now on? It doesn''t seems right if I keeps calling you with ''Raven'' or ''you''.¡± After thinking for a moment, the black ball answered, ¡°You may call me Dios.¡± ¡°Very well then, Dios. Let''s go,¡± Raven reached out his hand and grabbed Dios. In response, Dios merged his body with Raven''s hand and formed a snake like tattoo, coiled around in both of his arm. ¡°Don''t you think the others would''ve noticed if I suddenly had a new tattoo?¡± Raven''s face twitched when he saw his arms. ¡ªDon''t worry, no one other than you could see it.¡ª Dios'' voice could be heard within his mind. ¡°Fair enough.¡± Then, together with his old companion, Raven walked out of his room. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A/N : This time, I tried to do something different. First person view! And I''d like to introduce a new character, i hope that you will like it. This chapter, and the next, and the next after that, and the... i don''t know, is a building up chapter. I will try to explain about Raven''s power and the world in a more detailed, er, explanation. Dios character profile : was created together with Raven in his previous life, acting as a source for his demonic power. Since it changed Raven''s body into that of a demonic creature, Raven hated it, thinking that it had something to do with Zol. Apparently, that wasn''t the case, and Raven was just misunderstood about Dios in his whole life... Had the same thought process like Raven, also wished to protect those whom it deemed important, including Raven himself. If you had a suggestion or critics about my character, development, or pacing, please do tell me. If you found any mistakes in grammar, please tell me too. Chapter 6 : Birthday A/N : Been busy playing LL! SIF this week, so please excuse the slow update. Thank you, anonymous reader, for giving a rating to this story. Like, you''re the first one ever to do that! It''s not an obligation, but, I''d prefer it more if you pointed out which part about the story that might seems to be lacking, so I could fix it... If you haven''t noticed it yet, I changed the story description. My friend said it wasn''t ''eyecatching'' enough. Uh, I know, it wasn''t perfect, and I''m not that good at it, so if you had better suggestions, please do tell me. Also, big thanks for drealicious for drawing a cover pic! And here''s the pic of Dios, or transformed Raven in the future, be sure to check it out! Click here! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upon entering the main hall, Raven was immediately greeted by the sight of his family, and some of the maids, who are waiting for him to celebrate his birthday. In the middle of the main hall, there was a giant chocolate cake, almost as tall as Raven himself, with various delicious topping. ¡°Whoa...¡± Raven couldn''t help but sighed in amazement when he saw the cake. It was the biggest cake he''d ever seen. His parents, grandmother, and the maids, smiled as they watched him getting awestruck at the sight of the cake. When he acted like a little kid like this, he seems to be really different than the usual him, but different in a good sense, that kind of thought flowed in the minds of everyone, aside from Raven of course. In fact, even though Raven desperately tried to act like a child, but he still ultimately failed. Since he rarely interacted with another person, outside of his own family and the maids, and also often reads all kind of books in the library by himself with solemn expression, and frequently acted like an adult ¡ªthough Raven himself didn''t aware of this¡ª they thought Raven was a special kind of advanced children. Or in another word, a genius. And the event that had happened when he was born, didn''t even help to lessen their suspicion about him being another kind of ''special'' kid. That''s why, they felt rather happy when they saw him acted like a proper child. ¡°Raven,¡± Edward laughed and waved his hand, ¡°Come here, don''t just stand around like that. Today is your special day, and you are the main star!¡± ¡°Ah,¡± realizing about how he acted just now, Raven felt embarrassed and covered his flushed face with his hands, ''Jeez, that''s so embarrassing! Getting stunned by the sight of a giant, delicious looking, full-of-toppings, chocolate cake, made with love... no, wait, what am I thinking about! It''s like, I am thinking like a child... eh, I AM a child!'' ¡ªCould you, like, decide whether to act like an adult or a child?¡ª Dios'' voice resounded in his mind. ¡ªIf you continues like this, forget genius, they''d think you''re crazy instead...¡ª ''No, that was... I did that unconsciously,'' Raven then tried to put on his best ''cute children face'', and ran to his parents, then hugged them tightly. ¡°Happy birthday, my dear,¡± Elena kissed him in the cheek and gently caressed his face. ¡°Look at you, you have grown so big already.