《Re:Asura》 Chapter 1: Birth In the middle of a winter night in the year of B984, there were cries of pain resounding throughout a village. "Aaaaaaaaahhhh!!!" Myleria''s screams were getting louder by the hour. It was her first childbirth, and her husband was pacing back and forth outside the bedroom. "Milord, it has been four hours since the start of her contractions, and yet the baby''s head has yet to be seen. I''m afraid..." Nanny Lan sighed and turned her head to the bedroom doors. She had sometimes witnessed unsuccessful childbirths, resulting in the child being born in a deformed state and dying not long after, or the mother right after giving birth. "Myleria...." Brock face was pale as he had realized his dear wife was in a dangerous situation. "What should I do?" Actually, Brock had already been thinking of ending his wife''s misery but he was too unwilling, as his love for his wife was no less than the distance between heaven and earth. "AAAAARRGHHH!!! BRRROOOOCCKKKK!!" Myleria''s screams reached Brock''s ears, who was just outside of the bedroom doors. No longer being able to stand it, he swept aside the wooden doors and dashed to his wife''s bedside. When he looked closer at her face, he couldnt help but gasp. "Myleria..." Her face was deathly pale, her brown eyes were once so full of life were now so dim that Brock couldn''t stop his tears from flowing out, as he felt as if his heart was being cut by a thousand swords. "Brock...." the contractions had finally stopped, giving Myleria a moment''s reprieve from the pain. "Help....me... cut open my womb...and take out the baby...." Myleria struggled to whisper to Brock. She was so exhausted that she no longer had the energy to even raise her fingers. "My wife...." Brock had already started to sob, trying to think of ways to help his wife. However, he was just a ex-mercenary and was only proficient in the arts of the sword and did not know any healing magic. Having gone through several life and death battles, his willpower and courage was above an average man''s, Brock had finally decided to end his wife''s pain. "My Myleria... My wife... If there is a next life, I hope we will meet again." Brock eyes harden with resolve as he reached for his sword. "Swooosshh!" Brock''s sword flickered through the air, his cut barely avoiding the baby''s body. The baby had already started crying, and Nanny Lan reached out to carry the child. "Milord, it''s a boy..." Nanny Lan''s words fell on deaf ears as Brock''s attention was wholy focused on his wife''s face, watching her take her last breaths. He wanted to treasure every moment, down to the last millisecond. As he clasped her hand, the world seemed to have stood still as Myleria and Brock looked at each other''s eyes. ... The next day, the villagers had already learnt about Myleria''s unfortunate ''childbirth'' and viewed the baby as a cursed child. Brock and Myleria''s body had already disappeared, leaving the crying baby in their rundown house. Everyone had asked Nanny Lan where the baby''s parent had gone to, but even she did not know the answer, as she had went home after making sure the baby had no physical defects. To make things worse, Myleria''s past as a prostitute was no secret. Brock was often ridiculed for having married a prostitute, and the couple was often shunned by most villages until this village''s Chief had agreed to let them stay out of pity. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. "Waaahh! Waahh!" the baby started to cry, writhing about in his blanket. "Chief, let''s kill this cursed child and throw his body off a cliff!" A middle aged man shouted out. Many villagers had also said the same thing, fearing that the child would bring disasters to the village. Having no choice, as almost the whole village had the same sentiments, the village chief decided to give the child a quick death. He was about to reach out when sudeenly, a shrill cry sounded out from the skies! "IT''S A MAGICAL BEAST!! THIS CHILD IS TRULY CURSED!!" The same man who was the first once to first tell the village chief to kill the baby, shouted out. The whole village was panicking as they had rarely seen magical beasts, aside from the weaker magical beasts that merchants sold to richer folks as pets or watchdogs. For the average man, they could only see the silhouette of a bird soaring through the skies above the village. However, top tier experts will notice that it''s actually a Three Legged Crow, one of the few magical beasts of the higher levels! In this world, magical beasts are classified into 9 levels, level 1 being the weakest and level 9 being the strongest. There are also rumors of beasts that possesses powers even more powerful than the level 9 magical beasts! "Cawwww!!" the Three-Legged Crow swooped down, like a black meteor. In an instant, it had already claimed the life of an unfortunate villager as it pecked its way through his head! However, no one noticed the dead person as they were already running for their lifes, locking themselves into their houses in a desperate attempt to protect their meager lives. The Three-Legged Crow had flown back up into the skies, surveying the crowd for its next potential victim. It was just then when it saw Myleria''s newborn child, who was crying due to the noise and chaos. "Swoooosh!" it flickered through the air once again. It was at this time that some people had regained a shred of their common sense and managed to calm down to access the situation. When they saw the dead body, they couldn''t believe what they saw! Lying in the middle of the village plaza was a man with a 3 inch hole in his head, or what was left of his head! "Holy $#@%!!" They were trembling in fear at the corpse. Most of them were already thinking that they were doomed to die like that. It was just then when one of them saw the Three-Legged Crow swooping down towards Myleria''s child. "I knew it! He is truly a cursed child!" "The monster came for him!" "Don''t resist, the gods are angry, they must have sent the it to appease their fury!" In a flash, the Three Legged Crow had dug its razor sharp talons into the baby''s thick blankets, and flew off to the horizon. Chapter 2: Reincarnation Chapter 2: Reincarnation "Uuuuuu. Cyrus...." a beautiful blonde lady weeped beside me. I put my hands on her mascara stained face, looking into my girlfriend''s eyes for as long as I could, before I drift into unconsciousness. "I''m so sorry, Noelle..." I gasped, coughing out bits of blood that were stuck in my throat. ... It was the wee hours of the night, and I had taken my girlfriend to the popular coffee house a couple blocks away as she was craving for some caffeine, I had originally planned to propose to her as this was the very same coffeehouse we first met at. I was just a university student at the time, when I lost to my friends at a game of dare. We had to take a ''couple selfie'' with a hot girl. It was then that I noticed the bombshell sitting at the opposite end of the coffeeshop. She was wearing a plain black hoodie, sitting cross legged at her seat as she typed relentlessly onto her laptop. "Umm.. H-h-hi, I''m Cyrus..." I stammered. To be honest, I had never been good at communicating with girls, having been studying at an all boys school during middle school and highschool. Even after graduating, I had never really talked to girls unless neccessary. It''s not that I''m gay or anything, it was just that I was too shy and timid. "U wot mate?" she growled back. It was so sudden and unexpected that I just stood there speechless. It was the first time I had ever seen such a rude girl in my life, albeit a rather short one. "Hey, I''m really sorry but.... can we take a selfie together?" I tried my luck. "Nope, fuck off!" I actually laughed out loud when I recalled that moment, resulting in a coughing fit. The blood puddle around me grew even larger. At the coffeehouse, we had been making small talk, as my heart was pounding like a drum from a death metal song, as I tried to find the right moment to pop the question. All was going okay, when suddenly people were screaming from outside. Taking a quick look at the glass windows, I could see two muscular men ganging up on another skinny man. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. My brains told me that I should have just left it alone and minded my own business, but my heart felt that I should help the poor guy. "Wait here" I told Noelle as I ran out to the street. Never did I expect that the two muscular men were actually undercover cops that were about to arrest a serial murderer who had a gun hidden in his jacket... "Cyrus...*sniff*..a.re you... *sniff*...laughing?" she stared incredulously at me. My vision was already starting to fade, as I felt my life slipping away from me. "Noelle...." I struggled to say her name for the final time. I had already known from the rate of blood loss that death was inevitable. Even if the ambulance manages to arrive in five minutes time, it would already be too late. I reached into my pockets, taking out a black box. My hands were already shaking heavily at that point, taking every ounce of willpower to keep myself conscious. "Take this.... Give it... to someone...that....you....lo-" And then everything went black. Is this death? I felt as if I was drifting in an ocean, and it was rather quite comfortable. It felt like an eternity until a voice boomed out in my head, abruptly ending my sweet slumber. "MYLERIAAAAAA!" Chapter 3: The Death Match in the Skies Chapter 3: The Death Match in the Skies [Authour''s Note: Shit gets real here.....] As the Three Legged Crow flew over countless mountains and seas, Cyrus was not even crying or struggling to get out of the Crow''s grasp. Why? It was because Cyrus''s soul had finally adjusted to his new body, and is now able to somewhat control his infant size body to a certain extent. He knew that if he managed to get out of the crow''s grasp, he would certainly fall to his death. After half an hour, the Crow was finally slowing down and was descending towards a small hill that was surrounded by cliffs on each end. "Where the $#@% am I?" Cyrus wanted to curse out loud, but all that came out of his tiny mouth was "Waahhh!" Cyrus did not know whether to laugh or cry. The Three Legged Crow finally landed on a tree branch, before fluttering to its nest. In it, Cyrus could see a mini sized Three Legged Crow that was around 50cm in height! It was several times bigger than the average crow from Cyrus''s world. "Mother$#@%king God, was I reborn just to be bird food?" "Caww! Caww!" the mini Three Legged Crow excitedly cried out when it saw it''s mother. It had already opened it''s beak wide toward its mother, seeming to beg its mother for food. The Three Legged Crow picked up Cyrus with its feet, and was about to drop the miserable child into it''s child''s beak when suddenly there was a loud bang! "It came from the mountains" Cyrus immediately discerned the direction. Not just Cyrus, even the magical beasts in the vicinity were looking towards the mountains, bracing themselves for a potential threat. "Varcas, you''re too vicious!" Cyrus saw a red-robed man floating in the skies, shouting towards another figure that was too far away from Cyrus for him to see. "Hmph, the strong devours the weak! If you want to kill me, then come and cut me down if you dare!" another powerful shout reverberated throughout the area. "Earth Colossus!" The ground started rumbling, as if the earth below was moving towards a certain direction. The soil below the mysterious figure rose up, forming a skyscrape- sized sculpture made out of soil and stones. "Roooarrrrrrrrrrrr" The red-robed man raised his red longsword and flew towards the mysterious figure at an insane speed, leaving a sonic boom in his wake! Cyrus was earnestly watching everything, and was wondering if it was actually normal for humans in this world to be able to fly and wield such earth shaking magic. The red-robed man clashed with the Earth Colossus, causing a huge crater on the Earth Colossus. However, the Earth Colossus was no pushover. Raising its moss covered right arm, it swung towards the red-robed man, causing huge gusts of wind with each movement. "BANG!" The red-robed man was thrown backwards and crashed into a nearby mountain, causing huge boulders to tumble down from its peak. In an instant, he had recovered from the shock and flew back into the skies, with an ugly look on his face. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. "Varcas! Very well! If I have to die today, then I shall drag you down with me! Blade of Grand Destruction!" The red-robed man raised his palm towards Varcas, huge amounts of wind gathering towards it before igniting into a giant fireball that was half the size of the Earth Colossus. The giant fireball was furiously swirling, seeming to take a huge toll on the red-robed man as beads of sweat poured down his face. "Fool! You''re going to sacrifice your hundreds of years of training just to use a Devil Technique!" Varcas knew that the situation was getting dangerous, as even he would be in a predicament if he was hit with a force of that scale.He knew that using a Devil Technique would consume an enormous amount of life force, taking away years of the user''s training and cultivation. "I didn''t expect him to know such a powerful Devil Technique. Better retreat for now" Varcas was about to turn and flee but the red-robed man had already expected that to happen. "Heh, I knew you were going to try to escape, so I set up a Five Pillar Formation beforehand! Not even a 9th level magical beast will be able to escape! You, a mere 8th level Arch Magus will surely die today!" The fireball then transformed into a red giantsword, flying towards Varcas. In a split second, it had pierced through the Earth Colossus between the red-robed man and Varcas! "Spluurrttt!" blood gushed out of Varca''s already limp body. He had died in an instant, not even realizing that the giantsword had already gone through his body. All the magical beasts in the area held their breaths as Varca''s dead body fell down to the ground. They did not dare to make a move, fearing that the red-robed man would take their lives on a whim. "And may the souls of my clan rest in peace, for I have avenged you all..." The red-robed man took one last look at his family''s murderer, and was about to leave when he noticed something strange. A human baby. "Why is there a human baby in the middle of nowhere? Perhaps it was taken to be food for the magical beasts." The red-robed man flew down towards the Three Legged Crow''s nest, and was about the reach out for the baby when the Three Legged Crow suddenly flew forward! It had thought that the red-robed man had wanted to take its child and not its food, hence it''s survival instincts took control. "Swooosh!"In an instant, the red-robed man''s longsword had cleaved the Three Legged Crow in half! What''s more, it was a higher level magical beast, somewhere around from the 7th or 8th level! When he saw the Three Legged Crow hatchling, he couldn''t help but frown in surprise. "It''s a Variant Magical Beast... My fortune today is good!" He picked up the Three Legged Crow hatchling who was still crying out for its food and the infant Cyrus who was staring at him with reverent eyes, before soaring back towards the horizon. Chapter 4: Blood Devil Shane Chapter 4: Blood Devil Shane As the red-robed man soared through the skies cradling Cyrus with one hand and holding the Three Legged Crow hatchling;s neck with the other, Cyrus finally got a closer look at the red-robed man. His face showed signs of aging as he had crows feet on his eyes, and there were numerous scars on his face. The most prominent one was the scar that was vertically across his left eye. His red irises never left the horizon, seemingly to be in deep thought. "Cawwww!" The Three Legged Crow hatchling was attempting to scratch the red-robed man''s hand, struggling to get itself free. However it seemed to have no effect on the man as his expression did not change, just continuing to stare at the horizon. After a couple hours of an uneventful flight, Cyrus could finally make out a cluster of pavilions, temples and pagodas. It seemed like even in this world, there are cultures that are similar to the Chinese from Cyrus''s world. "Lord Shane, you''re back" A plain white-robed young man wrapped his fists and bowed deeply to the red-robed man. Cyrus deduced that the red-robed man''s name was Shane. Carrying the infant Cyrus and the Crow Hatchling with both arms, Shane strode towards a particularly large pagoda with a signboard with golden letters "Blood Devil Residence". "Greetings, Lord Shane," everyone that saw the red-robed man would greet him the same way the first man did. As Shane approached the pagoda, the iron doors suddenly swept aside, granting access to Shane. "Do these doors open automatically?" Cyrus wondered. There was no one on the opposite side of the doors, hence making Cyrus wonder if there was a hidden device. "What shall I do with this child...." Shane mumbled to himself. On a whim, he had killed the Three Legged Crow, rescuing Cyrus but after a while, he realized that he had no idea what to do with the baby. As a warrior, he had spent all his time learning the arts of combat and some magic. He had never married, not to mention raising a baby. "Maybe I should ask a disciple to raise him." WIthin this continent, Shane was well known as the Blood Devil, having dyed his originally white robe red with the blood of the enemies, all in the name of vengeance and anger. In this White Serenity School, Shane was no doubt the most proficient in physical combat. After some contemplation, he decided to let a female disciple that had given birth before to raise the baby. He did not know whether the infant had parents, but he guessed that the powerful Three Legged Crow had already killed his parents and took the infant to feed its hatchling. "This Three Legged Crow seems to have a higher growth rate than most Three Legged Crows..." Shane thought to himself. He had deduced that this Three Legged Crow was only 2 years old from the number of white feathers it had. Every magical beast has a feature that reveals their age. For example, a hundred year old Three Legged Crow would have a hundred white feathers, and a thousand year old Hellfire Phoenix would have a thousand feathers with a distinct pattern. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. However, this Three Legged Crow was almost the same size as its mother who had forty white feathers, even though it was only two years old! In the future, it was possible for this Three Legged Crow to reach an insane size and power. Shane had decided to hand raise it as he felt that it was too dangerous to be left alone and felt that it was too wasteful to kill it. "Doerba, send for Fourth Discple Kira, I have a favour to ask of her." Shane projected his mental power to his servant who was waiting outside his pagoda. In a few breath''s time, light footsteps could be heard from outside Shane''s pagoda. "Lord Shane,Fourth Disciple Kira has arrived." Doerba''s meek voice came through the gaps of the iron doors. "Come in." At the same time, the iron doors swiftly opened, allowing a kindly looking woman that seemed to be in her thirties to walk in. "Fourth Discple Kira greets Teacher," Kira bowed her head. "Kira, I found this boy in the middle of the Valley of Magical Beasts. I fear that his parents and village was massacred by the Three Legged Crow, and hope that you will look after him for the time being, until he is old enough to start making a living for himself." "It shall be done, Teacher. Then this child.... Does he have a name?" Kira looked at the baby who was also staring back at Kira with his cute pearly eyes. Kira''s maternal instincts were already starting to take over, thinking of the things she would do, such as dressing up the boy in pretty clothes. "Ah... that... I too, do not know. You may name him as you wish." Shane lightly yawned and let Kira decide on the child''s name. The toll of using the Blade of Grand Destruction was finally starting to catch up to him, and he wanted to take a good rest and resume his closed door training. Kira noticed his momentary display of exhaustion and was tactful enough to end this matter quickly, allowing her teacher to have his rest. "We shall name him...." [Author''s Note: I hope you guys will take a moment of your time to comment about what you think of my story, as well as how I can improve! Much appreciated!] Chapter 5: Asura Chapter 5: Asura "...Asura! [Author''s Note: I know you all saw it coming! From now on we will call him Asura instead of Cyrus, so you guys don''t get confused.] Ever since Asura was born into this world, he had learnt a lot of things. For instance, the people here seem to age a lot slower than from his world. Even a fifty year old woman would look as if she was in her early twenties. He had then deduced that Shane was far older than he appeared to be. Also, the more powerful you are, the slower you age. That meant that 9th level experts would be able to live for hundreds of years while 1st level experts would at most live to a hundred. "Mother!" Asura bowed towards Kira. 12 years had already passed by in a flash. Kira and Shane had agreed to adopt Asura as Kira''s son, and let him grow up without letting him know that he was adopted. Little did they know that Asura already had a crystal clear idea of what was happening around him ever since that Three Legged Crow picked him up. "You''re working hard. Here, have a rest and eat some snacks" Kira gestured towards the basket in her hands. Ever since Asura was a baby, she had treated Asura like her own as her biological child was killed by a magical beast. Asura knew that Kira was a kind woman, and he treated her as he would treat his mother from the past world. "Thanks!" Asura took a seat at the table, and discussed trivial matters with Kira before resuming his sword training. When Asura was 2 years old, his body was already strong enough to start running about. When he was 4, he started to ''learn'' how to speak. He feared that it would be too suspicious for a 4 year old to have such profound knowledge, and would put his life at risk. As a toddler, he often watched the disciples of White Serenity School training in the arts of the sword, as well as mana manipulation. According to the private lessons from his mother Kira, mana comes from an area in the body known as the ''Origin of Life'' which is 3 cm in diameter and is located in the center of the chest, No matter how much you cultivate your mana, the ''Origin of Life'' will never grow further than 3 cm, but will instead make the mana within it more dense. Also, there are several ways to use mana. You can wield it in its raw form, which will come out as an invisible air. You can also convert mana into several elements. In this world, there are only four elements. Wind, Fire, Earth and Water. The average person can only wield one element. Dual element wielders are considered a rarity, and triple element wielders are sought after by powerful empires and corporations. As for Quad wielders, there was only one that was recorded in history. Ever since he saw the disciples practicing, he had begged Kira to let him undergo warrior training, as well as mana manipulation. Naturally, Kira had relented and taught Asura privately, giving him a more dedicated training than most disciples will ever be able to receive. "Warrior training is simple and effective, but it is also arduous and requires a will of steel." These were the words Kira told Asura right after he asked her to let him undergo warrior training. To practice the art of the sword, you must first go through Warrior Training. Without a solid foundation, it is impossible for one to be able to proficiently wield a heavy weapon for hours on end. "97.... 98.... 99... 