¡± Edward patted his son''s head and said with a laugh, ¡°Okay, let''s just throw away all the formalities and start the party already!¡± The party had been enjoyable for Raven. There were also several representative of noble houses who had came to congratulates him, though obviously not without ulterior motive... Even though the House of Lind couldn''t be called as the best, or the biggest, or even the strongest noble house out there, but they still had enough influence in the City of Loen, the place where they resides. And so, there were some noble houses who had planned to betroth their own children to Raven, as the sole heir of the House of Lind. Some of them, whom only had the information about Raven''s appearance, which looked very feminine, thought that he was a she, and they had even planned to get their son to marry Raven. Obviously, it made Edward and Grandmother felt enraged, resulting in some nobleman and their representative running away from the party with bloodied nose. As for the rather ''informed'' noble houses, who had planned to marry their daughter with Raven, were personally handled by Elena. Even though she didn''t use any violence, her cold demeanor when she calmly refused any offer, made people shuddered unintentionally. In the end, the party had successfully ended with Raven getting many presents from the guests. ¡­...... After all of the guests has returned, Raven and his family gathered once again in the main hall. However, the maids didn''t partake in this little meeting. ¡°Well,¡± Edward wiped the bloods in his hands, and said with a mirth, ¡°Today was a good day.¡± Raven''s lips twitched when he heard that statement. Grandmother on the side glared at his father and said rather angrily, ¡°How could they mistook our little Raven as a girl? Were the two round things in their heads just a pair of useless marbles?¡± ¡°Fufufu,¡± a terrifying chuckling sound suddenly could be heard from behind Raven, which immediately made him started and turned his head to look and saw his mother, Elena, with a shadow of a demon behind her back, ¡°It''s alright, my dear, mommy would''ve never gave you up to those vixen.¡± ¡ªThis is interesting, yes. I thoroughly enjoyed your current circumstances¡ª said Dios laughingly in his mind. Raven immediately barked at him with a ''Shut up!'' ¡°Mother, Father, Grandmother,¡± said Raven nervously. He desperately tried to change the subject of this conversation, ¡°What about... my training? I am already 6 year old now...¡± The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The trio turned to look at Raven, and said at the same time: ¡°Training?¡± ¡°Um, yes, you said that I would begin my training at the age of 6?¡± Raven said, fidgeting. Edward nodded and answered him, ¡°Yes, I do remember about it. As we''ve talked about it before, your training as a warrior would begin after¡ª¡° ¡°¡ªwait a minute, Edward, what is this all about?¡± Before Edward finished his answer, Elena immediately interjected with her own question: ¡°Warrior? Training? How could I have never even heard about this?¡± ¡°No, Elena, my dear, please listen to me¡ª¡° ¡°Oh, I am listening alright. Yes, explain everything to me, RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW!¡± there weren''t any traces of calmness anymore in Elena''s voice. The sight had made Raven panicked, since he thought that he was the one to blame for bringing up the topic. Meanwhile, Grandmother only facepalmed on herself. ¡°Grandma, please stop them?¡± Raven tried to ask his grandmother. However, she only shook her head and said resignedly, ¡°It''s okay, it happened a lot, even before you were born. Just let them be.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡ªPft¡ª ''Shut up!'' ¡­...... ¡°So, you were already planned to learn martial arts for a long time?¡± Now, it was Raven''s turn to be interrogated by Elena. ¡°Yes, mother.¡± Elena said with a sigh, ¡°Can you tell mom, why do you want to be a warrior? I mean, there are many paths available for your future, and those are definitely not as painful as this one.¡± ¡°Mother,¡± Raven gazed at his mother''s eyes and firmly said, ¡°I want to be strong enough, to protect everyone that I hold dear, of course, that includes everyone who lived in this house. As of now, I am too weak to protect anyone. If something were to happen to you, and I couldn''t have done anything except watching from the side, then I... then I would like a power to be able to do something. At the very least, I want to be strong enough to not become a burden.¡± ¡ªOh my, your character were getting out of control, again.¡ª ''Eh?'' Jaw gaping, wide-eyed, were the reactions shown by Elena, Grandmother, and even Edward. Elena and Grandmother then suddenly turned their head to glare at Edward and said accusingly at the same time, ¡°Did you told him to say that?¡± ¡°No!¡± Edward frantically shook his head, ¡°God, that was so deep, I can''t even create a complex sentence like that! How do you think I could teach him to say that!?¡± Elena and Grandmother looked at each other, furrowed their brows and said, ¡°That''s true.¡± ¡°Yes, it''s impossible.¡± then they turned to look at Raven, whose back was already drenched in sweat. ¡°I... uh, that was...¡± Raven felt afraid that his family would be suspicious, or even afraid of him, since he said something which definitely didn''t seems to be something that should''ve been said by a children. The response he got, however, completely surpassed his expectation. His mother suddenly hugged him tightly, followed by his father hugging her and him, and then followed again by grandmother, hugging them all. ¡°Don''t worry, Raven,¡± Elena said with a sob, ¡°You shouldn''t have thought of something like that. Mommy, daddy, and granny would protect you from any danger.¡± ¡°....I am sorry mother, father, and grandma,¡± somehow, Raven felt really warm inside of his body, and unconsciously, tears started to flow from his eyes, ¡°And thank you.¡± From the bottom of his heart, he smiled to his family. Once again, he swore to himself that he would forever treasure and protect both his new and old family. ''From today on, I will...'' ¡ªYou''re still weak, however¡ª ''Dios.'' ¡ªAh, yes, I am not going to comment anymore.¡ª His journey was just beginning, and there will definitely be many obstacle awaits him. But with utmost determination, he gazed at the future. *** In the same day, at night, in a certain place, inside the City of Loen. 7 shadowy figures were running beneath the starry night. All of them wore a black cloak, similar with each other. There weren''t any weapon attached on their hands or body, nonetheless, the aura emanated from within their bodies made anyone around them, even without noticing on their own, instinctually felt afraid. ¡°Boss, this is the 5th city that we had visited in the past week,¡± said one of the shadowy figures, ¡°Is it even possible for them to run that far, with that kind of body, in just a week?¡± The man identified as the boss answered with certainty, ¡°Don''t worry, I have placed a tracking spell on their body. It seems like they were continuously using wind magic to increase their traveling speed.¡± ¡°Remember, we must successfully killed the both of them, at all cost,¡± the boss solemnly said, ¡°Failure is not an option.¡± ¡°And don''t ever underestimate them. They weren''t as strong as us, but if you were to be caught off guard, they would''ve undoubtedly killed you. What we are afraid of isn''t their current strength, but their potential. Try to imagine it, what would have happened in the future, if we let them continue their training?¡± said the boss. The other 6 figures shuddered when they tried to imagine the scene. It was just an imagination, but it was scary enough to make them felt afraid. ¡°Spread out, and search every corner of this city.¡± ¡°Yes boss!¡± The 7 shadowy figures immediately goes to different direction from each other. Unbeknownst by Raven, or any other person in Loen for that matter, something big was going to happen, right in front of their doorstep. Chapter 7 : Another... City of Loen was one of the larger city in the Kingdom of Chronium. Located to the south of Windia Sea, Loen was a big, bustling city, that has expanded for ages. Years ago, before adventurers came to this place, Loen was just another part of the Grand Forest. Surrounded by high and thick walls on all sides to protect the city from the danger of all kind of dangerous beasts, whilst also inhabited by various warriors and mages, Loen could''ve been said to be a rather safe place. Unfortunately, that kind of safety would be destroyed soon... Blum, one of the 7 shadowy figures that came to Loen in a pursuit of something, was currently walking in one part of the city. After separating from his other 6 companions, he had decided to search in the city''s north part. Avoiding the countless gazes of the many people in the road, he swiftly ran from the roof of one building to another building, while continuously scanned his surrounding using his darkness spell. ¡°Those two brats are really weird,¡± Blum mused to himself, ¡°why does our tracking spell always didn''t work properly whenever we''re getting closer to them?¡± He, and his other companions, didn''t know about what kind of spells or techniques that could''ve been used to disrupt their tracking spells, besides those higher level spells. One also couldn''t be detected by the tracking spells if their soul was far stronger than the soul of the caster. And those exactly were the things that made them felt confused. They were a part of a rather infamous underground organization, specialized not in stealing or kidnapping, but in killing someone. Imagine their shocked faces when they, a group of veterans in the organization, has been tasked to deal two kids who hasn''t even reached 10 year of ages. That''s right, their target were just two little kids. They didn''t get any information about where those kids came from, and they were only told to go pursue and kill the two kids. ¡°Brat shouldn''t have any knowledge about high ranking spell, nor be able to practice it. And it''s also impossible for a brat to be able to have stronger soul than us,¡± Blum was pondering when he tilted his head upward and saw something. Something weird. ¡°Huh?¡± There were huge spiralling dark thunderstorm clouds in what should have been a clear sky a moment before. Countless lightning could be seen rolling around in the cloud. ''Rumble...'' The deafening sound made most people looked upward in shock, when they saw the terrifying gigantic clouds. ¡°What kind of thing is this?¡± Blum couldn''t help but be amazed at the sight. His other 6 companions in the different part of the city, actually felt the same. But suddenly... BAM! A lightning bolt actually descended from the clouds and directly approached Blum. ¡°Not good!¡± Seeing the incoming bolt, Blum immediately projected a spiritual barrier to protect his body. But when the lightning bolt touched his barrier, without even gotten the chance to react.... he died. The only thing left in the place he was standing just before, was a disfigured and charred corpse. ¡­.............. ¡°Oh my God! What was that!¡± ¡°The lightning! The lightning has descended!¡± ¡°Flee, avoid those lightning!¡± Countless people in the city began to run around, escaping for their lives. Some of the warrior and magicians, however, stayed to observe this strange phenomenon. ¡°It seems to be some kind of Thunder Element Magic, but... that wasn''t something that could be performed by any magician under rank S...¡± a female magician in a blue robe said to her warrior friend. ¡°It couldn''t be performed by magician under rank S?¡± the warrior were startled when he heard it. ¡°So you were saying, there is an unknown magician with rank S or above in this city?¡± The female magician shook her head and said, ¡°I dont know, it''s just my guess. And if I guessed it correctly, the spell caster was intentionally suppressing that lightning power. If he or she is willing, then destroying the whole city by sending those countless lightning in the clouds will not be something impossible!¡± Everyone who heard her said, immediately turned pale. And then, they began to flee! No matter how curious they were, after all, they still want to live. ¡­............. The ''Boss'' of the 7 shadowy figures looked at a broken talisman, hidden under his robe. Just then, when the lightning bolt descended from the sky, that one talisman immediately broke. ¡°This... Blum died?¡± he stared at the talisman with a rather shocked face. ¡°Don''t tell me, this is an attack spell casted by our target? By those two brats!?¡± He really couldn''t believe it. What should''ve been a simple killing mission, turned out to be a death match with an unknown opponent. How could not he felt angry? While he was busy thinking about that, suddenly... BAM! BAM! Two lightning bolt were actually descended and attacked two different places at the same time. A moment after that, two other talisman in his body suddenly also broken into pieces. ¡°What in the...¡± His face suddenly turned pale when he realized about their current situation. Without hesitation, he immediately sent a messages to the other surviving member of the groups to temporary flee to the outside of the city! ¡°Everyone, get out of the city, as fast as possible!¡± his agitated voice could be heard in the mind of the other surviving member. ¡°Three of us died by those three lightning bolt! We are being targeted! Move 5 kilometer to the south of the city!¡± The three other member immediately fled without hesitation. ¡­................. ¡ªIt''s over now.¡ª Dios'' voice resounded in Raven''s mind. Raven and Dios were already aware that there were actually something wrong in the city, when a huge amount of Soul Energy were gathered in the sky, but had decided to stay put, since they weren''t even close to their original strength and would probably couldn''t even help with anything. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°This is the first time since I was born in this world, that I have felt something like that,¡± Raven mused to himself. ¡°And this is also the first time I felt that there are someone, other than me, could''ve controlled and gathered Soul Energy with that kind of amount.¡± ¡ªI am sure, however, that this person doesn''t wish to make too huge of a mess. I could clearly felt that this person intentionally controlled his spell, so that it''s area of effect wouldn''t be too large.¡ª Raven nodded at Dios explanation. ¡°That''s right. Oh look, the clouds were dispersing.¡± Raven looked at the sky by the window of his room. In the sky, that terrifying clouds were beginning to disperse, revealing a clear and starry sky, as if nothing had happened just now. ¡ªWell, it''s good that nothing bad happened.¡ª said Dios. ¡°Nothing bad happened to us, but not for the opponent of this person. I am sure, they are dead, as dead can be. Yes, I am sure of it.¡± Dios chuckled in Raven''s mind, and said to him, ¡ªNot our business. Continue your meditation, I will also keeps reforming your bones and muscles.¡ª ¡°Fine.¡± Raven smiled and closed his eyes once again, and began his meditation. *** ¡°Cough... cough.. kaah!¡± In a certain place in Loen, surrounded by a wall made of lumps and Earth Element Magic, hidden from the sight of anyone, including the now 4 shadowy figures. A white haired kid was coughing out blood from his mouth, accompanied by a worried girl on his side. ¡°Big brother, stop it... you''re overdoing this...¡± said the girl with tears rolling on her cheeks. The boy, after he''d done with his coughing, smiled at the girl and tried to pat her head to comfort her... but then he realized that his hands were all bloody, so he stopped short before he actually did it. Instead, he gently said, ¡°Don''t worry, I am alright... It''s just that I am using too much of my inner mana. This kind of spell actually shouldn''t be used by a child like us, and I am also doing this without a magic staff, so, yeah...¡± ¡°But, but... if you keep doing this, brother...¡± the girl hugged his brother tightly as she unceasingly sobs. The boy raised his eyebrows and said, ¡°Look, Lilith, I am all bloodied and dirty here, if you hug me like that...¡± ¡°I don''t care! Uwuu....¡± despite her weak appearance, the girl was actually quite stubborn about it. The boy then just sighed and shrugged his shoulder, ¡°Okay, Lilith, I am alright, but I still had to rest and recover my mana...¡± The girl immediately let go of her hug when she heard the boy, ¡°I''m sorry brother.¡± The boy weakly smiled and said to the girl, ¡°It''s okay, thanks for worrying about me.¡± Sitting in a meditative position, the boy closed his eyes and began to feel the various energies in his surrounding. Focusing his mind, he gathered and absorbed those energy into his own body. Gradually, his originally white hair actually turned brown. Or to be exact, his originally brown hair, turned white after he exhausted all of his energy, and then turned back to brown when he regained his energy. ''What the heck is this another world.'' the boy thought in his mind, ''Twice, I died, and twice also, I reincarnated. Why can''t I just rest peacefully... hah, I missed my goddesses. Well, as for now, I would try my best to survive and also protect Lilith. But as they had tried to kill us, those assassins must be killed, no matter what happened!'' The boy suddenly opened his eyes, and he stared blankly in the space in front of him. If someone were to see him doing that, they might''ve felt surprised, since the boy''s eyes suddenly changed color. ''¡­....They already fled to the outside of city, at least we could''ve rest here for sometime.'' A moment later, his eyes turned back to normal, and he said to the girl who was sitting besides him, ¡°We can sleep here for tonight. Wait, I will wash the dirt off our body.¡± Raising his hand, blob of water suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started to clean the blood and dirt on their body. After a while, their body weren''t dirty anymore. And then, they slept together while hugging each other, completely unaware about the ruckus they had caused ¨Cby performing that thunder spell¨C on the outside of the superficial wall he mad. The girl slept soundly in the tight embraces of the boy, while the boy... had a kinda perverted expression on his face... ''No, no, no, no, no, I already had a wife... ah, but they''re in another world... no, no, no, Lilith is a child... ah, I am also a child... shit.'' Just like that, nothing had happened between them, and the morning sun rises again from the east. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A/N : Action! Yes, action scene! At the very least, there are action scene! Including the first ever chapter (-1), this is the second one. And i pulled an IET style here : introduce a named character, bam, few paragraph later, he died! In this chapter, another ''genius'' had shown up. He would also become a major character later. His abilities were... you could guess. Recently someone offered to be a proofreader, so maybe later all of the previous chapter would be edited to the new PR-ed version. And wait, every chapter got auto navigation now? O.O Please give me suggestion, critics, opinion, review, rate or whatever, was there even anyone who read all the author note? *crying in spanish*