100!" Asura finally completed his fifth set of a hundred pushups. And this happened when Asura was only six years old, shocking everyone, including Kira. Based on Kira''s experience, she knew that Asura was already as strong as most ten year old kids. In this world, strength is power. Even commoners have to undergo physical training from a very young age. Since then, Asura had begun his extremely intensive regimen of physcial training. At night, he would absorb the mana essences in the air into his body, condensing them into his Origin of Life. This went on for another six years. Asura was now 12 years old, and his body had the strength of a level 4 warrior. He had once seen a level 6 warrior lift up a huge boulder with one hand, It was unthinkable what a level 9 warrior could do! Kira had mentioned that her teacher, Shane, was a level 8 warrior when he picked up Asura and the Three Legged Crow hatchling. Since then, Shane had been undergoing deep meditation behind locked doors to recover his strength after using the Devil Technique ''Blade of Grand Destruction''. "Whoosh!" A fireball appeared in front of Asura. One can find out what his element is only when he is at least ten years old, when his Origin of Life has matured. When Kira performed the Affinity Test on Asura, she couldn''t help but tremble at the sight of Asura''s potential, for the result was... High affinity in all four elements! In the Kingdom of Blackfire''s history, there was only one quad element wielder, and he rose to become the founder of the Kingdom of Blackfire! All the other Kingdoms were mostly founded by duo element and triple element wielders. Even now, duo element and triple element wielders are greatly respected and sought after by militant kingdoms. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. "Even though I have four elements, it might not necessarily be a good thing." Asura thought to himself after the test. Although having high affinities with all four elements was so extremely rare, Asura remembered that Kira said that she took fifty years to reach the 7th level of mana manipulation, earning the title of Arch Magus. 1st level to 6th level mana manipulators are generally called ''Magus''. 7th level mana manipulators are called ''Arch Magus'', 8th level mana manipulators are called ''Grand Magus'' and those of the legendary 9th level will earn the title of ''Bishop''. Another rule was that a 2nd level warrior was only as strong as a 1st level magus. Magi are able wield powerful mana techniques, such manipulating their mana through a series of complex techniques, which can easily overpower a level 1 warrior. Therefore, most people opt to go for warrior training instead of mana manipulation because training in the art of mana manipulation is too complex and difficult for ordinary people. "Scrreeechh!" Asura clashed swords with another youth that looked just slightly older than Asura. His name is Yong, Asura''s assigned sparring partner. Among the ordinary disciples, he was considered a genius, as he possessed high affinities in water and earth. Many disciples have often felt that if Asura wasn''t here, Yong would have been in the spotlight. "You''ve improved... *huff* again, that last... *huff* sword technique... *huff* really hurt!" Yong rubbed his sword hand. During their spar, Asura unleashed a torrent of heavy slashes, making Yong''s arm go numb from the weight. "Hehe..." Asura said nothing. Over the years, he had been training non-stop, trying to catch up to Yong, When Asura had only just begun his training, Yong had already been a 2nd level warrior. But in the past six years, Yong could only rise by two levels while Asura had already reached the fourth level. Not to mention that Asura is also a 3rd level Quad Magi! In a fight between magi, the one with the better element and affinity would often win. For example, a 3rd level fire magi can win against a 4th level wind magi with some difficulty. Having more elements and high affnity, naturally the chances of winning will also increase. "Bro, let''s ...*huff* stop here... *huff* You better get... *huff* another sparring partner!" Yong complained, his handsome face was soaked with sweat. During Yong''s first sparring session against the 2nd level Asura, he could easily overpower him. But now, even if he fought with dirty methods, it was almost impossible for him to win!" "Aaawww... Yong lost..." some female disciples moaned. Blessed with his long sharp nose and his piercing blue eyes, he had already stolen a dozen female disciple''s hearts. His short brown hair was wrapped in a bun over his head, giving off a scholarly feeling. Asura didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. Sometimes when he beat Yong by a huge margin, the female disciples would angrily glare at him and make things difficult for him, such as spiking his lunch with hot pepper and the likes. Asura had continued to make smooth progress in his trainings, and thought that this peace would continue for decades. Of course, fate was not so kind to him.... [Author''s Note: Hi guys, I hope that you all will would be so kind as to take a minute and give me some constructive criticism! I am aware that I am somewhat lacking in my writing skills, therefore I hope you guys can give me some tips in the comments section or write a review on my Fiction page! At the same time, I get motivation when I see your comments as they let me know that you guys are paying attention to my story! P.S. Sorry for the rant XP ] Chapter 6: Twist of Fate Chapter 6: Twist of Fate "Doerba!" a voice boomed out from the Blood Devil Residence. Doerba, who was just doing his everyday chores had finally heard his lord''s voice after a full twelve years! "Your servant Doerba is here!" Doerba put down his broom and wrapped his fists and bowed towards the Blood Devil Residence. At the same time, the iron doors swung open and a red-robed man stepped out. "Tell the Elders to meet at the Peaceful Hall. It is an emergency." Shane instructed Doerba, his voice filled with urgency. "That son of a bitch Varcas..." Shane muttered. "Hut! Huuuahhh!" Asura screamed. After his spars with Yong, he would sometimes find ways to counter Yong''s attacks, or counter his counters. "If I release a burst of mana at Yong''s legs, he will definitely shift his guard to his legs..." Asura started simulating his next spar with Yong in his mind. Suddenly.... "Cawww!" a giant Three-Legged Crow landed outside of Asura''s pavilion. The Three-Legged Crow that was picked up by Shane had transformed into a monolithic avian over the years. Shane did not bother giving it a name, so Asura decided to call it ''Sanzu''. Sanzu cawed at Asura, ruffling its feathers. Over the years, Sanzu had developed an intimate friendship with Asura, as they had been together ever since Shane picked them up. Four years ago when Sanzu was already big enough for Asura to climb onto it, Sanzu would let Asura ride on its back and fly around the surrounding valleys. "This Sanzu has gotten bigger again. What on earth does he eat?" Asura chuckled to himself. Asura got up from his sitting position, and climbed out from the windows and got onto Sanzu''s back in a flash. "Sanzu, let''s go!" Sanzu cawed loudly in reply, and flapped its black wings before ascending towards the skies. At the Peaceful Hall.... "Clang!" a clay cup shattered upon being thrown on the floor. "Outrageous! I, Elder Poong have never seen such an unreasonable person!" a white haired old man shouted. He had a white beard that was smooth and reached his waist. Angrily stroking his beard, he looked at Shane. "Lord Shane, what should we do? If we don''t take action, the Kingdom of Blackfire will forcibly disband out school!" Poong was already on the verge of tears. He was so mad that he had wanted to pick up his walking stick and march towards the imperial palace. "Calm down. There are many friends of Varcas working for the King. If we unnecessarily offend the nobles, even I will have a difficult time..." Shane replied to Poong. Even though he appeared calm, he too, was also about to explode from the indignation. "But if worse comes to worst. we will have to transport our disciples to my old villa. Elder Moba, start preparing the Mass Teleport Spell immediately, just to be safe," Shane instructed. "Yes, Lord Shane" a short middle aged man with a pot belly answered back. He wobbled out of the Peaceful Hall to prepare the Mass Teleport Spell. If there was no one that knew him, all they would see was a weak looking middle aged man that had digestion problems. However, the Elders in the Peaceful Hall all knew not to mess with him. In fact, he was actually an Arch Magus! "Lord Shane, do you have any solutions? That bastard Coran, feeding the King with lies!" Poong was already starting to stamp his feed on the marble floor. "Cease your pathetic display, Poong! You''re an Elder, you must remain calm and hold yourself with dignity!" Shane glared at Poong. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. "As long as I am around, I will not let Coran have his way! The secret arts of White Serenity School must never fall into his hands!" Shane reminded the Elders of the importance of the secret arts. Every School has its own secret arts. They''re commonly mana techniques or training manuals, instructing the reader on how to effectively train his body and mana. "Coran must be after the ''Thousand Essences Absorption Skill!" Poong exclaimed, his eyes bloodshot with rage. In the Peaceful Hall room, except for Elder Moba who went to prepare the Mass Teleportation Spell, the other 3 Elders that were present couldnt help but look at each other, their frustration visible on their faces. Among the secret arts of White Serene School, the Thousand Essences Absorption Skill was a legendary skill that only the School Leader could learn! Shane, having been the best disciple in his generation, inherited the title of School Leader and had learnt the Thousand Essences Absorption Skill. What that could have taken him to reach the 8th level from the 7th level was originally 50 years, was reduced to a dozen years! "Hmph!" Shane was furious, and decided to end the meeting for now, and to get ready to ''greet'' Coran. Meanwhile...... "Swoooshhhh!" Sanzu and Asura soared above the valleys, relishing in the pleasure of the air whooshing against them. "Sanzu, slow down!" Asura was enjoying the scenery when he noticed ''ants'' going towards the hill that his White Serenity School was located at. Focusing mana into his eyes, Asura''s range of vision was several times better than an eagle''s. "It''s an army!" Asura quickly realized that the ''ant''s were actually humans wearing steel armor and cloth robes. Most of the infantries seemed to be 2nd level warriors, but who knows what the commander''s levels were? "Sanzu, let''s go back, I have to tell Mother!" Back at Blood Devil Residence.... "Doerba,,," Shane''s weary voice rang out from the iron doors. There was no reply. "Where has that Doerba gone off too? I hope he didn''t get into trouble." Shane had wanted to tell Doerba to take some of the most powerful and talented disciples to flee, but it seems that Doerba had disappeared off to somewhere. "Caaww!" a huge gust of wind came forth from outside Blood Devil''s Residence. Sanzu and Asura had returned. Asura was about to run off to find his mother when Shane''s voice rang out from within Asura''s mind. "Asura, come find me. Immediately!" "Huh? Did Lord Shane already find out about the army?" Asura wondered if Shane had already discovered the approaching army. "Creeakkkkk...." the iron doors of Blood Devil Residence ominously opened. Just a millisecond after Asura had stepped in, the iron doors immediately shut! Chapter 7: White Serenity School Glossary I realized that some information may have caused readers to be confused, so I''ll be making a glossary so that it''ll be easier for you guys to understand the current world that Asura is in. Asura - Born in year B984, was reborn into this world after being killed in a freak accident. Noelle - Asura/Cyrus''s girlfriend from his former world. Was about to propose to her before he died. Shane - Leader of the White Serenity School, he rescued Asura from the Valley of Magical Beasts and also handraised Sanzu. Sanzu - Asura''s Three Legged Crow sidekick. Will have more surprises for you guys. Yong - Asura''s friend and sparring partner. Is the eye candy of the female disciples of White Serenity School. Used to be considered a prodigy until Asura was adopted by Kira. Kira - Asura''s mother. Her biological child was killed by magical beasts, and had a dislike for them ever since. Does not really like Sanzu either. In this world, fighters are classified into two categories; Warriors and Magi. It is also possible for a person to be proficient in both aspects, but is extremely rare due to the difficulty of training as a magi. Furthermore, magi spend most of their time in training their mana and will not have time to train their body. Warriors - Fighters that are proficient in the ways of close combat(usually), most commonly the sword. 1st level warriors can qualify to enter the army as foot soldiers, and are only strong enough to lift 50kg with one hand. As the level increases, their physical strength also increases by several fold. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Magi - Fighters that are proficient in the ways of mana, such as converting mana into the elements or just wielding mana in its raw form. Everyone will have a element of their own, but it is extremely difficult to improve their powers. That''s why some people opt to become warriors even if they are suitable to become magi. Magical Beasts - Sentient beings with a higher level of intelligence than most humans. Thus a 2nd level warrior may not necessarily be able to defeat a 2nd level magical beast. Current Kingdoms: Kingdom of Blackfire(Most powerful military). Kingdom of Griamor(Army of magical beasts. Able to ride wind element magical beasts in the air to ambush enemies.) Kingdom of Arun(Magi based army, able to launch powerful AoE spells by combining their mana). Kingdom of Fale(Possesses the most percentage of the world''s economy. Most of its citizens are merchants and are proficient in the arts of bartering and politics.) [Will update more information on a later time. Do comment if you have any questions.] Chapter 7: White Serenity School "Asura, come to the fourth floor," Shane''s voice echoed within the pagoda. Asura hurried, feeling that he should tell someone about the approaching army. Ever since he saw the army, there was an uneasy feeling in his chest, as if something terrible was going to happen. Asura agilely ran up the stairs, as if he was a starving tiger chasing after his prey. Upon reaching the fourth floor, he found himself in a scorching room. In the center of the room, there was a brazier so large that you could fit an elephant inside. "So hot... What kind of flame is this?" It must be understood that upon reaching the 4th level as a warrior, the sun''s heat only barely affected Asura, and normal fires would not even give off a heat as strong as this brazier was. "These flames are not ordinary." Asura could feel the powerful heat emanating from the blue flames. "Those are called ''True Samadhi Flames''," a voice came from behind Asura. Feeling a sense of danger, Asura quickly turned around to look at the stranger who had so quietly sneaked up onto him. When he turned around, he saw that it was only Shane. "Grand Teacher" Asura clasped his fists and bowed, waiting for Shane to explain why he had been summoned into Shane''s Blood Devil Residence. "Asura, you''ve been training well. Kira has told me that over the years, you''ve been diligent in your warrior training, and that you actually have high affinities in all four elements... Even though you have such outstanding talent, at most you had only displayed fire and wind spells in public, and not revealing that you actually are a Quad element wielder. The world is cruel and ruthless, you have made the right choice!" Shane was sizing up Asura. He had judge that such an ordinary looking baby wouldn''t amount to much. Imagine when he woke up after twelve years of isolation and was told that the baby Kira adopted had grown up into such a monster! Asura had already known from his private classes with Kira that duo element wielders were a rarity, and there were even wars over the right to hire a triple element wielder, much less a Quad element wielder. At first Asura was quite excited that he could wield all four elements, but then realized that things could get complicated if he revealed his talent. For example, top exponents might feel threatened by his talent, and would either try to become friends with him or nip his potential in the bud. During Asura''s past life as Cyrus, he had often witnessed some of the company''s ''politics'' and would sometimes go with the flow. He had heard rumors of the executives having the backings of the triads and would deal with their matters in an underhanded manner. "Your disciple Asura does not deserve such praise" Asura bowed his head deeply. Asura had always felt gratitude towards Shane, for he would have become bird food if not for his timely fight with the mysterious figure that Shane killed. "Asura, you must remember not to flaunt your power. Even an exponent more powerful than me would feel jealous of your potential, much less all the evil men out there in the world. Anyways, I have something to show you." Shane leisurely walked towards a shelf, with his hands folded behind him. "Susam hapur!" Shane made a two finger gesture, pointing towards the shelf. "Ruummbleeeee......" the shelf was raised upwards, and Asura could hear countless gears from within the walls. "Seems that even in this world, people use gears and chains for hidden devices" Asura pondered. Kira had Asura a hidden passage in one of the old buildings, which led to the opposide side of the mountain. In the past, this hidden passage was used a means of escape. But after so many decades, it had been forgotten by many. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "Follow me!" Shane commanded. Asura was somewhat tempted to reply "Affirmative!" as in his previous world, he had often played first person shooter games such as Counter Strike and Call of Duty. Keeping his thoughts to himself, Asura quickly caught up to Shane and the shelf rumbled once again, sealing the entrance and removed all traced of it being a hidden entrance. "Fireball!" Asura forcibly willed two flows of mana to collide in his palm, thus igniting into a basic spell ''Fireball''. "At most I''ll be able to maintain this ''Fireball'' for an hour..." Asura kept pace with Shane as they walked forwards. On both sides of Asura and Shane were walls made of stone blocks and there were some torch holders along the way. "Asura, do you still remember the True Samadhi Flames you saw earlier?" Shane turned his head sideways, looking at Asura with his peripheral vision. "Yes, Grand Teacher." "Today, let me tell you a little story about our White Serenity School..." Shane''s thoughts were already drifting to the past, as he remembered his teacher saying the exact same words.... "A long long time ago, there was red skinned boy whose mother was a human, and his father a magical beast. When he was a hundred years old, he had still retained an appearance of a boy. One day, the boy''s father went to battle against another magical beast, but was defeated. Out of rage, the boy went to hunt down the magical beast who defeated his father, burning down the magical beast''s forest and had reduced it to ashes in a minute, almost killing the magical beast." "The humans, fearing that a god of fire had descended upon the realm, prayed for three days and nights, before the heavens answered them. A lady in red dress descended from the skies, calling herself ''Mazu''. When Mazu had reached the burnt forest, she wept for the magical beasts, animals and humans that died in the fire." "When she reached the red boy''s hideout, she fought with him for a month, before the red boy finally ran out of mana and was sealed in a brazier, forever trying to get out by using his ''True Samadhi Flames''. Before she returned to heaven, she chose a man and taught him some mana techniques and gave him warrior training manuals. He would then later be known as the Founder of our White Serenity School." Shane had finally finished telling Asura about the founding of the White Serenity School. "What would happen if we opened the brazier?" Asura wondered. "I know what you''re thinking, child. I have also wondered what would happen if I was to open the brazier, until my teacher told me that when one of the previous Leader had tried it, he was burnt to ashes in an instant upon touching the brazier." Shane confessed. "Even Elder Moba, an Arch Magus who duo wields the water and earth elements, was unable to faze the ''True Samadhi Flames'' a single bit! Ah, we''ve reached." Shane finally stopped walking, and stood still. Asura was walking right behind Shane, so he could not see what Shane was looking at. Tilting his head to the left, he realized that they had reached a room full of scrolls and rolled up manuscripts. Some of the parchments had already become illegible, having gone through the passage of time. "This is the Secret Vault of our White Serenity School, where only School Leaders and future School Leaders are authorized to enter!" Chapter 8: Secret Arts Chapter 8: Secret Arts [Author''s Note: Very artistic. so amze. very wow] "This is the Secret Vault of our White Serenity School, where only School Leaders and future School Leaders are authorized to enter!" "... Teacher?" Asura softly whispered. Asura already had an idea of what Shane had meant with his words. Stepping into the doorless room that was made out of stone blocks, Asura caught a faint whiff of the smell of old books and paper. Picking up one of the scrolls on the floor, Asura unrolled it and took a look at the contents. On faded but still somewhat legible ink words were written "Mana Sense". "That is a really useful skill, you should keep it and study it carefully. By using Mana Sense, you will be spreading out your mana like a sphere and expand it to your desired size. Any organism that has mana will not be able to escape your notice. Very useful when you are exploring at a treacherous area where you can be easily ambushed" Shane advised. He recalled his earlier days when he had travelled around the world, and was often saved by this skill from sneak attacks as well as enemies that were attacking from his blind spots. Although Asura was already a 4th level Warrior and a 3rd level magus, those were only in terms of body physique and mana capacity. He had not learned some of the more complex sword moves and mana techniques and spells. " Yes, Teacher". Asura rolled up the scroll and put it into his robe pockets. "Wait here," Shane told Asura and walked to the shelves, browsing through the decaying scrolls, taking whatever he felt that Asura needed."Sigh... I hope Asura will not lose these precious scrolls.... Especially this one." Shane mumbled to himself, looking at the ''Thousand Essences Absorption'' scroll. He was somewhat reluctant to let a boy who had not even come of age to inherit all these precious scrolls. If not for the impending calamity, he would not have resorted to such drastic measures. If there was enough time, he would have let Asura memorize the scroll''s contents at his leisure, but they were in a dire situation. Take these, and make sure to master them all. Once you have mastered these skills, burn the scrolls. You must never share these skills to anyone, including your best friend or beloved." Shane warned Asura. "If these scrolls falls into the wrong hands, not only will the White Serene School die out, wars might even break out!" You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. "Yes, Teacher! Disciple Asura will never forget your words, even in death!" Asura vowed to remember Shane''s word forever. He had guessed that Shane already found out about the army, and his extreme actions meant that the army approaching was not a good thing. "Asura, you''re still young and green. Take this token, if you show it to any of the Warriors'' Guild branches, they will provide you with free lodging. Go and venture out into the world, accumulate experience and find your own path of life! By all means, you must not reveal that you are from our White Serenity School. Go and use the emergency escape passage, now!" Meanwhile... "Lord Coran, we are now 50km away from White Serenity School" a muscular man stabbed his pike into the hardened soil, his feat speaking volumes of his strength. "Sound the horn," Coran commanded, with authority in his voice. Dressed in his military general garment, he gave off an air of menace and ruthlessness. Being a military general requires one to have either connections within the inner circle of the nobility or through hard work and luck. Coran was the latter. Born into a slave household, he was treated brutally throughout his childhood, moulding him into a vicious and cunning man, who would then unleash his rage upon the world. In the military, he had to go through countless deadly struggles, and had naturally formed close relationships with some of the men in the military. One of them was Varcas. "Hoooonnnngggggg........." "Men, forward march!" "Eagle Squardron, ready your fire elemental spells!" "Battalions, assume pyramid formation!" "Shane, you killed my brother Varcas. Today, I shall repay you a thousand fold!" And the air around Coran started to tremble, as if in tandem with his rage. Chapter 9: Start of a Journey Chapter 9: Start of a Journey [Author''s Note:Here''s the promised chapter!] At the base of the mountain, a prebuscent boy dressed in tattered white robes crawled out of a small opening at a cave. Brushing the dirt off him, he got out of the cave and observed his surroundings. Looking at the now barely visible cluster of pagodas and temples, he sighed. He had wanted to bid his friends and mother farewell, but his grand teacher had urged him to escape immediately. Asura stuck two fingers into his mouth and whistled. "Phhheeeewwwttt!" This was the signal that Asura had taught Sanzu years ago. A moment later, the sounds of fallping and screeching could be heard. "Caaawwww!" Sanzu landed beside Asura and lowered his head, letting Asura climb onto his back. Meanwhile.... "Lord Shane, we have spotted a legion, about fifty thousand men strong, marching with the flag of Coran!" Poong''s eldest disciple announced at the Peaceful Hall. All the Elders and their personal disciples who were assembled at the Peaceful Hall, except Elder Moba, were awaiting instructions from Shane. "Have the disciples been evacuated?" Shane asked Moba''s disciple, Lori. "No, Lord Shane." Lori continued, "Teacher will require more time to complete the spell." The atmosphere in the Peaceful Hall had grown tense. Each of the people present were already aware that there was a large possibility of them dying during the oncoming battle. "I see. We must buy enough time for Mora to complete his spell. Elders, I fear that by sunset, most of us who are present will have died. If you want to back out now and flee, I will not blame you." Shane was giving one last chance for them to preserve their lives. "Humph, who needs to run from that bastard Coran? I will drag down as many of his damned men and lieutenants with me to hell!" Poong stood up, brandishing his wooden staff. After so many years of training, he had already grown weary, having been stuck at the Arch Magus rank for over seventy years. He felt that even if he trained for another hundred years, the chances of him ascending to Grand Magus was extremely low. "Well said! You took the words right out of my mouth!" Another Elder stood up. Flexing his gigantic muscles, the white haired Elder Karim stood up. Even though he appeared to be in his nineties, he had managed to retain his air of vigor and his physique. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. "I will smash them all down with my fists, just like a true man should!" Elder Karim cracked his knuckles. The other Elders and disciples also stood up, each agreeing and professed their loyalty and their will to fight to the death. "Good! Come, let''s go and give that dog Coran a very warm and courteous welcome!" Shane stood up as well, striding towards the main gates, with the Elders and their disciples following closely behind. "Lord Coran, there are some White Serenity School members coming down. One of them seems to be Blood Devil Shane, judging from his red robe." "Ku ku ku, this bastard Shane is just asking for an early death! Very well, I shall grant his wish!" Coran''s lips curled up into a smirk. "Men, kiiillllll!!!!" His voice boomed with power, instilling his troops with bloodlust! "This Coran is quite a capable general, he actually has the ability to stimulate his troops with just two words. If only he was on our side..." Shane was calmly stepping down the stone steps, observing Coran all the while. "Rrrrarrrrr!!!!!" "The ground quaked as the fifty thousand men strong legion surged towards the white robed men, with the aim to spill the soil with fresh blood. "I hope they will be alright..." Asura looked back at the hill that he had stayed at for twelve whole years. Looking at the scrolls that Shane had given him, he decided to first find a place to settle at, so that he can peacefully train and master the secret arts. Sanzu and Asura were now soaring above the clouds, blocking them from the views of anyone at ground level. "Sanzu, full speed ahead!" [Author''s Note: Please comment if you liked this chapter, and if you have any constructive critisms, please feel free to comment!] Chapter 10: Elemental Synergy Chapter 10: Elemental Synergy "Huff... huff.. huff.. Unbelievable!" Asura panted. In front of him, a portion of the once lush green forest had been totally decimated, and all that remained were molten stones and ashes. "This Burning Gale... is simply too powerful!" Asura looked at his burnt right hand. An hour earlier.... "Sanzu, stop!" Asura patted Sanzu on his head. After flying in the skies towards the south for five days and nights, he had become exhausted and thirsty, and had been looking for a water source. During the last two days, the pair had flown over a desert, thinking that it was only several kilometres long. Asura had feared that he would die from thirst before reaching a water source, but was extremely relieved when they had finally reached to the end of the desert, and into a marshland. "Pong!" Sanzu landed heavily onto a stone boulder. Asura quickly got off Sanzu''s back and clambered towards the marsh, cupping up some water with his hands and slurped noisily. "Ahh... So refreshing!" Asura''s dried lips were starting to regain some moisture. He then sat down a stone boulder and decided to take a look at the scrolls. Other than the ''Mana Sense'' scroll he picked up, he did not know what the contents of the other scrolls were. Taking out the six scrolls he had, he laid them on the boulder. "Let''s see...." Asura picked a scroll at random and quickly unrolled it. Written in it were big black fading ink words "Elemental Synergy". Asura continued reading. "Elemental Synergy is the technique of combining two or more elements, thereby creating a ''Fused Elemental Spell''! The four elements are, Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. Fire is strong against Wind, but weak against Water. Water is strong against Fire, but weak against Earth. Earth is strong against Water, but weak against Wind. Wind is strong against Earth, but weak against Fire. Even though these elements are vastly different from each other, it is possible to synergize them! For example, a basic ''Fused Elemental Spell: Sandstorm'' can be created by manipulating Earth elemental essences into Sand, and Wind elemental essences into a storm, and then combining them together!" Asura was already thinking of what he could do, as he had not just two elements, but four! He continued reading. "By converting Water elemental essences into water and Wind elemetal essences into strong winds, it is possible to freeze the water into the 5th element, Ice!" Asura couldn''t stop reading for the next hour, before deciding to test it out. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "For starters, I''ll use my two favourite elements, Fire and Wind. Convert fire elemental essences into flames while converting wind elemental essences into strong wind at the same time...." Asura mumbled, trying to use two different mana techniques at the same time. "Arghh... This ''Elemental Synergy'' spell sounds really powerful, but it is actually not easy! It''s like trying to draw a star with one hand and a hexagon with the other!" After multiple failed attempts, Asura felt that he was getting closer to success. The difficulty of trying to use two different mana techniques at the same time was getting less and less. Finally... He could feel the elemental essences of two different mana techniques colliding with each other in his ''Origin of Life'', ready to burst forth! Raising his right palm forwards, he released the mana built up within his ''Origin of Life''.... "RROOOOOAAARRRR!!!" It was as if a mini tsunami of flames spewed out of his palm! While Asura was engrossed with ''training'', Sanzu had already perched himself on a nearby tree and went to sleep. Upon the unleashing of the ''Fused Elemental Spell'', Sanzy who had just started to dream woke up with a start, cawing loudly from shock. "CAWW! CAWW!" "Crrisppp.... Crracckkleeee...." the trees and grasses affected by the flames were instantly burnt to a crisp, leaving only ashes in its wake. Even the night skies were slightly lit up from the flaming torrent and the burning marsh. "Dayum..." Asura''s right palm had suffered third degree burns from using this powerful technique. "It''s like a double edged sword." Asura realized. Converting mana into water elemental essences, he used a basic water technique ''Healing Water'' on his burns. While Asura was healing his burns, he had not noticed someone sneaking up onto him... [Author''s Note: I know some of you feel that my chapters are really short, but its for a reason! Why? Because...... ITS MY STORY MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Nah, just kidding. It''s because when the sitation starts to change, I will promptly end the chapter and start on a new one. I think I have enough time to write another two chapters, look forward to them!] Chapter 11: The Black Figure Chapter 11: The Black Figure [Author''s Note: Things are about to get nasty, be warned! Continue at your own risk.] Asura was grimacing with pain, as the ''Fused Elemental Spell: Burning Gale'' was too powerful for him to handle. "At least only the skin and a little flesh was burnt off, not the nerves and mana vessels..." Asura was relieved. When the abyssal flames poured out of his hand, he had almost pissed his pants from shock! Sweats were pouring down his face, as he had to consume mana to maintain the ''Healing Water'' spell while enduring the pain and smell of burnt flesh. "Crricckk!" the sound of twigs breaking came from behind Asura. Fearing that a magical beast had snuck up onto him, Asura quickly condensed his mana all over his skin, making it as hard as steel. A split second later... "Clang!" If Asura had not reacted fast enough, his head would already be rolling on the floor! He could now feel a soreness on his neck. Turning his head around, he could see a black humanoid figure retreat into the darkness. "Who are you?!" Asura shouted. He was starting to panic. Even though he had sparred often with Yong, both of them fought without the intent to kill. However, Asura could feel bloodlust radiating from the black figure! "Whooooshhhhhhh" The black figure did not answer, and darted about in the darkness, as if it was a hunter waiting for its prey to show its weakness. "Fireball!" Asura had already finished healing his right hand, and raised both palms facing his sides, and shot out Fireballs to light up the area. "Whoooshhhhh!" The black figure retreated even further, as if it knew that Asura launched the fireballs to locate it. All of this had happened in about five seconds. When the black figure first struck, Sanzu had already reacted, silently sweeping its wings and soared into the air, preparing to kill the black figure who was trying to kill Sanzu''s dear friend. Sanzu had to fly up slowly, so as to avoid alerting the black figure of Sanzu''s presence. Finally reaching the peak of his ascension, Sanzu''s made a U turn in the air, descending rapidly towards the black figure who had just gotten out of Asura''s fireball range. The black figure was about to regain it''s footing when it suddenly heard a screech coming from behind. Almost reaching supersonic speed, Sanzu swooped down upon the black figure. Asura, who noticed what Sanzu was planning, was already converting his mana into two elements to use the ''Fused Elemental Spell: Burning Gale'' in case Sanzu misses or if the black figure was too fast. He would only fire the spell right after Sanzu was out of its range. Even though there were five white feathers on Sanzu, indicating that that he is currently a Variant magical beast of the fifth level, Asura was afraid that even Sanzu might not come out unharmed from the ''Burning Gale''. "CLONG!" A sound as if two tough metals had clashed against each other rang out from between the black figure and Sanzu. Looking closer, Asura could see the black figure holding some sort of shield in one hand, and was raising his other hand, holding a shortsword.... "Sanzu, run!" Asura burst forth a wave of raw mana, pushing Sanzu out of the way. Now that Sanzu was out of range, Asura raised both his palms this time. "Double ''Fused Elemental Spell: Burning Gale''!!! BURRRNNNNNNN!!!" Asura laughed madly. He had recalled an internet meme from his former world while preparing this spell, and was prepaing to say it while using his spell. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Ever since Asura was born into this world, he had retained some sentiments. He felt that killing another human being was wrong, but now that he was fighting for his life, his personality had started to change. "ROOOOOOAAAARRRRR!!!!!" The flames that had burst forth from each of his palms were several times bigger and hotter than what Asura had originally planned to release When he saw that the black figure actually had enough strength to block Sanzu''s all out aerial attack, he converted his remaining mana into Wind and Fire elemental essences at the last second, thus increasing the attack power of ''Burning Gale'' by ten times! A 15 metres flame wall poured out from each of Asura''s already melting palms, burning the entire marsh in the process. Even the waters were evaporating at a frightening speed. "CAWWW!" Sanzu frantically flew out of the way, and was almost hit by the flame blast. As Asura had increased the power of the flame blast at the last second, he had completely forgotten that Sanzu was there, causing some of Sanzu''s feathers to singe. After the fire storm died down, Asura sluggishly walked towards the spot that the black figure had been at before he unleashed the ''Burning Gale''. Having spent almost all his mana, he barely had any energy left to move around. To make things worse, the fleshes around his arms had already been fried from the heat. Asura could no longer feel pain from his arms, except that the smell of burnt flesh almost made him vomit. "I swear, I''m never ever gonna fucking use so much power for this spell again" Asura cursed to himself. He realized that the Fire element is the most destructive of the four elements, but it can also affect the user. "This ''Burning Gale'' technique, I will only use it as a last resort in the future..." Finally reaching the spot where the black figure had been standing at, Asura could see chunks of flesh and organs strewn about. The air reeked of blood. It seemed that the air in the black figure''s body had expanded too much, causing it''s body to explode. "Uuurreeghhhhh" Asura vomited at the sight. It was the first time he had seen body parts and organs strewn about. Large intestine, stomach, you name it. "A-a-asu-ra-a-ah..." The moan came from beside Asura. Finally calming down, Asura wiped his mouth with his sleeves and looked for the source of the voice. When he saw it, he had to resist with all of his willpower to prevent himself from throwing up again. At the source of the moan, was a legless body. Body parts and blood veins were slowly flowing out of the opening where the lower body had once been at. Although most of the body was badly burnt, the face was still somewhat recognizable, and Asura gasped when he realized that the Black Figure was someone he knew.... Chapter 12: Confusion and Doubt Chapter 12: Confusion and Doubt "A-a-asu-ra-a-ah..." The black figure moaned. But Asura did not respond, and only stood rooted to the ground, staring at the black figure with wide eyes. Because, Asura had recognized the black figure was actually..... "D-D-Doerba?" Asura stammered. He could not believe his eyes. The meek, polite and kindly old servant that had worked at White Serene School for so many years, was actually.... Doerba? [Author''s Note: See chapter 4 and 6 if you''ve forgotten who Doerba is. AND A BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE TO SUZAKU FOR BEING THE FIRST ONE TO GUESS CORRECTLY. RUNNER UP GOES TO IMRAM. *CLAPCLAPCLAP*] "No, no this isn''t possible!" How can a servant have so much power? He is even stronger than all the disciples from White Serene School! Servants are often people who were born into a slave household, or were born without talent for warrior or magi training, thus resorting to work as a lowly servant to earn a living. But the level of strength that Doerba had just displayed, he was already strong enough to work as a middle-ranked officer in the military! "Doerba, just who are you exactly?" Asura stared at Doerba. "Gulp" Asura heard Doerba swallow something. Alarmed, he quickly leapt backwards, fearing that Doerba was using a suicidal attack to die together with Asura. Instead, Doerba''s body started twitching uncontrollably and was foaming at the mouth. "Poison?" Asura was still suspicious. He was afraid that Doerba was playing a trick on him. After a minute, he had finally stopped convulsing, and no longer breathed. Just to be safe, Asura kicked hard at Doerba''s body, or what was left of it, flinging it 5 metres away. There was no reaction. Finally confident that he was safe, Asura took deep breaths in an attempt to calm down and recover his rationality. "Why? Why did he try to kill me? Is he even the same Uncle Doerba that massaged my body for me when I was too exhausted to move after training when I was a child?" Asura was deep in thought. "Wait, it probaby isn''t Uncle Doerba, how could he be so strong?" Asura muttered, trying to convince himself. However, deep down his heart, Asura already knows that it was indeed Doerba who had tried to kill him, and the first person he had killed in this world was Doerba. It would then be from this day onwards, Asura''s personality will have a huge contrast to prior leaving the White Serenity School. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Stumbling toward''s Doerba''s corpse, he examined the body. He saw a shiny object sticking out of his robe pocket. Picking it up, Asura took a closer look, it was just a ring made out of some metal, with a jade stone embedded in it. Picking it up with his still charred hands, Asura was thinking. "This might a clue as to why Uncle Doerba would try to kill me." Putting it onto his right hand''s index finger, he sighed and searched Doerba''s body for anymore clues but to no avail. "Cawww!" Sensing Asura''s sorrow, Sanzu hopped over and nudged Asura''s head with his beak, as if trying to console him. For the rest of the night, Asura meditated, recovering as much mana as he needed to use ''Healing Water'' on his hands, as well as using an earth elemental spell to make a grave for Doerba. Even though Doerba had tried to take Asura''s life, he still felt that he had yet to repay Doerba for treating him well in the past. As the sun rose, bright streaks of red, pink, and orange slowly overcame the dark blue and purple of the twilight sky. If not for his sombre mood, Asura would have marveled at the beauty of the sunrise. In front of Doerba''s grave was a simple stone tablet created out of earth elemental essences. Written on it were the words "Here lies Doerba, a loyal servant of White Serenity School". Kneeling before the grave, Asura kowtowed three times before getting up and climbed onto Sanzu''s back, continuing their journey. After three days and nights of soaring above the clouds, Asura could see mountains and rivers passing by below him. In the distance, he could finally see a city. Empowering his eyes with mana, he could make out a flag with a logo of a black flame. The Capital of Blackfire! "We''ve arrived, Sanzu! Drop me off here, I don''t want you to scare the people!" Asura laughed. "Caww......" [Author''s Note: Okai, imma go to sleep nao. Have fun readin, gaises!] Chapter 13: Backstab Chapter 13: Backstab [Author''s Note: *takes off shades* mother of god, I can''t believe I wrote such a long chapter...] [This chapter also contains somewhat graphic descriptions. Read at your own risk!] "Splash!" Cold water was poured onto a youth that looked to be in his mid-teens. "Wake up boy, it''ll be your turn soon," a disgruntled voice was heard. Opening his eyes, the young man weakly raised his head. He felt a splitting headache and soreness in his legs and as he tried to sit, he felt a sharp tinge of pain from his shoulders. His wrists were chained towards the ceiling, forcing him to remain standing even while he was unconscious. A simple yet effective method to weaken the prisoners, both physically and mentally. Looking around himself, he found that he was chained inside a damp room sealed by metal grills and a metal door, with strands of hay strewn about on the stone floor. A prison cell. Outside of his cell, he could see other prisoners wearing tattered white robes, who were chained in the same manner. He recognized one of the prisoners, Kira, who was till standing unconscious. "KUUUAHHHH!!!" Screams could be heard from the room that was sealed by a metal door at the far end of the prison. "PLEEAASSEEEE!! PLEEAAASSEEEE!! AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Cries of mercy and pain came out from the metal door, making some of the prisoners stir uncomfortably, as the hairs on their skin stood on end. They were afraid to find out what was happening behind the metal door. Looking around his cell, he could see sorry excuse of a window in the stone wall, allowing little sunlight to seep in. "Aunt Kira! Aunt Kira!" The youth tried to wake Kira up. Stirring slightly, she was starting to regain consciousness, before shivering from the cold air that seeped through the holes in her tattered robes. "Huh? Where am I?" Kira moaned. She was still delirious, and could barely understand what was going on. "I think we''re in a prison chamber.." The youth answered. "Aunt Kira, are you OK?" Kira''s arms and legs had several bruise marks, and blood was dripping down her nose and lips. "It hurts..." Kira moaned. Her usual sily smooth hair was now corase and messily strewn about her face. "Yong, where are the others?" During the mass teleportation spell, all the disciples had gathered in front of Elder Moba, and was about to be teleported when all of a sudden, a spear flew out from the distance and lodged itself into Elder Moba''s stomach, causing him to fly a few feet away before the spear stabbed in to the ground, blood dripping down from Elder Moba''s body and onto the spear. Elder Moba had been killed in a flash! "Aaaaahhhhh!!!" The disciples screamed at the sight and started to panic, running at all directions. A split second later, eight figures shot down from the roofs who were wearing black robes and masks, immediately started to kill the disciples on the spot. Only the disciples who had reached the 4th level were able to fend off the first few strikes, before being killed or knocked out. "Nnngnnn...." Kira tried to channel mana into her arms, but there was no effect. The chains had anti-mana enchantments, making them harder than ordinary steel and prevented the prisoners from using mana. "Damn it! What is going on?!" Yong wanted to pull his hairs out of frustration. He couldn''t believe that there were so many high level warriors that could infiltrate White Serenity School, unless... "There was a traitor!" Yong realized. Someone must have sneaked the assassins inside, otherwise how could they have avoided the notice of Blood Devil Shane and the Elders? As Yong was struggling to fend off the attacks, he watched helplessly as the weaker disciples he had known since his childhood, were struck down mercilessly. Just the sight alone was enough make an ordinary person go mad. Finally, the screams had died down. "Skreeeeee..." The metal door screeched as a burly man wearing nothing but a leather apron walked out, dragging someone by the arms across the floor. Yong recognized the unmoving body as Lori, Elder Moba''s disciple! On his chest area was a huge gash, revealing his chest muscles, ribs, sternum and costal cartilages. "Tsk... Another failure..." The burly man lifted the body onto his shoulders, and walked towards the huge pile of bodies at the far end of the hall before throwing the dead disciple to join to pile. "Sccreeechhh...." a swarm of rats scattered away from the pile of bodies. Taking a closer look at the dead bodies, Yong could see rats chewing off the fleshes of the dead bodies, and there were maggots writhing about on the bleeding areas of the bodies. Almost vomiting at the sight, he quickly closed his eyes and tried to regulate his breathing. "Oh? Looky looky, Yong yong woke up has woken up!" the burly man said in a sing song voice. Walking towards his cell, his lips curled in to a menacing grin as he pulled out a bundle of keys from his apron pocket. "Cling!" The burly man inserted one of the keys into the metal grills, and entered Yong''s cell. He then unlocked Yong''s shackles. Finally relieved from the shackles that made Yong stand for hours on end, he helplessly fell down onto the cold stone floor. "Now''s not the time for you to rest, boy. It''s your turn now." The burly man grabbed a fistful of Yong''s hair and hauled him towards the room that Lori had been screaming in. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STOP! PLEASE, STOP! I DON''T WANT TO DIE! PLEEEAASEEE!!! PLEEAASSEEE!!" Hot tears flowed down Yong''s cheeks as he weakly kicked at the burly man in a futile attempt to resist. "AUNT KIRA, HELP ME! HEELLPPP!! HEEELLPPPPP!!!" But Kira could only powerlessly watch Yong being hauled off into a room. She was only a mana manipulator and did not have the strength of a warrior. Even with mana, she could not break out of her enchanted shackles. "BANG!" The metal door slammed shut, sealing Yong''s fate. "KUUUAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" Meanwhile in the deeper levels of the prison... In a dimly lit prison cell that was approximately ten cubic metres big, there were four elderly men shackled to the stone walls. Forcibly fed with the Seven Coloured Toad poison, which had the effect of sapping both physical strength and mana, they could only sit and watch what fate had in store for them. "Elder Karim, your hand..." Poong''s voice weakly escaped from his parched lips. Karim, who had been emptily staring at the ceiling, looked down at his arms. Of the four elderly men present, he was the only one whose hands were not tied to the walls. Why? Previously..... Stolen novel; please report. "RRRAAAARRRRR!!" The 50 thousand men strong legion were already 100 metres away from the stone steps that Shane and the Elders were standing on. Preparing their sword techniques and spells, Shane and the Elders were bracing them for the imminent clash. Focusing the entirety of their concentration on the legion, they had not noticed that the disciples who had been standing behind them the entire time were now now glancing at each other and nodding. Their fingers had been on their weapons, ready to strike at any moment. ""Schhliickkk!" Shane was about to unleash his ''Blade of Grand Destruction'' upon the legion and almost did not notice the sharp pain in his chest. Looking down onto his chest, he saw the bloodstained tip of a sword poking out of his chest. "Plick..." Droplets of warm blood were now dripping down from the tip of the bloodstained sword. "W-wha..." Shane coughed out blood, but before he could react, the attacker swiftly pulled out the sword, and slashed horizontally, cutting off strands of Shane''s long red hair and his head in an instant! In the distance, Coran who had been watching the beheading of Shane, was now sighing with a mix of disappointment and fulfillment. When he had heard about Varca''s death 12 years ago, he had flown into a rage. But at the time, he did not have the military power to command an army for his personal purposes. Furthermore, Shane had already sealed himself in to his residence, preventing the spies he had inserted within the White Serenity School from interacting with Shane. Finally, after 11 years, he had ascended to the 8th level as a Warrior, qualifying him for the position of General. He had then took 1 whole year to scheme, including mixing with the inner circles of the nobility so that he could feed the King with lies of Shane killing Varcas without a valid reason. The naive King had then commanded Coran to lead a legion to arrest Shane, and bring him to justice. Except that Coran had plans of his own... "Sigh... I wanted to cut off Shane''s head by my own hands, but watching him die like a dog is already more than enough for me!" The Elders who were still stunned from Shane''s sudden death, were too slow to realize that their disciples had already drawn their weapons, ready to attack their respective teachers. "Give me your spear!" Coran ordered a footman, and promptly threw it with his right hand towards one of the temples in the distance... "My arms may have been cut off, but I still have my legs." Karim spat out a glob of blood. "You on the other hand, are in a much worse state than I am!" Where Poong''s legs had been at, there were now two stumps in their place, with red flesh sticking out on the ends. His left hand had been chopped off at the elbow. Only his right hand remained unharmed. Even if Poong could get out of this situation, it was highly unlikely that he would ever be able to stand and walk ever again, even with the aid of healing spells. "At least you''re still sane, look at these two..." Karim sighed. To his left were the other two Elders, Roza and Claude. Roza was giggling to himself, and would sometimes mutter incoherently. As for Claude, he was constantly staring at Karim and was constantly drooling at the mouth. Hearing footsteps appraching their cell, Karim and Poong frowned. "Clang!" The metal door creaked open and at the same time, a man wearing a military general garment followed by four heavily robed figures strode into the cell. "Who are you?" Karim croaked, his throat throbbed with each syllable. He had not had any food or water ever since he woke up in the prison cell. With no source of sunlight, it was impossible for him to tell how many days they had been locked up. "Ho''Vah," the man wearing a military general garment turned his head sideways, commanding this ''Ho''Vah'' with his eyes. "Yes, my lord. ''Fireball''!" one of the heavily robed men bowed, then raised his left palm upwards, activating the ''Fireball'' spell. Now that there was a source of light, the Elders could see the face of the man that seemed to be the leader of the heavily robed men. "CORAN!!" Poong bellowed, now recognizing Coran, struggled to break free from his bonds, causing the cell to echo with the sounds of metal grinding. "Greetings, esteemed elders of the White Serenity School. I feel somewhat honored that you know my name." Coran chuckled. "Now then, I have a little question for you two." Coran''s smile disappeared as fast as it had appeared. "Where is the Secret Vault that contains your school''s Secret Arts?" A glint of greed appeared in Coran''s eyes. Over the past few days, Coran and his most trusted men had turned White Serenity School upside down, trying to find the Secret Vault that contains the most sacred techniques of White Serenity School, but to no avail. Finally giving up, Coran started to regret having killed Shane too quickly, as he could have tortured the answer out of him. The chances of the Elders knowing where the Secret Vault was hidden at was close to zero. "Pui!" Karim spat at Coran, instantly earning himself a slap from one of the heavily robed figures. Defiantly turning his head towards Coran, he said "Even if I knew where it was, I would never tell you!" Looking closely at Karim''s eyes, Coran could not detect a hint of deceit, and that was all he needed. "It''s all right. After all, I came here bearing gifts for the four of you." Coran faked a smile. "Give them the Elixers!" As the four heavily robed men stepped towards the Elders, Poong and Karim realized that each of them was holding a bowl. "Uuuurrghhhh...." The heavily robed men forced open the Elders'' mouths, and pouring pitch black liquid into their mouths. "You should all feel honored to be the second batch of test subjects to receive the Elixers!" Coran cackled as he walked out of the room, leaving with the four heavily robed men, right before screams of pain came out of the prison cell. [Author''s Note: I will release another chapter in around three or four hours. Writing and editing this chapter seriously took a lot out of me. Once again, please let me know what you think of this chapter and help me identify grammar mistakes. I wonder if I went overboard with the descriptions... P.S. If one of you guys have enough time, perhaps you could draw a picture to be used as Re:Asura''s book cover? Even if you can''t draw decently, I will not mind! You can email me at [email protected]. Thanks for reading, gaises!] Chapter 14: The Kind Guard Chapter 14: The Kind Guard Finally reaching the main gate of the Capital of Blackfire, Asura saw a long queue of a very diverse range of people towards the main gates. Some of them wore luxurious robes, one man had a python coiling around his neck and shoulders, some were even riding on magical beasts! "Maybe there''s a luggage checking going on at the gates, just like those at the airports from my previous world" Asura joined the queue, waiting patiently for his turn. While he was waiting, his mind wandered, thinking of whether his adopted mother, Kira, was doing well. He had confidence that Shane would be able to resolve the matter with the army, and protect the disciples of White Serene School. Thinking of Kira, Asura sighed. For the first time in twelve years, he had been seperated from Kira for so long, he was already starting to miss her. Even though they were not bonded by blood, She was one of the few people Asura truly trusted in this world. "I should get someone to appraise this ring, maybe there''s some kind of clue inside this ring" Asura raised his right hand, looking at the jade ring on his index finger. The scene of Doerba''s mangled body had haunted Asura''s nightmares for days. Even when he was serving the army in Asura''s previous world, he had not killed a single person. For the very first time, he had claimed a life. His view of this world had already started to change. "I actually do not know much about this world" Asura realized. Having spent 12 years in seclusion, he did not have any form of interaction with civilization, He could only read old history books that mentioned some facts about this world, such as the four major kingdoms of this world. The militant Kingdom of Blackfire in the south, the Kingdom of Griamor with it''s magical beast army in the North, the Kingdom of Arunwith its destructive army of magi, and finally the Kingdom of Fale, the neutral kingdom in the center of the world, where merchants and traders from the other Kingdoms can gather and book a seat at the Floating Coliseum, where the annual Blood Carnival is held! As a kid, he had often wanted to travel the world, visiting the four kingdoms but disciples of the White Serenity School were forbidden from leaving until they had turned 15. In this world, once you turn 15, you will officially be treated as an adult, permitting you to consume alcohol and marry. Without realizing it, the queue in front of Asura had already greatly reduced. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. "Next! Get a move on!" It was almost Asura''s turn, and he could now see two guards, one checking each of the visitor''s luggages while the other conducted a body check. "Next!" Asura stepped forward, waiting for the guards to search him. "Kid, where are your parents? Don''t you know that children are not allowed to enter or leave the city without a guardian?" a guard said. "Oh..." Asura replied blankly. "Well, fuck, my real parents are probably already dead, and Kira is at White Serenity School..." Seeing Asura''s blank look, one of the guards looked at him with pity. "Poor child, his robes are so tattered and burnt, his village must have been attacked by magical beasts." Whispering to the other guard, they both looked at each other and then back at Asura. "Kid, you must have had it bad the last few days. Come, follow me." One of the guard walked into the city, gesturing towards one of the nearby guards on standby to take over at the luggage check. "Child, get into that carriage, You are now safe and sound within the walls of the city. The carriage driver will bring you to the Blackfire Orphanage." The guard pointed towards a carriage that was tied to a saddle on a horse. "W-wait, I-" Asura stammered, trying to explain that he has a mother, but the guard wouldn''t hear a word of it. "Don''t worry child, There are no bad people at the orphanage, You can also make new friends and play with them." The guard finished. "Come, sit." The good-natured guard pulled aside the carriage curtains, patting on the seat inside the carriage, signalling Asura to get into the carriage. "But I can walk..." Asura tried to get out of the sitation that was getting out of hand. "Don''t be shy... You must have had a hard time, judging by your clothes. You probably haven''t eaten for days, no?" The guard continued patting on the carriage seat, Asura didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. [Sorry for the short chapter, I had a long day at college. I''ll be getting off earlier tomorrow, so I should be able to upload 4 chapters! Of course, unless I somehow end up writing a super long chapter again....] Chapter 15: City of Blackfire Chapter 15: City of Blackfire [Author''s Note: First chapter of the day! I''l upload about another three or four chapters later on. Look forward to them!] Chapter 15: Orphanage During the somewhat bumpy ride on the horse carriage, Asura could see rows of wooden buildings on both sides of the stone pavement, with groups of people going in and out of the buildings, conversing harmoniously and laughing among themselves. Most of them were dressed like commoners, compared to some of the luxuriously dressed men and women he had seen earlier outside the gates. "Kid, is this your first time here?" The carriage driver asked. He had noticed Asura peeking out of the carriage curtain, looking amazed at the sights. "This is just one of the outer districts. If you''re fortunate enough, you may be able to catch a glimpse of the inner districts." The driver started to smile dreamily. "Inner districts?" Asura was starting to think of what he would find in the inner districts. "Yeah... You see, the Capital is divided into three layers, according to our hiearchy. The 5 outer districts are mostly where commoners and very low ranking nobles lives." The driver held up 3 fingers, patiently explaining to Asura. "For the 3 inner districts, it''s full of nobles and low ranking officials, and I''ve also heard from my friends that there are alot of fun places! Aahh... I''m so jealous..." Sighing, the talkative driver looked at Asura once again, this time with a more serious look. "And then there''s the innermost layer, the Palace! The only ones who can gain access to the Palace are high ranking officials and nobles. In the centre of the Palace is the Blackfire Castle, there the King and his royal family lives at!" "I see... Then, is there a Warrior''s Guild here?" Asura reached into his robe pockets, his hand brushing through the rolled up scrolls, and feeling the cold metal of the bronze rectangular token that Shane had given him. He hoped that there would be someone there that could help him identify the jade ring that he had taken from Doerba''s body. Asura had also decided that staying at the orphanage might not be a bad thing after all. It would be quite suspicious for a young child to stay all alone at the Warrior''s Guild for an extended period of time. Having finally reached the City of Blackfire after days of travelling, he also wanted to savour the experiences that are to be had in this city. "Huh? Why would you want to know about the Warrior''s Guild?" The driver looked at the prebuscent boy incredulously. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Quickly thinking up of an excuse, Asura said, "Ah, it''s because my goal is to become a powerful warrior!" raising both his arms excitedly like a little boy. He felt a twinge of guilt at deceiving the driver, but it also wasn''t entirely false. Having witnessed the spectacular fight against Shane and the mysterious figure, he had decided when he was old enough to train to reach the 8th level as a Warrior, so that he will be able to understand how it feels like to be as strong as Shane. "Ah, I see! Well, see that large temple over there? You definitely can''t miss it" the driver pointed towards a particularly large red temple that stood out from the clusters of oriental looking buildings. "If you want to go there, just ask for someone to bring you to District 4. The orphanage is at District 5, so it shouldn''t take too long to walk to the Warrior''s Guild." "Thanks, mister!" Asura continued looking at the large temple "Alright kid, we''ve arrived. You can come out now." The horse carriage jerked forwards before stopping. Stepping out of the carriage, Asura could see a large mansion with a large garden that was about 30 acres big! At the garden, there were bands of children running about, waving their makeshift swords about. So lively! Asura was expecting it to be somewhat gloomy, with shabbily dressed sulking childrens cursing their misfortune but instead, the orphans here were brimming with life, as if there wasn''t a care about the harsh world. As if reading Asura''s thoughts, the driver said with reverence in his voice. "The Blackfire Orphanage was built at the King''s command, to provide a chance for the orphans to start a new life, and to grow up into fine adults and help the Kingdom of Blackfire to prosper!" "Now go and introduce yourself to them, they won''t bite you. Take care of yourself, kid." Riding off in his horse carriage, the driver waved Asura goodbye. "Thanks!" Asura clasped his hands with gratitude. As Asura stepped into the mansion grounds, some of the children noticed him. Upon seeing that a new kid was joining them, their already radiant smiles shined even brighter. One of the taller kids ran to the mansion, shouting at the top of his lungs. "Nanny Lan!" Chapter 16: Burning the Midnight Oil Chapter 16: Blackfire Orphanage "Nanny Lan!" One of the taller kids ran up the stone stairs and into the mansion, calling out for Nanny Lan excitedly. After a minute, he walked out of the wooden doors with a hunching middle-aged looking woman by his side. Nanny Lan slowly walked down the stone steps, her messy grey hair rustling with each step. Seeing that the elderly woman seemed to be struggling with each step, Asura reacted quickly and ran towards her, so that she would not have to walk all the way over to the gates. Controlling his running speed within the capabilities of a normal 12 year old boy, he had to run for ten seconds before he reached the elderly lady and stopped her from continuing to go down the stairs. "Granny, you don''t have to walk all the way over to me, I am still young and have plenty of energy!" "Wow, this child is so sensible!" Nanny Lan chuckled. Turning to the children, she then said, "Look at yourselves, running around all over the place like animals!" Nanny Lan admonished the children who were all looking at the newcomer, eager to ask him to join their games. Some of them pouted, but they knew that Nanny Lan was not serious, and was only joking. Turning her head back to Asura, Nanny Lan took a closer look at him, and gasped. "Oh, my... Look at your clothes! Come, winter is coming, we should get you some warm clothes! Poor boy, where did you come from?" Nanny Lan looked at Asura with pity. It is a very common occurrence for unarmed villages to either be wiped out by magical beasts, or raided by bandits. "I came from a mountain village..." Asura lied. He was starting to get uncomfortable with the situation, as he was being stared at by dozens of children, so he quickly said, "Granny, is there anything to eat? I am very hungry..." Asura rubbed his stomach, indicating that he was starving. "Silly me! How could I not realize that! My, you must have lost a lot of weight.... Come, come!" Nanny Lan beckoned, leading Asura towards the mansion. Entering the mansion, Nanny Lan led Asura towards the Dining Hall, indicating where the bedroms and toilets were on the way. According to Nanny Lan, there are a total of ten bedrooms, each bedroom housing five children. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. "The seven occupied bedrooms are already full, but the other three rooms and completely empty. Will you be all right for you to sleep alone?" Nanny Lan asked, worried that Asura would be too scared to sleep alone. If he was, she would have to ask some of the children from other rooms to accompany Asura. "It''s all right, Granny. My parents often went down the mountain to hunt wild animals, and I am already used to living alone." Asura explained. He was pleasantly surprised when Nanny Lan had told him that he had to sleep alone. After all, he had yet to study the contents of the remaining 4 scrolls he had in his robe. On the way to the City of Blackfire on Sanzu''s back, he had already finished memorizing the remaining contents of the ''Elemental Synergy'' he had not yet read at the time when Doerba had attacked him, and the ''Mana Sense'' scroll, before burning them by transferring fire elemental essences from his hand and into the scrolls. Four scrolls to go! "That''s good to know. Tonight, you can sleep at Room 8. It''s near the end of the hall over there," Nanny Lan pointed towards a hall at a corner. After eating his dinner which consisted of mainly rice and some side dishes, Asura told Nanny Lan that he felt tired and had decided to go to sleep early. Within Room 8, there were five beds with clean white mattresses and pillows, added with some decorations and paintings on the walls. The only source of light within the room was a candle and the moonlight seeping through the windows, giving off a feel of gloominess. Asura had already settled onto a bed with an unrolled scroll in front of him, and was sitting in a meditative position, slowly and steadily pushing out his mana, forming an invisible sphere around him. ''Mana Sense!'' Chapter 17: Burning the Midnight Oil Chapter 17: Burning the Midnight Oil An hour earlier... As Asura had only memorized the contents of the ''Mana Sense'' skill, he had yet to actually utilize it. "Mana Sense, a skill that actively consumes mana to create a sphere of intangible mana, observing any organism or object that contains mana. By expanding the range of the sphere, the consumption of mana will also increase." Asura recalled a paragraph from the ''Mana Sense'' scroll. Currently utilizing the ''Mana Sense'', he could create at most create a sphere that was about ten metres in diameter, and could only maintain it for an hour, factoring in that he was on full mana capacity. During a fight against a magus, maintaining the ''Mana Sense'' while actively firing spells would consume a frightful amount of mana, which could prove fatal if the fight was to be dragged out. As Asura had opted to undergo warrior training as a child, he can use physical attacks while maintaining the ''Mana Sense'' to avoid spells and attacks that could come from any direction. However, magi have spells to reinforce their defenses, such as using earth elemental essences to create a layer of hardened earth on their skin, or wind elemental essences to generate powerful winds around the caster, preventing anyone from getting close. This is why a 2nd level warrior is considered to be on par to a 1st level magus, a 3rd level warrior on par with a 2nd level magus and so on. [Author''s Note: Not sure if I used ''and so on'' correctly] As magi do not train their bodies, they generally have a weak defense against physical attacks, which is why they often fight in a group to support one another in case one of them runs out of mana. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. After utilizing the ''Mana Sense'' for an hour, Asura had almost completely run out of mana, and was sweating heavily from the exertion. "Amazing!" He thought. When he had utilized the ''Mana Sense'', he could sense the mana within the children''s ''Origin of Life'' in the other bedrooms. He had found that some of their ''Origin of Life'' were denser than the others! This meant that the ''Mana Sense'' could also be used to investigate another person''s mana capacity! Excitedly, he had quickly taken out another scroll at random. Unrolling it, he took a quick look at the contents. "Thousand Essences Absorption" Thick black words were written at the top. "Huh?" Asura scrunched together as he frowned. "This scroll seems to be a lot more unique than the previous scrolls that I had already destroyed." All of the words in this scroll was written in an extremely graceful manner. When Asura looked over the words, he found that he could hardly grasp the concept behind the instructions! Even after reading a few times, he could only understand little bits of information each time. For the first time since he was born into this world, he had to stare at a scroll for hours. [P.S. I was kinda tempted to write some bullshit for the ''Thousand Essences Absorption'' scroll. xD] Chapter 18: The Bewitching Girl Chapter 18: The Bewitching Girl The blue light of the morning sun entered through the windows, and Asura was still staring at the scroll in his meditative position. As the sun rose, changing the blue light to yellow, the crows of the roosters could be heard. Soon, the children in the other rooms were starting to wake up, groggily heading out of the bedrooms and to the Dining Hall. "Tock tock!" Asura heard someone knocking on the wooden door of his room. Finally looking away from the scroll, his neck creaked as he turned his head towards the door. Faking a loud yawn, he asked.,"What is it?" "Nanny Lan asked me to wake you up and bring you to the Dining Hall." A girl''s honey-sweet voice answered. "Coming!" Opening the door, Asura''s skipped a beat as he saw the prettiest girl he had ever seen in this world, who was also looked to be slightly younger than him. Wearing a sky blue dress, her hair was a rich shade of mahogany, flowing in waves as if it was meant to adorn her porcelain-like skin. Looking at him was a set of bewitching eyes that seemed to have captured a thousand men''s souls. "Are you done staring at me?" The bewitching little girl snapped. On the way to the Dining Hall, she moved with the grace of a swan, her wavy hair swaying with every step she made. Other than the occasional stares she got from the boys, it was a rather uneventful walk. At the Dining Hall, the rows of tables were filled with foods of all sorts, ranging from roasted meats to fruits to foods that Asura had not seen before. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author."Jesus, this looks like a scene right out of a movie, that Parry Hotter movie, I think?" Asura suddenly recalled a movie he had often watched as a teen in his previous world. Having spent 12 years in this world, he had already forgotten a lot of things he had known from his previous world. "You can sit over there," The bewitching girl pointed towards an empty wooden chair that had been left free for Asura, before walking off to join her friends. As Asura sat down on the wooden chair, his gaze was not directed towards the resplendent feast on the table right in front of him, but was on the girl who had made his heart palpitate so early in the morning. "Dude, what''re you staring at? The food''s gonna get cold, ya know." Said a red haired boy with a lanky build, looking no older than ten, biting a chunk off of a turkey leg. "O-Oh, you''re right." Asura looked towards the red haired boy, greeting him with a smile. "The name''s Khara. What''s yours?" Khara grabbed another turkey leg and offered it to Asura, his face revealing a smirk with a touch of rebelliousness in his hazel eyes. "Asura." [Author''s Note: Holy shit, just realised it''s almost 1AM already! Didn''t expect to take so long to write this. Well, here''s the final chapter of the day! I won''t be having college for the next 2 days, so expect the first of at least 5 chapters or more in a few hours(i need sleep) and on Friday!] Chapter 19: Warrior''s Guild Chapter 19: Warriors Guild [First chapter of the day. Enjoy!] "The name''s Khara. What''s yours?" Khara asked, looking at the ordinary-looking newcomer. "Asura." As Asura and Khara chatted idly while partaking in the dishes on the table, Asura found out quite a few things from Khara. In the Blackfire Orphanage, the children are free to do whatever they want, so long as they did not cause trouble for others. They can also go outside of the Blackfire Orphanange, but they must come back before sundown. Otherwise, they will be grounded for a week. Upon hearing this, Asura was somewhat relieved, as he had been thinking of sneaking out of the orphanage to go to the Warrior''s Guild. Also, the orphans at Blackfire Orphanage are not allowed to idle all day. Every evening, they are assigned to their respective tasks, such as tending to the garden flowers, cleaning the mansion floors, etc. This rule was made to promote cleanliness and hygiene among the children. Lastly, the Warrior''s Guild at District 4 provides free warrior training to anyone, so that anyone can be given basic skills to defend themselves against low leveled magical beasts. However, the training provided there cannot be compared to those that are provided at the various Schools around the Kingdom of Blackfire. After finishing his breakfast, Asura excused himself and walked out of the Dining Hall, towards the mansion entrance. "Oh my, you''re going out so early?" Nanny Lan was trimming the flowers at the garden, and spotted Asura coming out of the mansion. "Yep! I want to look around the districts. See you later, Granny Nan!" Asura smiled, and ran out of the gates. "Eh?" As Asura passed by Nanny Lan, she suddenly got the feeling that she had known him from somewhere, but could not put her finger on it. Thinking that it was part and parcel of becoming old, she quickly dismissed the thought, but her heart still felt somewhat uneasy. Following the directions to the Warrior''s Guild that was given to him by Khara, Asura finally arrived at the Warrior''s Guild after 20 minutes of walking. As he approached the massive temple that stood at approximately 50 metres in height, he could see six statues of fierce looking warriors on each side of the temple, each of them holding a different weapon. As if they were guarding the temple, the statues were all giving off an air of intimidation. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. As Asura entered the Warrior''s Guild, he could see multitudes of muscular men armed with weapons of all sorts. Some of them were looking at a large wooden board hung on a wall, full of wanted posters and missions such as hunting down a particular magical beast, while there were others who were shouting out at the top of their lungs. "Last slot for a four man party to hunt a 6th level magical beast at the Valley of Magical Beasts!" "Looking for a partner to help with a 3 star ranked escort mission!" Pushing his way through the crowd while earning strange looks in the process, Asura finally reached the reception corner that was being attended by a woman that seemed to be in her forties. "How can I help you, young man?" The receptionist asked when she saw Asura approach the reception desk. Upon hearing her words, some of the nearby warriors started to snicker. Reaching into the patched robe that was given by Nanny Lan, Asura took out the jade ring and raised his hand forward, letting the receptionist take a good look at it. "I need someone who can help me identify this ring." "Please head to the third floor, and ask for Appraiser Dior." The receptionist replied monotonously, not paying Asura much attention. Suddenly raising her head as if she noticed something, her eyes narrowed as she took a closer look at the boy, with a look of disdain on her face. "Did you bring money?" Chapter 20: Appraising the Jade Ring Chapter 20: Appraising the Jade Ring "Did you bring money?" That question threw Asura off. He had forgotten one important thing. Money! "E-eh..." Asura stuttered, trying to think of something. Remembering the bronze rectangular token, he quickly took it out and show it to the receptionist. "Can I use this?" When she saw the bronze token, her face ashened and she immediately stood up. "Follow me, young master. I''ll bring you to Appraiser Dior." Appalled at the receptionist''s attitude that had taken a 180 degree turn, the onlookers watched with raised eyebrows as the receptionist politely bowed to the shabbily dressed boy. Upon reaching the third floor, Asura could smell the strong odor of tobacco in the air. "Appraiser Dior" The receptionist called out to a skinny grey haired man, who was sitting at a stone table, holding a pipe and was leisurely reading a wooden scroll. "Oh? Is it a customer?" Appraiser Dior put down his pipe before standing up to greet the ''customer'' before realising it was just a young boy. Looking at the receptionist with questioning eyes, he looked back at the shabbily dressed boy, as if to confirm what he was seeing. Seeing his confusion, the receptionist quickly walked towards Appraiser Dior, whispering some words to him. "Eh?!" Appraiser Dior turned his head back towards the receptionist in surprise. Nodding, the receptionist added, "Young master, can you let Appraiser Dior take a lot at the jade ring?" "Of course," Asura handed the jade ring to Appraiser Dior who had already calmed down by now. Raising his right hand, Dior put the tips of his thumb and middle finger of his right hand together, forming a circle, before raising squinting at the jade ring through strange gesture in his right hand. Asura had activated ''Mana Sense'' to find out what Appraiser Dior was doing. As the ring was the only clue as to why Doerba had attacked him, naturally he placed a lot of value onto the ring. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Seeing that Appraiser Dior and the receptionist did not react in any way, Asura judged that the ''Mana Sense'' skill could not be sensed by anyone other than himself. "Oh?" Asura sensed a cloud of mana swirling around the strange gesture of Appraiser Dior''s right hand. "It seems to be some sort of a special mana technique that allows Appraiser Dior to determine the properties of the ring." Asura was not wrong. The mana technique that Appraiser Dior was using, is a technique used by most jewel appraisers and merchants, allowing them to determine the properties of the object they''re looking at through the ''gesture'', down to the tiniest detail, such as small cracks and impurities. "How strange... I''ve never seen a jade as strange as this before..." Appraiser Dior mumbled, raising the jade ring even closer to the ''gesture''. "The impurities inside the jail stone are constantly moving, as if there''s something breathing inside!" Appraiser Dior deduced, his voice filled with excitement. "If you asked me, I''d say a ring as unique as this is worth a thousand gold coins! Hold on, there''s something-" Appraiser Dior suddenly frowned, noticing a strange phenomenon occurring in the ring. The ring had only now started to glow blue, getting brighter with each second, surprising everyone in the room. Appraiser Dior, dropped the jade ring, backing away from the eerie light that emitting. The receptionist was about to turn tail and run when suddenly... Asura cried out in shock, as a sphere of black light erupted from the jade stone, expanding rapidly and had soon covered the entire room in pitch black darkness, not leaving even a trace of sunlight. Chapter 21: The Black Shadow Chapter 21: The Black Shadow Pitch black darkness. "Appraiser Dior? Anyone? Hello, is there anybody?" Clenching his fist, Asura got into a fighting stance, preparing himself for a sneak attack. He channeled his mana into his body, making his skin hard as steel, and also pushed out a sphere of mana from his body. ''Mana Sense''! Expanding his ''Mana Sense'' as far as he could, Asura still could not detect anything out of the ordinary. He had also realised that he could not sense Appraiser Dior''s and the receptionist''s mana. Within his ''Mana Sense'' sphere, there was absolutely nothing. Looking around him, all he could see was the darkness. He could not even see his body, but he could still feel his body muscles and the mana flowing within his mana vessels. "Am I even still alive? Did the King of Hell finally decide to take my soul?" Asura had an uneasy feeling building up in his chest. As if it had teleported, a black shadow appeared out of nowhere and in front of Asura, its black silhouette seeming to flicker like black flames. Seeing the black shadow appear out of nowhere, Asura felt alarmed, wondering if it was a demon that was sent by the King of Hell to claim his soul. Asura readied his full power ''Burning Gale''. "Just what......is this thing?" It was a strange feeling. Two green glowing eyes appeared on its head, reflecting Asura''s image back at him. The black silhouette seemed to bend the darkness around it, causing unknown terror to rise in Asura''s heart. "Dangerous!" Asura realised. Staring at Asura with it''s calm neon green eyes, the black shadow didn''t seem to want to fight. Still, Asura kept a firm grip on his prepared ''Burning Gale'', watching the green eyes closely. He could not sense killing intent, but rather, curiosity. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ".....Human from another world." A sudden low voice enter Asura''s ears, coming from the black shadow, the voice shook the darkness they were in. "Do you deserve the power you so desire? Then let me tell you." "....Are you speaking to me? Who are you?" Asura asked, finally regaining his composure. The black shadow spoke again, the darkness rippling with each syllable. "My true body has rotted, ruined by the passage of time. Driven by mad hatred, my body''s turned into flame. I seek a new master. You who I hope for, hear my wish. Possess my soul, and prove your worth. I''ll turn the Shards of Silforia into a sword, and burn your enemies into ashes." "Fail, and you shall end up like the man before you, a mere puppet of Nilfim." The black shadow added, its green eyes seemed to glow a little brighter as it spoke the last sentence. Without warning, the black shadow flew forwards, right into Asura''s chest, intertwining itself with the white mana in Asura''s ''Origin of Life''! "Are you fuckin kiddi-" But before Asura could finish, an excruciating pain emerged from his ''Origin of Life'', almost causing him to lose consciousness. "KUUUAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Chapter 22: Choronzon''s Obeisance Chapter 22: Choronzons Obeisance "KUUUAAAHHHH!!!!" As the black shadow intertwined itself together with the white mana in Asura''s ''Origin of Life'', immeasurable pain exploded from within Asura''s chest, causing him to lose control of his body and collapse onto the pitch black floor. "AAAAAUUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!" Asura screamed, writhing about frantically on the floor. The pain resulting from the clash between the black shadow and the white mana had caused a reaction in Asura''s ''Origin of Life''. Within Asura''s ''Origin of Life'', the black shadow was starting to overpower the white mana. As the pain was too immense, his mind''s grasp on his ''Origin of Life'' had let slip, and provided little to no resistance against the black shadow. Asura''s eyes had already turned bloodshot, and his skin was slowly turning black, spreading out from the centre of his chest. As the black skin spread outwards, the pain Asura was suffering had also intensified. It felt as if his head and body was being split open and then pierced by a thousand needles! "GGRRRRUUUAAAAHHHHHH!" Sensing that the black shadow was about to consume his ''Origin of Life'', Asura exerted with all his willpower for the mana within his ''Origin of Life'' to resist. He had already gone through death once, and that was already more than enough for him. As he remembered Noelle''s weeping face, watching him as his life slipped away, a hidden anger bubbled up from deep within his heart. "Oh? Impressive willpower! Maybe at last..." The black shadow felt that the white mana had grown stronger, and was even starting to push it back. Realizing that the black shadow had grown weaker-no, that his mana had grown stronger, he realized that recalling stimulating memories could somewhat increase his power! "KKKAAAAHHHHH!" Forcing himself to remember all the times he had spent with Noelle and Kira, he felt a surge of power rising from within himself. "At last, I''ve broken through to the 4th level as a Magi!" Asura was laughing in his heart as felt his mana density suddenly increase by several fold. For the past several days, Asura had been stuck at the 3rd level, as he had not been spending time absorbing mana. Now that his power had somehow increased, it had become a lot easier to resist against the black shadow. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. As time passed, the white mana had almost completely overpowered the black shadow, and bits of the black shadow was being pushed out of the ''Origin of Life''. "At last...." The black shadow sighed, before it completely stopped clashing with the white mana and completely slipped out of Asura''s ''Origin of Life''. Turning itself into a black sphere that was the size of a fist, the black shadow lodged itself in the area 3cm below the ''Origin of Life''. It now appeared to be very similar to the ''Origin of Life'', except that it was black instead of white. "Eh?" The pain within Asura''s body had completely disappeared, and Asura who was now calming down, could sense a new source of power from within his body. "What''s going on?" Asura pondered, trying to draw power from the black sphere. However, before he could draw a sliver of power from the black sphere... "Whoooosh!" A black figure flew out from Asura''s abdomen area, which was where the black sphere was at. Standing before him was the black shadow that had tried to take over his ''Origin of Life''! Raising it''s head, its neon green eyes flashed as the black flames that was shrouded around its silhouette earlier, was now slowly sucked into its body, revealing a fierce looking man with an extremely muscular build and standing at 1.9m, with black eyebrows that curled downwards, like black scmitars. Combined with his heavy beard and a seeming permanent frown, he looked like a top level expert that when angered, he would make the world tremble from his fury! The black robed bearded man immediately knelt on one leg, he clasped his hands with powerful force and with each word causing shockwaves of green light to ripple throughout the pitch black darkness, he said with a low voice, "For having freed me from my curse, your loyal servant Choronzon pledges his eternal life to Master!" Chapter 23: Truth Chapter 23: Truth [Author''s Note: OK, here it is, the last chaptah of the day!] "For having freed me from my curse, your loyal servant Choronzon pledges his eternal life to Master!" These words echoed into Asura''s ears, leaving him confused. "Wait, what? Okay, fine. Can you tell me more about yourself? Why were you inside the jade ring?" Asura asked. He had too many questions he wanted to ask, but for these 2 questions, Asura felt they were the most important. "I am Choronzon, a fire demon from Muspelheim." Choronzon said in a low voice, his face turning slightly ugly the moment he mentioned his place of origin. "Muspelheim? What''s that?" Asura asked. In the 12 years he had lived in this world, he had never heard of the term ''Muspelheim''. "First, I will have to explain to you about the Nine Worlds of Yggdrasil. The world you come from, is known as Midgard. However, very few of its residents knows of the other worlds, as the root connecting Midgard to Yggdrasil have heavily decayed, preventing most residents from other worlds to travel to Midgard." "Currently, we are in the world known as Vanaheim, created by Vanirs, masters of magic and sorcery. Which is why this world is so rich in mana, compared to the other worlds. From the world of Muspelheim, together with a group of friends, we had traveled to this world in hopes of finding the long lost Vanir treasures. However..." Choronzon stopped speaking, and was trembling slightly, as if recalling something terrible. Taking a deep breath, Choronzon continued. "When we found the Shards of Silforia after five hundred years of searching high and low, we were ambushed by dark elves from the world of Svartalfheim! In that fight, all my friends were killed, except for I, for I am fifth son of Surtr, the King of Muspelheim!" Choronzon''s eyes were filled with sadness, as he recalled the sight of his friends being killed. "Blessed with the power of Shadow Fire, my power was far superior to most demons. During the fight, I killed all the dark elves except for one, Nilfim! After six days and nights of exchanging blows, I almost won, but I had foolishly let my guard down while delivering the finishing blow!" "Upon seeing an opening, Nilfim sacrificed a portion of his life force, unleashing a forbidden spell of the dark elves, ''Soul Banishment''! However, he also cast another curse on the ring, causing my soul to bend to his will!" At this point, Choronzon had already started to tremble with anger. "For five hundred years, I was locked inside this ring, forced to ''test'' whoever tried to inject his mana into the ring. Until today, I could only watch as countless people unknowingly fell victim to Nilfim''s spell. Every single one of them had their powers increased dramatically, but their minds were also stripped by me! That man you killed, Doerba, was one of them!" Asura had been listening silently the whole time. When Choronzon finished his last sentence, Asura''s eyes widened in surprise. He felt slightly relieved that Doerba had not come after him willingly, but then he felt an intense hatred towards Nilfim, who had indirectly forced Asura to kill Doerba. "What?! Tell me, how did Uncle Doerba get his hands on this damned ring?" Asura snapped. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. "Your loyal servant does not know either. It had already been several decades since I last possessed someone, and had fallen into a deep sleep, and did not see how Doerba obtained this ring. However, I had only possessed Doerba for five days before you ended his misery. Also, during the brief time I had spent possessing him, it seemed that Doerba was already under NIlfim''s curse, was constantly watching Shane. When you entered the Blood Devil Residence and hurried to the emergency escape passage, Doerba had been following you the whole time." Choronzon said, confusion visible on his face. What did this boy have, to make Nilfim manipulate Doerba to follow a mere boy? Asura had already fallen into a deep thought, considering what Choronzon had said. "Hmm, this guy, what he said seems to have some truth to it... So this Nilfim person, what does he want with me? Could he be after the scrolls?" Asura thought. The only time he had interacted with Shane was when he was summoned to the Blood Devil Residence, and was given the sacred Secret Arts. "Enough about all this, I''m getting a headache." Asura grumbled, sitting down the pitch black floor. It was too much information to process. The fact that there was a 500 year old fire demon had already left him confused. Now that he was also hit with the truth behind Doerba''s surprising display of strength and his actions, he needed some time for everything to sink in. "Ah, that''s right! Choronzon, what is this power I can feel inside me? It''s like there''s a second source of power." Asura asked. He had almost drawn forth the power from the black sphere, when Choronzon had suddenly come out. "Ah, that is my Demon Force. When your mana completely dominated my Demon Aura, you had already broken the curse on my soul. Free at last, the only way I could repay you was to fuse my Demon Force with your body. You made do as you deem fit with it, although now that I am out of Nilfim''s control, he might already be chasing after you.I suggest you leave this city as soon as possible. Later, I''ll show you how to use the Demon Force." At the same time, the pitch black world disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, returning Asura to the third floor of the Warrior''s Guild. "Ah... what was that?" Appraiser Dior asked, slowly approaching the jade ring. "I don''t know either... It was suddenly glowing, then it stopped. Is it a treasure?" The receptionist stared at the jade ring with wide eyes. Asura was stunned. Looking towards the stone table, he saw that the from pipe Appraiser Dior had been using,there was smoke coming out from the chamber. It was as if time had barely passed during the time he had spent in the pitch black world, which had felt like an eternity to Asura. "Was I daydreaming?" A low voice rang in his head, as if answering his thoughts. "Master, why are you daydreaming? I can sense four killing intent directed towards you, coming from the floor below us!" Chapter 24: Demon Force Chapter 24: Demon Force The moment Choronzon alerted Asura of the killing intents coming from below, Asura instantly utilized his ''Mana Sense''. Now that he was on the 4th level as a Magi, his ranged had increased from 10 metres to 50 metres. Sensing that three of them had the mana density of a 5th rank Magus, he guessed that the last one was at least a 5th level Warrior, or maybe even a 6th level Warrior! "Master, flee!" Choronzon hurriedly spoke in Asura''s mind. Quickly jumping towards the balcony, Asura heard a loud crunch from behind him, coming from where he had been standing earlier! Turning his head backwards, Asura could see a halberd sticking through the wooden plank flooring, before it disappeared underneath. At the same time, there were bursts of fireballs and razor sharp wind smashing through the already damanged flooring, causing a series of loud bangs and a large hole on the floor, revealing a group of four black robed men, their hoods shrouding their faces in darkness. "Damn it!" Asura cursed. Quickly reinforcing his legs with mana, he leapt over the railings and landed safely on the stone pavement. "Did Nilfim send them?" Beads of sweat were streaking down Asura''s face. He was starting to panic. Had he been a second slower, would definitely had been ripped into pieces! "Compose yourself, Master" Choronzon''s low voice rang in Asura''s head. "These mortals are only so strong, they will not be a match against the Demon Force." "What do I do?" Asura yelled in his head, just as he dodged another series of Fireballs, resulting in an explosion. Some of the unfortunate houses that was in the vicinity of the explosion had been set on fire, causing chaos to ensue. The commoners who had been inside the houses were pouring to the streets, and were starting to panic. "Hey, what''s going on?!" "Fire!!! Run!!!" "Look, there are magi shooting fire spells at that boy!" Asura was already starting to lose his temper from having been constantly assaulted with spells without even being given the time take a breather and retaliate. Converting about 10% of his current mana into fire elemental essences and wind elemental essences, Asura was about fire a ''Burning Gale'' at the four black silhouettes standing on the Warrior''s Guild 2nd floor balcony, when a voice rang in Asura''s head. "Master, we should get out of here first. There are too many people here, they might get caught up by your ''Burning Gale''." Choronzon urged Asura. During Asura''s fight with Doerba, Choronzon had been watching, and was astonished by the power that the ''Burning Gale'' held. For a 3rd level magus, the power he had released was unbelievable! Asura nodded, pouring more mana into his legs and ran towards the city walls. "Fighting in the city will attract too much attention. If people find out about my power, it might get complicated." When Asura was reaching towards the main gate, he recognized one of the guards as the one that had let him in the day before. Afraid that the guard would see his face, Asura tore off a piece of cloth from his robe and tied it around his mouth. "Halt! Slow down and identify yourself!" One of the guards on the watchtowers spotted someone streaking towards the main gate. As Asura had trained in magic, he could tremendously increase his body capabilities, temporarily increasing his 4th level as a Warrior to a 6th level Warrior, allowing him to outrun his assailants. Now running at top speed, he appeared as a grey streak to the guards. "This is your last warning, stop or we will-" The guard tried to warn the grey streak, but before he could finish, the grey streak had already rammed through the wooden barricades, and instantly out of the main gate! Realizing that he could not stop the grey streak in anyway, the guard could only return to his duty. Just then, he spotted another 4 streaks. "What the- Hey, you four, stop!" The guard yelled, but to no avail. Completely ignoring the guard, the four black streaks, in the same manner as the grey streak, rammed through the barricades and followed the trail of their target. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Exasperated, the guard threw his spear onto the ground and walked off, yelling "I quit!" As Asura was running over the grasslands, Asura fired short bursts of mana and fireballs in an attempt to slow them down. However, as the four black robed men who were following closely behind, expertly dodged the spells and mana waves, Asura was already starting to slow down. As a 4th level Magus, his mana capacity was not as high as the 5th level magi who were chasing after him. Naturally, in the long run he would still have been caught. Now that the city was out of Asura''s ''Burning Gale'' range, he stopped running and turned around, before releasing his mind''s grip on the ''Burning Gale'', causing a huge wall of fire to spew forth from his hands! "RRROOOOAAAARRRR!!!" As the crimson red flames turned the grasses and weeds to ashes in its path, Asura could feel the flesh on his arms being burnt by the heat. Thick grey smoke rose from the ashes, blocking the four black robed men from Asura''s view. "Did they die?" Asura activated his ''Mana Sense'', searching for the four assailants. To his horror, the density of the mana within their ''Origin of Life'' had barely been affected! Wanting to see how they had managed to resist his ''Burning Gale'', Asura jerked his body, pushing forth a wave of raw mana. When the cloud of thick grey smoke dissipated due to the burst of mana, Asura realized that in front of them was three layers of earthen walls! Two of them had completely crumbled from the force of the ''Burning Gale'', but had also caused the power of the ''Burning Gale'' to decrease each time. He also noticed that one of the magi was panting. Guessing that he was the magus who had erected the earth walls, Using the ''Burning Gale'' had already burnt his arms, and Asura did not dare to unleash another one. Wishing that he had spent more time studying the other elements, Asura could now only rely on his newfound Demon Force and his fire demon servant. "Choronzon, quick!" Asura yelled inside his mind. "How do I use the Demon Force"? "Master, the Demon Force can be used for several things. For now, I''ll teach you a technique called ''Materialization''. Showing you will be easier than explaining in words." Choronzon explained. Just as Asura was about to ask what Choronzon meant by ''showing'', he cried out in pain as a splitting headache sprang out in his head, and could feel streams of information gushing into his mind. "GGUUUAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" Asura fell onto his knees, banging his fists on the grassy soil in an attempt to distract himself from the pain. When the pain finally stopped, Asura could feel streams of information in his brain, explaining the concepts and uses of the ''Materialization'' technique. "Awesome! This Demon Force is like a cheat!" Asura laughed out loud, causing the four black figures behind the wall of smoke to look at each other, wondering what the reason behind the laughter was. Eager to test out the ''Demon Force'', Asura stood up, infusing mana into his arms, dulling the pain from the burns. Within Asura''s body, a river of black gas was flowing out from the Demon Force, and into Asura''s right arm. As the black gas escaped from the pores of his body, it slowly condensed, taking on the shape of a single-edged sword, closely resembling a katana, except that the tip of the blade does not curve upwards. In Asura''s mind, there were five words that stood out. ''Demon''s Avatar: Blade of Shadow Flame''. [Edit: Just realised that there were multiple same paragraphs. I have already corrected the errors.] Chapter 25: Demon''s Avatar Chapter 25: Demons Avatar In Asura''s mind, there were five words that stood out. ''Demon''s Avatar: Blade of Shadow Flame''. Looking at the sword in Asura''s hand, he couldn''t help but wonder how he knew it''s name. As Choronzon was now bound to Asura''s soul, he could also read Asura''s thoughts. Explaining in a low voice, he said, ''It''s because of my Demon Force." "Every Demon has their own unique Demon''s Avatar, bound to their Demon Force," Choronzon sighed, remembering the days he had slain countless other demons with his Shadow Flames, before continuing. "Even after giving you my Demon Force, the Demon''s Avatar has not changed one bit." "As you had tried to materialize a sword, the Shadow Flames naturally took on the form of the sword that you had visualized. However, you should already know from the memories that I transferred into your mind, that you can also freely change its form. For example, you can force it''s length to increase during a slash, thus catching your enemies off guard. Go on, you have four perfect guinea pigs right in front of you." Choronzon laughed. "Tsk, what should we do? If we get hit by another one of those insane fire spells, my ''Earth Wall'' might not be able to take it!" One of the hooded men was still panting from the exertion. "I don''t know, let''s just finish him and report back to Lord Ho''Vah!" said the hooded man that was holding a halberd. "W-wait, was he carrying a sword earlier?" One of the hooded men pointed towards the black sword in Asura''s right hand, which was giving off an eerie feeling. "I have a bad feeling about that sword..." "Hey, get into formation! He''s starting to make his move!" The halberd wielding man said, getting into a fighting stance. "Master, now that you''ve activated the Demon''s Avatar, you can use it''s special ability, Shadow Flames!" Choronzon''s voice had a hint of excitement. "Back in my days, I could even kill a Great Jotun!" Asura did not bother to ask what a Great Jotun was, and instead focus his attention towards the four silhouettes that could be barely seen through the smoke, and on the black sword in his arms, which was radiating power. The sun was already starting to set. Remembering the rules that Khara had told him earlier, Asura decided to quickly end this fight and return to the orphanage before the sun had completely gone down. "Whooooshhh!!" Asura sprang forward, and in a flash, he had already covered the distance between the halberd wielding man, aiming to cut off his head in one swift stroke. Of course, the man was no pushover, and instantly reacted, blocking Asura''s slash with the metal pole of his halberd. Sparks flew as their weapons clashed, and then the strangest thing happened before the man''s eyes. The moment the sword struck against the halberd''s pole, the tip of the blade had suddenly bent, and stretched towards his chest, where the ''Origin of Life'' is at! "S-shit!" The tip of the blade had already cut through his robes, and was about to penetrate into his skin when Asura''s hand was hit by a powerful burst of wind. It came from another hooded man, and caused the trajectory of Asura''s slash to change, and tip of the blade could only barely scratch the warrior, making the four men''s faces turn pale from shock. Their companion had almost been killed from the strange weapon, and were barely able to react in time. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. "These 3 magi are such a pain in the ass" Asura frowned. He had almost taken down the warrior, but unfortunately he was saved by the wind magus. "One earth magus, one fire magus, one wind magus and one warrior, assuming that they''re all single elementals" Asura took a quick look over them. Taking a deep breath, Asura increased his grip on the black sword and sprang forward once again, this time towards the earth magus. Upon seeing that the child was targeting him, the earth magus would not simply sit around and wait for his allies to help him. He quickly knelt on one leg, putting his hands on to the ground and cast his defensive spell, ''Earth Wall''. A monolithic sand-colored wall with the area of 30 square metres, was made out of the earth and erupted from the ground. Both the wind magus and the warrior dashed to his sides, to prevent Asura from flanking the earth magus from flanking the earth mage. "Hmph!" Asura could already see through their formation. Remembering a tool that was often used in his previous world, Asura willed the sword to transform into something else entirely. As the sword''s blade dulled and stretched, in within 3 seconds it had transformed into a 40 metres long flexible pole. "Huh? His weapon changed into a pole? It''s so long, how is he even going to attack?" The fire magus thought. He did not move from his original spot, and had been preparing a powerful fire spell, but he still needed a few more seconds to finish the spell. "Grrruuuughhh!!"Asura grunted from the exertion as he stabbed the pole into the ground, and continued running while maintaining a firm grip on the pole, causing it to bend like an arch! Finally, Asura increased the tension in the pole, causing the pole to harden. As a result, Asura''s small body was thrown over the earthen wall, as if he had been released from a human slingshot. "Thank god I used to watch the Olympics!" Asura smirked, looking down on to the four men who were staring up at him wide eyed as he leapt over the earthen wall. They had expected him to flank them from either the left or right side of the earthen wall, instead of above! Now that Asura had gotten the hang of transforming the ''Shadow Flame'', he visualized a sword in his mind. Instantly, the black pole had rapidly shrunk back into the ominous black sword, as he descended upon the still stunned earth mage. Asura''s body was now upside down in the air, constantly twirling as he fell down to the ground. Swinging his sword in a wide arc, Asura could feel the sword sink into the flesh of the earth magus, ripping through the muscles and tendons of his neck. At long last, fresh blood had finally been drawn, as the head of the earth magus dropped to the ground, his wide eyes showing that he was unable to comprehend what had happened in his last moments. Blood continued to spurt out of his still standing body, painting the grasses around him crimson. Crashing down into the ground, Asura quickly poured mana into his body as he was afraid that the others would take advantage of that moment to attack him. Surprisingly, they had not attacked him, but were still staring at the corpse of their comrade. And soon they will wish that they had moved from their spots. Chapter 26: Retaliation Chapter 26: Retaliation Upon seeing that the three men were dumbstruck at the sight of Asura''s stunt, he would have been an idiot to miss this opportunity! Gripping the ''Shadow Fire" with his right hand, Asura also prepared to unleash a ''Burning Gale'' from his left hand. Just to be safe, he also utilized his ''Mana Sense''. Currently, Asura only had 50% of his mana remaining in his ''Origin of Life''. "Whooosshh!" Asura''s sword slashed through the air, towards the warrior, causing a whistling sound in the air, and sliced through the warrior''s arm, cutting through the flesh and bones. By the time the warrior had realized what was happening, his right arm was no longer attached to his body. "GGUUUAAAAHHHH!!! MY ARM!!! AARRGHHHH!!!" Veins and muscle tissue could be seen hanging off the edges of the warrior''s shoulder. Falling to his knees, he curled up, as if he was kowtowing, clutching at what remained of his right arm. Grabbing at his severed arm, the warrior crawled backwards, retreating from the battlefield. Snapping out of his daze, the wind magus quickly drew mana from his ''Origin of Life'', preparing to defend against Asura while the fire magus was preparing his spell. Once the fire magus was done with the preparations, he would distract Asura with razor wind attacks, and would then be finished off by the fire magus! However, he did not know about Asura''s ''Mana Sense''! The moment Asura utilized his ''Mana Sense'', he had already realized that an enormous amount of mana had gathered in the fire magus''s mouth! "Master, you must be careful of that technique. I can sense a dangerous aura from it..." Choronzon warned. "You don''t say?" Asura retorted. Choronzon could only keep his mouth shut, afraid to distract his master from the fight. Making a mental note to keep a close watch on the fire magus by using ''Mana Sense'', Asura raised his left arm, releasing the ''Burning Gale'' that he had been restraining the whole time. With a loud roar, the ''Burning Gale'' charged towards the wind magus, instantly turning everything in its path to ashes. The wind magus'' face paled. Seeing that after Asura had used the ''Burning Gale'' for the first time, he had deduced from Asura''s burnt arms that the backlash was extremely high, and did not expect that Asura would use it again so quickly. In a desperate attempt to block the oncoming torrent of flames, he quickly released a burst of mana, hoping to deflect the crimson flames that seemed to have come out from hell. Not even affecting the flames one bit, he did not even have the time to jump out of the flame''s path. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" The black robes dissipated around the wind magus'', revealing a middle aged man, before his flesh was consumed by the fire. From Asura''s ''Mana Sense'', he could feel the mana surrounding the fire magus spike in density. Alarmed, he quickly retreated, increasing the distance between him and the fire magus. "Since he''s a fire magus, obviously the best course of action would be using a water spell. But, I didn''t learn any water spells back in White Serenity School..." Asura''s eyes narrowed, closely observing the fire magus in front of him, who was starting to grimace. "To kill a goddamned kid, 2 of my friends had to die, while the other is now a cripple!" The fire magus'' face was starting to glow red. "Now, I don''t even know if I can still return to Lord Ho''Vah. Maybe after killing this demon child, I will run away and find a safe place to hide!" Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Just then, he gave out a loud roar, causing flames to erupt from his mouth! "''Ifit''s Roar!'' Even if he''s a demon child, he definitely will not be able to withstand my most powerful technique!" The fire magus laughed in his heart, completely confident that the child would die, and a hint of greed appeared in his eyes. "And that strange black sword, it might actually be a treasure!" "Are you shitting me..." Looking at the vortex of fire flying towards him from the distance, Asura could tell from his ''Mana Sense'' that even if he was to wring out all his mana to use ''Burning Gale'', it wouldn''t even contain half the power of what the vortex of fire had. This time, he knew that he was in real danger! At the same time, Choronzon''s echoed in Asura''s head. "Master, quickly, block that spell with your Demon Avatar! The more you infuse your Demon Avatar with the power from the Demon Force, the more powerful it will become!" Nodding, Asura searched within himself, and found the Demon Force which was still brimming with power. Using his mind''s grasp to draw out a river of black gas into the ''Blade of Shadow Flame'', he could feel the sword in his arm trembling, as if it was relishing in the taste of the black gases. Instantly, the sword in Asura''s hand started to give off a dark blue glow. Even without using ''Mana Sense'', he could feel a strong killing intent radiating from the sword, as if there was a soul inside the Demon Avatar, wanting to cut down the enemy before him. "Master, now!" Choronzon''s low voice rang. As the sword sliced through the air, the strange blue glow sprang out from the sword, and formed an arc, flying towards the vortex of fire! As the dark blue arc collided with the vortex of orange fire, the air around them started to distort. The next second, the area around the collision exploded, causing waves of raw mana in the air to spread out from explosion, knocking down both Asura and the fire magus onto their backs. When the explosion died down, Asura who had been infusing more of the black gases into the sword, quickly got up and launched the dark blue glow once more! "Fuck, how can this hap-" Before the fire magus could finish, the dark blue arc had already reached him, cutting through his abdomen. Upon seeing the blue arc fly through the fire magus'' body, Asura willed the ''Blade of Shadow Flame'' to dissipate into black gas, before entering into his pores and return into the Demon Force. Not even bothering to confirm whether the fire magus had died, Asura turned around to face the one armed warrior who had been crawling away the whole time. "Where do you think you''re going?" Asura coldly said. Black gases poured from Asura''s left arm, condensing into a gigantic black arm. ''Demon''s Avatar: Left Hand of the Devil'' Chapter 27: Interrogation Chapter 27: Interrogation Floating towards the warrior who was frozen with terror, the gigantic black arm grabbed around the warrior''s body, who could only silently await his impending doom. "It seems that a Demon Avatar can also levitate, without consuming too much power from the Demon Force." Asura observed the gigantic black arm he had conjured on a whim. Making the gigantic arm move as he wished was as easy as moving his own left arm. Even now, Asura was still amazed at the practicality of the Demon Force. Returning his attention towards the crippled warrior, who still grimacing from the pain of losing his right arm, Asura decided to get some answers out of the man. "Now, tell me, did Nilfim send you?" Asura coldly said, slightly increasing the gigantic arm''s grip on the warrior. Grunting, the warrior quickly said, "N-n-no, no! I don''t even know him! P-please, let me go home!" Tears were starting to streak down his face. "Sir, we were sent by our teacher, Lord Ho''Vah!" "Ho''Vah," Asura repeated several times, memorizing the name Ho''Vah. Looking back towards the sobbing man, he coldly said to him, "Why did he send you?" "I don''t know! He only told us to bring you back alive! He did not say anything else!" "Master, he is lying! I felt his mana fluctuate when he said that last sentence!" Choronzon angrily said. Asura had also felt the warrior''s mana fluctuate with his ''Mana Sense''. Sighing, he whispered loud enough for the warrior to hear. "You leave me with no choice." Instantly, the giant arm crushed the warrior''s legs, grinding his leg bones into dust! "GGGUUUUAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! PLEEEAAASEEE!!! I''M SORRRYY!! KILL ME! PLEEEASSEEE!" Loosening the gigantic arm''s grip, Asura let the warrior take a few breaths, before continuing. "Lie to me one more time, and I will crush your most precious part. Now, tell me!" As cold light flashed across Asura''s eyes, the warrior realized that he could not hide the truth, and that Asura was being serious on his warning. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. "H-h-h-he said t-t-to r-r-retrieve the s-s-scrolls on y-you." "I see. Then, where can I find this Lord Ho''Vah?" Asura asked. "Since Ho''Vah had sent people to take my scrolls, it meant that Ho''Vah will not stop until he obtains them." Asura thought. Even if he killed these men, the mysterious Ho''Vah would send more people, and things might not go as well the next time. Therefore, Asura felt a strong urge to resolve this issue with Ho''Vah. "H-he is," the warrior gulped before continuing. "At the Palace of Blackfire." "What?!" Asura could not believe his ears. Even though he did not sense any fluctuation coming from the warrior''s mana, he still could not believe that this Ho''Vah was probably an influential figure! He remembered the horse carriage driver saying that only the highest ranked nobles and officials have access to. Finding this Ho''Vah have become a lot more difficult than he had originally thought. "One last question. How do I go to the Palace?" Asura needed to find a way to get into the Palace, so that he can find out why Ho''Vah wanted the Secret Art scrolls that Shane had given him. What was so special about them? "Only those who are given this token, can enter and leave freely," Asura felt the warrior reaching into his robe pocket with his remaining arm. Taking out a circular token with the logo of Blackfire, Asura was convinced that this would allow him to enter the Palace. "Thanks for your cooperation. Goodbye." "Huh? What do you me-" In a flash, the gigantic black arm clenched its fist, instantly killing the warrior as all sorts of organs popped out of his right shoulder and the crevices of his flesh. Asura then leapt onto the floating gigantic arm, before willing it to fly into the golden horizon, leaving behind the four corpses for the crows to feed on. Chapter 28: Laying Low Chapter 28: Laying Low In a dingy hall lit up by a dozen torches on the walls, there were a dozen black robed men kneeling before a black cloaked figure, who was standing on a circular wooden platform, with strange symbols written around the circumference of the platform. Rays of moonlight shone through the windows, illuminating the figure''s black cloak, revealing symbols and letters that the men kneeling before him could not comprehend. Strangely though, the moonlight could not illuminate the face hidden under the hood, as if there was an invisible barrier that was blocking out the light. "Master, the four men we had sent after the boy have been reported to be missing. They were last seen running out of the city gates three hours ago." A black robed man was kneeling right in front of the platform. The aura he emanated was not inferior to most sixth level experts, but he could not help but cower before the man on the platform, as cold sweat poured down his face, afraid that he would incur the fury of the figure standing before him. Standing at 2.5 metres with a seemingly muscular frame,, the black figure made the men kneeling before him appear like dwarves in comparison. With a husky voice, he said, "Ho''Vah... I''ve already warned you to be extremely cautious. And yet, you did not listen and let some incompetent mongrels go after him, causing a ruckus at the Warrior''s Guild. Now, we have no idea what happened to them, and we don''t even know the whereabouts of the boy. What is your excuse?" Instantly, Ho''Vah knew that if did not give a satisfactory answer, there was an extremely high possibility that he would die. Fearing for his life, he quickly said, "Master, according to my sources, I was informed that the boy is only currently a third level magus and a fourth level warrior, so I had sent three magi of the fifth level and a sixth level warrior. I had expected them to be able to capture the boy in a minute, and did not expect this to happen..." "Hmph, those are some reliable sources you have!" The cloaked figure''s demeanor changed, causing the men kneeling before him to tremble slightly, afraid that the cloaked figure would kill them out of anger. "Forget it. Deploy some men to keep a close watch at the city gates, and let me know when the boy appears. In the meantime, I suggest you take a search party to look for the four incompetent fools that could not even capture the boy within the city. If you fail again, I shall personally grant you a slow and painful death!" The cloaked figure snarled. "Now, all of you, get lost!" "Yes, master!" All the black robed men, including Ho''Vah, chanted in unison, before turning into twelve black streaks, each of them flying out from the gloomy hall and went their separate ways. "Hmph, this Choronzon, now that he is free from my curse, he will definitely have told the boy about me. Now, it will be even harder to obtain the ''Thousand Essence Absorption'' scroll!" A pair of red eyes gleamed in the shrouded darkness of the hood. Suddenly, the symbols around the platform started to glow, and in an instant, the cloaked figure disappeared. Two hours earlier... Riding on the ''Demon''s Avatar: Left Arm of the Devil'', Asura had healed his burnt arms with ''Healing Water'', and stealthily flew over the city walls without the guards noticing, before disengaging the Demon''s Avatar and ran the whole way back to the orphanage, barely managing to arrive at the orphanage in time for curfew. As Asura stepped into the mansion, some of the children who were loitering around the hall immediately noticed the state that Asura was in, and were looking at him curiously. One of the older children stepped forward, with a look of concern on his face. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. "Hey new kid, are you alright? What happened to your clothes?" Not understanding what the older boy was talking about, Asura looked down onto his robe and was shocked to see some scorch marks on his robe, and realized instantly that they were caused by the fight earlier. Remembering that some of the houses had been caught on fire thanks to the fire magus when Asura was ambushed at the Warrior''s Guild, he quickly thought up of an excuse. "Huh? Oh, yeah, I went to take a look at one of the shops at District 4, but a fire broke out! Luckily only my clothes were burnt, so I''m fine!" "Ah, I see. You''re lucky, kid. I heard from some of the adults outside that there was a fight there, and there were some people that died in the houses that were on fire. Luckily you aren''t hurt." The older kid smiled at Asura, patting his shoulder as he was relieved. He had originally thought that the new kid was being bullied by the more fortunate children, as it was a common occurrence. Asura smiled at the older boy and then excused himself, being hurrying off to his room. Finally having arrived at his room, Asura quickly locked the door, and reached into his robe, taking out the scrolls he had kept on him at all times. "I hope they aren''t damaged, I haven''t even finished learning the ''Thousand Essences Absorption'' skill." Asura''s heart started to beat rapidly at the thought of losing the precious Secret Arts scrolls that Shane had given him. as he closely examined the scrolls, before letting out a sigh of relief. None of the scrolls had a single mark on them. As the adrenaline rush from the earlier slaughter wore off, Asura''s mind was starting to clear up and he now felt like slapping himself. He realized that he had forgotten to ask the warrior what Ho''Vah looks like, and how they knew about his scrolls. Choronzon''s low voice rang out in Asura''s head pulling him out from his thoughts. "Master, I think this Ho''Vah works for Nilfim. After all, Nilfim has been here for over 500 years, and it wouldn''t be weird if he has some men working for him. From what I know about him during our fight from 500 years ago, I believe that he is the type to work in the shadows." Asura''s eyes jerked upwards when he heard what Choronzon had said. "Oh? That makes sense. Otherwise, how could Ho''Vah''s men have known where I was, and ambush me at the Warrior''s Guild?" Asura''s eyes then narrowed, as he realized something. "If Nilfim could find out where I was during the time when you were under his control, then now that you are no longer under his control, he won''t be able to track me down, right?" Asura asked. "I suppose so. While I was under Nilfim''s control, he could only control my actions, not possess me, such as seeing through my eyes. Nilfim knew your whereabouts only through the curse that he cast on me. Master, for the time being, you should just lay low and train, as you''re still unable to utilize all the techniques of the Demon Force." Choronzon''s low voice was raised ever so slightly, inwardly anticipating the heights that Asura could achieve once he mastered the techniques of the Demon Force. "Lay low and train?" Asura took out the circular token he had ''borrowed'' from the warrior, feeling the logo of Blackfire that was carved into the token, while considering his next course of action. "Very well. For now, I''ll stay here to mingle with the orphans, and train with the scrolls and the Demon Force. And then I''ll bring hell upon the bastards who couldn''t even fucking say ''please''." Chapter 29: Nightmare Chapter 29: Nightmare [Author''s Note: I just realized that my worst enemy, as a writer, are the descriptions, Like seriously, writing the descriptions is like trying to explain what a red coloured ball looks like. Ok, perhaps that was a poor example, but I think some of you know what i mean. And then sometimes I get far too ahead in my imagination while writing the story and accidentally leave out some details. Fuck me. Anyways, without further ado, let''s begin.] After having checked the state of the scrolls, Asura went to the dining hall to join the others for dinner. At the dining hall, Asura could see that the dishes laid on the tables were not as extravagant as the ones served for breakfast. As he walked towards where his seat, he noticed the same lanky red haired boy he had seen at breakfast, was now gorging on a roasted wild boar''s leg. Recognizing the first friend he had made in the orphanage, Asura felt a sense of familiarity when he saw the red haired boy. "Khara." "Mmmph?" Khara glanced to his left and noticed Asura, and eagerly put down his wild boar''s leg. "Hey, Asura, where did you go? I wanted to bring you along to the Warrior''s Guild to train, but I couldn''t find you at your room. Anyways, did you hear about the fight at the Warrior''s Guild? My god, I saw that there were 4 magi chasing after a kid!" Khara waved his hands about, while making sounds as if trying to describe the fight he had witnessed, not noticing the brief panicked expression on Asura''s face. "That was close!" Asura inwardly let out a breath. He had almost been seen by Khara, who had also been at the Warrior''s Guild. "Um, I went to look around the shops nearby," Asura lied. Trying to change the topic, Asura quickly said, "By the way, I didn''t know you train at the Warrior''s Guild. What level are you at?" Curious about Khara''s capabilities, Asura could not resist asking. Back at White Serenity''s School, he did not have any friends who was in the same age group as him except for Yong, and was hoping that he could spar with someone who was at the same level as him. Now that there was someone after him, it was even more important to train to fight against humans. "Oh, what''s this? You want to be a warrior too?" Khara devilishly grinned. "You''ll know when we spar. What about you? Your seem to be quite well built, probably around the 3rd or 4th level warrior, eh?" Khara casually remarked. Looking closely at Asura''s muscles, he could see that Asura was also training on the path of a Warrior. "Master, this boy does not seem as simple as he looks. Hidden under his thin build are powerful muscles, that rivals a 4th level Warrior. What''s more, his eyes..." Choronzon''s voice echoed in Asura''s head, almost making Asura jump from the shock, as he had totally forgotten about the 500 year old fire demon that was hidden within his consciousness. "Huh? His eyes?" Asura could not understand what Choronzon was talking about. Looking into Khara''s brown eyes, Asura could not detect anything out of the ordinary. "Choronzon, what are you talking about?" Stolen novel; please report. "Never mind. I must be getting old..." Asura could hear a hint of uneasiness in Choronzon''s tone. "Asura, what''s wrong? Are you daydreaming?" Khara''s voice pulled Asura out from his ''inner conversation''. "Dude, you look tired. You should go to bed early, and then maybe we will go to the Warrior''s Guild together to train, if you want." Khara suggested, with a hint of anticipation in his eyes. Hearing Khara''s suggestion, Asura was also looking forward to training with Khara to find out whether he really had the power of a 4th level Warrior as Choronzon had said. "Why not? I''ll go to bed now. Goodnight!" Asura got up from his seat, and was about to head to his room. "Goodnight! I''ll wait for you outside the gates at sunrise." Khara quickly added. Once Asura reached his room, he immediately locked the door and tucked himself into bed after blowing out the candles in the room. That night, he could not sleep peacefully, as he recalled the scene as he indifferently killed the four men who had attacked him. During the fight, Asura could not remember when his fighting instinct had taken over, entering an emotionless state, and mercilessly massacred the men. The grassland was dyed red, with body parts strewn about. The faces of the men he had killed during their last moments, their cries of anguish as they stared at Asura in contempt, even after they had died. It felt all too real. And then they would suddenly appear as a whole again, madly running towards Asura, their murderous gazes seemed to bore through Asura''s soul. And every time Asura would cut them down with the ''Blade of Shadow Flame'', feeling the edge of the sword slashing through every fiber of their body. He wanted to throw up, but he couldn''t. It was so realistic, it was if he would die by just their touch if he was distracted for a single moment. Desperate, he would cry out, trying to wake himself up from the nightmare. "Stop!" "Please! I had no choice!" "Forgive me!" However, the mangled bodies of the demons before him would not relent, it was if they wanted Asura to accompany them in death. After what felt like an eternity, the grassland was no longer a grassland, but a sea of blood, with body parts and bones floating about, causing Asura to slow down, whereas the demons seemed unaffected by the density of the crimson sea of blood. Finally, Asura could no longer take it, and wanted to cut off his own head before the ''demons'' could lay a finger on him. Just as he felt the sharp edge of his sword cut through the skin of his neck, he felt his body suddenly turn forwards, The scene before him then changed from the bloody landscape to the brown ceiling of his room. "Master, you had a nightmare." Chapter 30: Twelve Devas Chapter 30: Twelve Devas Master, you had a nightmare However, Choronzon''s words did not register in Asura''s mind. His heart was beating rapidly, as the scenes he had seen in his nightmare was still fresh in his mind. Looking at the wooden ceilings of the mansion, Asura let out a breath he had been holding in. He could see the golden rays of the morning sun seeping through the windows, accompanied by the crows of the roosters. Just a nightmare. Shaken by the nightmare, Asura took deep breaths, calming down before he changed out of his sweat-soaked robe and undergarments. Now wearing a dark blue robe, he headed towards the Dining Hall for breakfast before the appointed meeting with Khara at the gates. As Asura did not have much of an appetite, he only took a loaf of bread and went off to the mansion gates, eager to train with Khara and also to distract himself from the uneasy feeling that was lodged deep in his heart ever since he woke up from that nightmare. "Hey, Asura! C''mon let''s go!" Khara''s face lit up when he saw Asura approaching the gates. As they walked to the Warrior''s Guild, Asura and Khara chatted about trivial matters, and were soon becoming good friends. Asura found that both of them actually had a lot in common. Their passion in learning the Art of the Sword, the satisfaction they feel every time they come up with a counter for a particular move, and so much more. Half an hour later, they reached the massive temple that was guarded by twelve statues of the fierce looking warriors. Asura could not help but be impressed by the craftsmanship. "The Twelve Devas." Khara said, also admiring the statues that were so expertly carved. "A long long time ago, in a continent far, far away..." Khara''s voice trailed off, closing his eyes as he remembered the folklore he parents had told him, months before they had disappeared, not noticing Asura''s surprised face as he remembered the opening crawl of a movie he had so often watched in his teenage years. "The world was in an era of peace. Mankind got along with Magical Beasts, and countries maintained harmonious relationships. But one day, a monster appeared in the skies, hovering over a Kingdom. It was as if he was the child of a human and a magical beast. Long pointed ears, its skin so dark that you wouldn''t even notice him in the darkness, strange marks all over his armor, radiating power that even the Arch Magi of their time could not understand, and wielded never before seen elements. With a stroke of his hand, he could level mountains, and with a flick of his fingers, he could instantly teleport to another region!" Khara paused, looking at Asura''s excited face, and purposely dragged out the silence. Finally, he continued, "With a roar louder than a dragon''s, he declared to the world that he would hold a tournament, and the winner would be given a divine treasure!" Looking at the twelve stone statues, Khara then said, "And then twelve men appeared from all over the world, each of them proficient in a different weapon. However, they had one thing in common; they were all of the 9th Level as a warrior, the Deva! Together, they flew towards what is now known as the Forbidden Continent. For three days and nights, there were explosions and shock waves from the Forbidden Continent, before it ended. And since then, nobody knows the outcome of the tournament, or if they''re even alive. To honour them, the Warrior''s Guild was formed, and twelve statues are to be placed in front." Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. "Then, did no one bother to go to the Forbidden Continent to search for them?" Asura asked. "Heh, you think we haven''t tried that? One of the kingdoms organized an expedition with over a thousand men to the Forbidden Continent, but only a few dozen of them returned! According to them, there were thousands of magical beasts of the eighth rank, and perhaps there were even magical beasts of the ninth level! Since then, no one has ever dared to go near to the Forbidden Continent, even for the few 9th level fighters that are scattered all over the world." Khara finished. "A whole continent full of 8th Level Magical Beasts!" Asura gasped. Remembering the prowess of Shane, who was at the 8th Level as a Warrior, he couldn''t imagine fighting against thousands of Shanes. Imagining himself as an 8th Level Warrior, Asura felt that even if he could block one or two Shanes, he would still get attacked by the rest who would be flying at him from all directions. With a sigh, Asura shook his head and said, "We''ve been standing out here for minutes. Come on, let''s go in!" It was the same as the day before; a bustling crowd of muscular men who were advertising with their loud, coarse voices, while some others were chatting idly, unaffected by the incident at the third floor the day before. As Khara and Asura walked to the receptionist, Asura recognized the receptionist as the same one from the day before. When the receptionist''s gaze met with Asura''s, she couldn''t help but be shocked. A wave of panic suddenly swept over Asura, He had completely forgotten that the receptionist was there when he was attacked by the four men the day before! "Eh? You...!" The receptionist abruptly stood up from her seat, staring at Asura with her jaws dropped. She had witnessed a magus hurling fireballs that belonged to the power of at least a 4th Level Magus, at the child, and yet he had come out unscathed! But she quickly regained her composure, remembering the bronze token that Asura had shown her. The bronze token that symbolizes the status of a School Leader, or a Future School Leader! Thinking that Asura was a prodigy from one of the more famous Schools, she told herself that it was no surprise that Asura could escape from a 4th Level Magus. However, Asura does not know what the token symbolized, as Shane had only said that he would get free lodging at any Warrior''s Guild. "We''re here to spar, is there a free Training Hall?" Khara asked, pulling the receptionist''s attention to him. "Yes, there is. Please head to Hall 4." Watching the two boys walk off, the receptionist couldn''t help but sigh, pitying the lanky red haired boy who would be sparring against a Future School Leader. Chapter 31: Spar Chapter 31: Spar [Author''s Announcement: Well, I got a few stuffs to let you guys know. From now on, my chapters will be 3x longer than what they''ve been so far, but of course this means that my release speed will be affected. I will only upload 1 chapter per day, maybe 2 if I have the time. Maybe my releases will get faster once I get better at writing. Also, a little note for those who have been staying with me thus far. If you think the story so far have been "dark", I''m sorry to disappoint you but it''s gonna get worse and more explicit. Seriously. Unfiltered gore-ish descriptions, vulgarities, the likes. Well, that''s all I have to say for now.] While Asura and Khara was climbing up the stairs, Asura was still in a state of panic. He had completely forgotten about the receptionist! "Does she work for Ho''Vah? Will I get attacked here again?" "Master, worry not. Have you already forgotten? I told you that it was probably Nilfim who told Ho''Vah to send those men here. Due to the link of the curse, Nilfim was able to sense the curse breaking, and that was probably why he sent those men. Of course, I implore you to finish the spar early. Better safe than sorry. For now, focus on the spar." Choronzon''s low voice rang out in Asura''s head. Choronzon''s words had given Asura some reassurance, and with a few deep breaths, he managed to regain his calm. As Khara and Asura stepped into a wooden hall on the sixth floor of the Warrior''s Guild, there was a faint lingering smell of sweat. On the walls of the hall were racks upon racks of weapons. Scythes, chain-and-sickles, glaives, spears, and the likes. "Eh? Are we really practicing with these weapons?" Asura picked up a single-edged longsword from a rack, examining the sharp end of blade. "Won''t it be dangerous?" "Of course. But if you don''t practice while experiencing the feeling of standing at death''s doors, will you be able to remain calm while fighting against bloodthirsty humans, much less those fearsome magical beasts?" Picking up a pair of twin broadswords, Khara swung the broadswords in different directions before he grinned, glancing out of his peripheral vision, watching Asura making a few swinging and thrusting motions with a single-edged longsword with his right hand. "Ready?" Khara asked, getting into his fighting stance, holding the broadsword on his left arm in reverse grip. "Huh? What a weird stance," Asura suddenly felt threatened by the unorthodox sword stance of Khara''s, before assuming his usual fighting stance that was drilled into him at White Serenity School. "Let''s begin!" Asura yelled as he leaped towards Khara, covering the distance between them in a split second. Reacting in an instant, Khara parried against the longsword with the reverse gripped broadsword, and at the same time the broadsword in his right hand was pointed towards Asura, ready to stab against Asura''s waist. With blinding speed, the broadsword was already midway through the air, the cold metal of the broadsword glinting as it pierced through the air. "Master!" "I know!" Asura quickly pushed the ground with his front foot, feeling the tip of the blade breaching the outer layer of his robes just as he got out of Khara''s range. "So fast!" Asura couldn''t help but feel shocked. The speed of Khara''s movements and reaction belied his lanky and laidback appearance. However, Khara wouldn''t give Asura a breather, as he instantly leapt towards him, unleashing a flurry of ever-changing and unpredictable stabs and slashes that seemed to have come from seemingly impossible directions. "So this is the speed of a 5th Level Warrior!" Asura was amazed at the speed of Khara''s movements. In fact, the differences between each Levels are extremely vast. For example, a 4th Level Warrior is able to make a small dent on a stone boulder with a punch. However, a 5th Level Warrior can create a dent five times larger than what a 4th Level Warrior is capable of! The gaps between each Levels will also continue to increase exponentially. Desperate, Asura could not resist drawing on the mana from his ''Origin of Life'' to reinforce his body, as his body was unable to match Khara''s speed. Combined with the long arms of his lanky build, his longer reach proved to be yet another advantage he had over Asura. As Asura felt the flow of mana into his body as a rush of much-needed exhilaration, he quickly leapt backwards, creating distance between the two of them. "Hm? For a moment, I swear that his speed was a 6th Level Warrior''s...is he a 6th Level Warrior after all?" Khara couldn''t help but feel envious. Ever since he was five, he had to go through a harsh regimen of spartan training from his parents, constantly doing hellish exercises and drills. When he reached the 5th Level as a Warrior at the age of 12, he had already considered himself to be the most talented among those he knew. But standing before him, was a 12 year old 6th Level Warrior! But of course, how could he have known that Asura was actually reinforcing his own body with mana? By now, both of them circling each other, trying to create openings by feinting with minute movements, but none of them fell for the other''s. After a few heart-stopping moments, Asura gave in to the tension. Replenishing his body with more mana, Asura ran towards the stationary Khara, who was raising the tips of his broadswords to eye level, carefully observing Asura. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. With each step he took towards Khara, Asura continuously poured mana into his right arm, even after it was full to the brim, forcibly pushing more mana into the mana vessels of his right arm. By now, the power within Asura''s right arm was comparable to a 7th Level Warrior''s, but it came at a cost. Every time he poured too much mana into a certain part of his body, he would feel extreme pain at that area for several days, and the flow of his mana would also be severely affected. Khara who had been closely observing Asura the whole time, could see in his eyes that he wanted to end the fight in one swift blow. "Hmph, you think I don''t know what you''re planning?!" Smirking, he lowered both his arms, leaving himself wide open. A taunt. Moulded by the hellish spars against his parents, he had picked up a trick or two from them, and was also extremely used to battling against warriors who were stronger than him. Upon seeing the opening, Asura knew that Khara was purposely taunting him. But it was such a wide opening, and it was obvious that Khara was aiming for a counter. However, the opening that Khara had created, was too tempting for Asura too resist. "Grrraaahhh!!" Asura yelled as he swung down upon Khara, ready to stop himself once he was sure that his victory was clear, as he felt that Khara was up to something. Sure enough, the pair of twin broadswords that Khara had been holding had vanished. To be exact, the pair of twin broadswords were moving so fast that even Asura''s mana-reinforced eyes could not catch up to the speed of the sword, as they now appeared as blurs. It was just like the flurry of the ever-changing and unpredictable attacks that Khara had unleashed earlier, except that it was now several times faster. Asura could hear a low hum being produced by the swords, and suddenly, he felt his entire right arm vibrating. Alarmed, he quickly glanced at his right arm, but could not find anything wrong with it. No, it was the longsword. Almost the entire blade had disappeared, leaving only a small chunk of steel. Looking down on the wooden planked flooring, there were pieces of the now broken blade strewn about. "You lose." "Huh?" Asura brought the sword closer to his eyes, and stupidly staring at what was left of the blade. "What happened?" "Kuku... It''s a secret." "Then...where did you train at?" Asura could not resist asking. He was confident that he was as powerful as a 6th Level Warrior when he reinforced himself with mana. And yet, he could not even catch a glimpse of the twin broadswords as they cut through the blade of longsword in an instant. "I was trained by my parents. Are you the same? If we were of the same age, we would probably be of equal strength." Khara figured. He was now 14, while Asura was still 12. There was a possibility that Asura could reach the 7th Level as a Warrior, that Khara had not yet reached. "It''s a secret!" Asura smirked, giving Khara a taste of his own medicine, and then frowning, he said, "Anyways, what should I do with the broken sword? I don''t have money...." "Don''t worry about that. The Warrior''s Guild provides these weapons for free," Khara smiled. "And by the way, you were full of openings the whole time. If you wan''t, we can come here to spar everyday. Besides, it''s really refreshing to find someone my age to be on almost on par with me." "Of course!" Asura agreed without hesitation. ..... In a dimly lit stone chamber, there were four old men chained to the stone wall. Their skin had shriveled up, and was sagging heavily. It was difficult to see if they were alive or dead. They did not move, and did not say anything other than the occasional moan from two of the old men. "Master, Pestilence and Famine have awoken. Lord Coran have sent word that he will be arriving shortly," a gaunt old man in rags reported while bowing before a black robed man. "Good," the black robed man sneered. "How about the other two?" "They''re s-still..." The gaunt old man''s eyes darted about, afraid to finish the sentence. "I see. Then, have there been any reports about the four men that was sent after the boy?" "N-no." "Sigh... If only the boy wasn''t so ordinary looking, we would have sent out messengers to the other cities to search for him..." The black robed man sighed. Suddenly, his head jerked as a voice rang out in his head. "Ho''Vah..." The voice trailed off, and the presence that had entered in his mind disappeared. "Master?" The black robed man quickly turned towards the exit of the stone chamber, and disappeared as a black blur. Just then, from the cluster of iron cages hanging from the stone ceilings, a groan escaped the deathly pale lips of a naked youth whose hair was tied in a bun. Within the small area of the cage, the youth was leaning against the bars in a fetal position, as there was barely any room in the cage. His eyebrows were scrunched, as beads of sweat streaked down his face and body. On his abdomen area was a gash, with maggots and pests feasting upon the infected skin and flesh of the naked youth.. "Help me.... Aunt Kira... Help..." Chapter 32: Drama Chapter 32: Drama "..Help me... Aunt Kira..." The naked youth who was locked inside an iron cage moaned. "Hmm? Still alive? Finally, the first one who didn''t die from the pain," the gaunt old man snickered, picking up a key bundle on a stone table, watching the naked boy all the while. His bony fingers prodded the youth''s abdomen, examining the infected wound that was being feasted upon by maggots and unidentifiable pests. "Be grateful to me, boy. Although you will not be as powerful as the Four Horsemen, you will still be reborn as something new, something special. And then..." The gaunt old man''s voice trailed off, cackling as he dragged the naked youth out of his cage and up the stone stairwell, leaving behind a trail of blood and writhing maggots that had fallen out of the unconscious naked youth''s open wound. ..... "Master, you should rest..." Choronzon''s voice rang out in Asura''s head. Ignoring the voice in his head, Asura continued swinging about his ''Demon''s Avatar: Blade of Shadow Flame'', reenacting the fight he had with Khara earlier, causing the grasses around him to sway to and fro from the wind that was produced by his Demon Avatar. After his spar with Khara, both of them were walking back to the orphanage when Asura suddenly excused himself, claiming that he wanted to look around the districts alone. "I don''t understand. Just how did Khara do it?" Asura frowned. During his spar with Khara, Asura''s sword was instantly cut into pieces, and he only realized it a second too late. At first he had thought that Khara had also reinforced himself with mana, and had used his ''Mana Sense'' to look at Khara''s ''Origin of Life'', but it was of the same density as most 1st Level Warriors. Was it a trick? An illusion? Various questions popped into Asura''s head, but none of them could be answered, nor did the answers make sense. Even though he was a disciple of the White Serenity School, he had only learned basic sword techniques, and spent most of his time cultivating his mana and body, while sparring occasionally with Yong. He was never exposed to real, lethal death matches. Even though the four men he had killed were somewhat seasoned fighters, he had won only thanks to the element of surprise and the Demon Force within him. "Ugh, this is getting nowhere." Asura sighed, giving up on trying to figure out the secret behind the last technique that Khara had used. The black sword in Asura''s arms immediately burst into a black cloud of gas, and seeped into Asura''s body through the pores on his skin. As he sat down on the dry grass of the isolated hill he had found that was just a short walk away from the orphanage, he took out the ''Thousand Essences Absorption'' scroll to study it, continuing his quest to decipher the complicated instructions on the manual. "Eh? Somehow it now seems easier to understand?" Upon reading the words of the scroll, he felt that the speed of his deciphering had doubled, and was pleasantly surprised at himself. "That''s because I''m reading it too, and transferring what I had understood towards your consciousness." Choronzon explained. "Ah, is that so? You''re finally being useful, Choronzon," Asura chuckled. "Why, you..." From noon to sunset, Asura and Choronzon persevered in studying the scroll, and made tremendous progress. By now, Asura could understand 80% of the scroll, and felt that he was extremely close to finding out how to utilize the technique. He would have continued reading, but he had to return to the orphanage before curfew. Not to mention that he was feeling rather famished after exerting himself during the spar. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Looking at his right hand, he could feel that the mana vessels within his right hand were swollen from having forced too much mana into them. Other than having being unable to reinforce or use mana with his right hand for the next few days, his muscles were not really affected, other than the soreness. "If Khara hadn''t shattered my sword, would he have been able to block it?" Asura wondered, before a simple truth dawned on him. Even if he had immense power within his muscles, it would still be useless against someone who could easily dodge or nullify his attack, which was exactly what Khara had done. "Master, why are you still standing around, the sun has almost completely set..." ..... "You''re back, Asura. So, have you adapted to life in the city?" Khara had been wolfing down on his dinner and had spotted Asura walking into the Dining Hall. "Mmhmm," Asura nodded, taking a seat beside Khara, grabbing a plate of what seemed to be a combination of scrambled eggs and shredded chicken breasts. "Mate, look at that gal. Being surrounded by clingy boys, that''d suck, huh?" Khara grinned, jerking his head towards the direction of a girl. Looking closer, Asura could see that it was the bewitching girl that had brought him to the Dining Hall. She was surrounded by a group of boys that appeared to be 15, judging from their height and builds. "That''s Ishtar," a high-pitched voice came from behind. Turning their heads towards the speaker, Asura and Khara saw that the high-pitched voice came from a boy who looked no older than 10, with short jet-black hair and sharp eyebrows that seemed to highlight his features. But his most prominent feature was his golden eyes, as if there was a star shining through from his soul. "Is he an orphan too?" Asura stared at the boy''s golden eyes. "Do people in this world have golden eyes too?" Asura wondered. Looking at Khara, Asura could see that even Khara was stunned by the sharp gaze of the golden-eyed boy. "Hi, I''m Sehn, and could you please do me a favor and stop staring at my eyes?" Sehn said with an irritated look on his face, clearly regretting his decision to approach the pair. Quickly apologizing, Asura and Khara introduced themselves to Sehn. Looking back at Ishtar, Asura could see that she was feeling uncomfortable from the company of the boys who kept following her around. "Ishtar, here, want some grapes?" One of the boys plucked a grape from its vine, putting it in front of her mouth. "Fuck off!" Another boy forcefully pushed the boy who was holding the grape. "You guys aren''t even a 2nd Level Warrior, what makes you think you can get near her, huh?" Sneering at the sobbing boy who was sprawled on the floor, he turned towards Ishtar, and asked, "Ishtar, should we go somewhere quiet? There''re too many irritating flies here." "It''s like watching a sitcom," Asura chuckled at the hilarious sight of the boys who were pathetically attempting to grab Ishtar''s attention. "Hm?" Ishtar heard someone laughing, and with a quick glance towards the source, she found that it was the plain looking boy she had brought to the Dining Hall the day before. Suddenly, an idea struck her. "Hm? Is she looking at me?" Asura saw the bewitching girl look at him, and was even smirking. "I have a bad feeling about this..." Chapter 33: Davins Chapter 33: Davins "I have a bad feeling about this..." As Ishtar walked towards Asura with a smirk on her face, an uneasy feeling crept within Asura''s heart. He was suspecting that Ishtar was planning to ''make use'' of him. He had watched far too much dramas and novels in his past life to know what was going to happen. "Uh oh, I''m outta here," Asura decided not to risk wasting his time standing around before he got dragged into the drama. However, it was too late. Due to the commotion caused by the boys who had surrounded Ishtar earlier, dozens of orphans arrived to investigate, blocking the only exit of the Dining Hall. "Well, fuck." Wrapping her slender arms around Asura''s waist, Ishtar leaned her head on Asura''s shoulder and said, "Davins, you should stop pestering me, otherwise my boyfriend will get angry!" Ishtar''s declaration caused the onlooking orphans to ooh, as well as earning Asura several cold stares from some of the guys who admired Ishtar. Some of them were even planning to teach Asura a lesson. "This is what you get for laughing at another''s misfortune, now you don''t have a choice but to play along." Ishtar whispered softly into Asura''s ears. However, the onlookers mistook it as an act of affection, causing the boy called Davins to almost cough out blood from the anger and jealousy. "Y-you fucking whor-" Asura was whispering back, and had almost finished his sentence when a furious shout came from Davins. "Have you no shame?" Davins roared, stamping on the stone floor, causing some of the chairs and tables to shake ever so slightly from the tremor. "A 3rd Level Warrior?" Asura frowned. Even back at the White Serenity School, the number of disciples who could become a 3rd Level Warrior by the age of 14 or 15 could only be counted with one hand. First, there was Khara. Now, Davins. Something felt fishy about the orphanage, but Asura couldn''t be sure of it. After all, it was probably just a coincidence. "I''m sorry, did someone just speak to me?" Asura asked, looking around as if searching for something. "I hear a voice, but I don''t see anyone. Oh, that''s right. My vision automatically filters out idiots. It''s a defense mechanism, you see. I would lose my mind if I had to gaze upon brawn-for-brains imbeciles all day." Thirty orphans pointed and laughed at Davins. In a battle of words, someone like Davins who did not have a proper education had little chance of defeating Asura, who had been a university student in his past life. "Is this guy just fearless, or actually extremely stupid?" Ishtar stared wide-eyed at the plain looking boy. She had expected him to cower before the intimidating Davins, but he had actually added oil to the fire! Rage formed lines on Davins'' pit-bullish face. "Do you have a death wish, punk?" Davins said. He flexed his muscles, accentuating them to impress the crowd. "In hindsight, I may have just made a big mistake." Asura thought. He was starting to feel uncomfortable as he was standing in the spotlight, being stared at by over thirty children and teens. Looking towards Khara, he could see that his friend was leisurely sipping on a cup of tea, before giving a thumbs-up towards Asura. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. In a sadistic sort of way, it amused Khara to watch his friend''s involvement in the drama. "Things looks like they''re getting bad, I''m going to get Nanny Lan." Sehn got up from his seat, glancing at Asura before he walked out of the Dining Hall. "What are you looking at?" Davins asked. He peeked at the crowd each time he spoke. Asura knew his type. Davins needed to ensure his actions were met with approval. What an idiot. Ishtar roused as if coming out of a trance, and straightened her back. "What''s your problem with my boyfriend, Davins?" Davins sneered at Asura. "I just don''t like him. A brat who reeks of his mama''s milk should know his place." Asura sighed. "Well, I can assure you that I don''t like you either, which is why the simplest solution would be to just leave us alone. Think of just how much of this nonsense we could avoid." Asura could not understand why Davins bothered with him. If Davins didn''t like him as much as he claimed, why not just ignore each other completely? It was a part of human nature that Asura couldn''t comprehend. "Do something about it then, I''m right here," Davins said, missing Asura''s point entirely. He spread his muscular arms wide in an inviting gesture, once again looking towards the crowd. They were growing hungry for action. Walking up towards Asura, Davins gave him a preemptive shove that sent him staggering backwards, prompting the spectating orphans to go wild. "Fight! Fight! Fight!" they roared. It''s human nature to desire carnage. Violence. Aggression. Unbeknownst to everyone present at the Dining Hall, Ishtar had already faded into the crowd, smirking as the boys fought over her. Asura regained his footing in an instant. At this point, a fight was unavoidable. The problem was, if Asura beat down Davins, the fact that he was stronger than a 3rd Level Warrior would be revealed. There was no doubt that it would then spread like wildfire, and there was a possibility of alerting Ho''Vah and Nilfim. But at the same time, if he lost, he would forever be treated as a slave of Davins''. He had learnt this first hand during his high school days in his past life. "Fine, if you want a fight, then I''ll give you a fight," Asura said to Davins'' surprise. "What are you waiting for? I''m right here." And that was all Davins needed. Rushing towards Asura, he was drawing back his right fist, ready to punch a new hole into Asura. "Die!" Chapter 34: Punishment Chapter 34: Punishment "Die!" Davins'' right fist thrust out at Asura, as if he was a tiger that was delivering the finishing blow on his prey! To fight against a 3rd Level Warrior, Asura did not even need to reinforce his body with mana. As he sidestepped Davins, he quickly crouched, and made a sweeping motion with his leg, causing Davins to trip and land on his bottom ungracefully. Of course, this did not cause any physical injury for Davins, but that was not the case for his mental state. "H-how..." Davins was sprawled on the ground, in the very same position as the boy he had humiliated earlier. He was the only one who could not comprehend what had just happened. Earlier, when his fist was about to land on Asura''s face, he had suddenly disappeared from Davins'' sight. The next thing he knew, he was on the floor! Davins jumped back to his feet. Anger crept its way to his face, and his eyes turned bloodshot, and his entire being radiated bloodlust. "Retarded cunt can''t even control his temper," Asura smirked. Davins was now mindlessly charging at him, aiming his fists at Asura''s vital spots, but they only hit air. Planting his front foot behind Davins'' front foot, Asura grabbed hold of Davins'' collar and using his front foot as a pivot, he slammed Davins into the ground. This time, a little damage was dealt to Davins, as blood trickled down his nose. "Weak!" Asura spat on Davins'' face, purposely angering him further. Staggering to his feet, blood continued to flow down Davins'' nose. His face was now so red that it resembled a tomato. "Grrrrrr!!!" Davins'' growled, as his whole body shook with rage. But he did not do anything, as the gap in power between Davins and Asura had been made crystal clear. Davins could only stare at Asura, his eyes filled with animosity and hate. "Good, good. Let the hate flow through you..." Asura stared at Davins coldly. "Well, if this is all you can do, there''s no point in continuing this nonsense, is there?" Turning towards the exit of the Dining Hall, Asura realized that the spectators who had previously been roaring with excitement were now deathly silent. They all stood still, stupefied at the outcome of the fight. They had expected Davins to thrash the newcomer, as it was no secret that Davins was a 3rd Level Warrior. But instead, not only was he able to fend off Davins'' attacks, he could land some effective hits. "What''s going on here!" Standing at the Dining Hall entrance was Nanny Lan, and Asura could see that all traces of her usual amiable demeanor had disappeared. On her face was a scowl that seemed to increase the number of wrinkles she already had on her face. It was apparent that her displeasure was caused by the infighting within the orphanage. "Why are you two fighting against each other, huh? Did I let you guys stay at the orphanage just to make trouble?" Asura felt his heart twinge with guilt when he saw more wrinkles appear on Nanny Lan''s forehead. "Nanny Lan, it''s not Asura''s fault!" Khara stepped forward to stand beside Asura. "Nanny Lan, it''s because Ishtar and Asura are in a relationship, and when Davins heard about it, he picked a fight with Asura!" Upon hearing this, Nanny Lan''s fierce gaze was directed towards the red faced Davins. He had acted in front of over thirty onlookers, which meant that there were over thirty witnesses who could testify for Asura. He had dug his own grave. "All of you, was what Khara said the truth?" Nanny Lan asked the crowd. All of them nodded. Sighing, she turned her head towards Davins, who had been staying silent the whole time. As Nanny Lan was in charge of the management of the orphanage, she had the authority to deliver punishment as well as expel anyone who caused problems for the orphanage. If Davins carelessly spoke against Nanny Lan, he would definitely incur a more serious punishment than he originally would. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. "Davins, do you have anything you need to say?" Davins shook his head, and bowed his head out of fear and sheer embarrassment. "Since you were in the wrong, then I''ll have to punish you," Nanny Lan said, her voice filled with sadness. She hated to punish the already pitiful orphans, but it was necessary to discipline them while they''re still young. "Davins, you''re to be confined in isolation for a week, and grounded for a month. I hope you will spend your time wisely and reflect on your actions today. You have brought shame to your family." Upon hearing Nanny Lan''s last sentence, tears welled up in his eyes and he did not say anything else. Old memories resurfaced, as he thought back to the times when his parents were still alive. They were a close-knit family. His father was a hunter, and often went to the mountains to bring food back for his mother to cook. At night, he would make his father tell him stories about magical beasts and the battles of famous warriors, such as the Twelve Devas. Whenever he got sick, his mother would carry him to the doctor at the village, which was a dozen kilometers away while his father had to continue hunting to earn money for their expenses. "F-father... Mother.. I-I''m sorry..." Davins started bawling on the spot, remembering the sight when a Horned Griffin, a magical beast of the 7th Level, had swooped down upon their mountain hut, crashing through the roof and instantly crushed his mother''s body with its talons. His father, who was only a 5th Level Warrior, could not defend against the Horned Griffin and was slammed into the ground by it''s powerful wings, instantly killing him. Frozen with terror, Davins'' head had gone blank upon seeing his parents'' gory deaths. At the time, it had felt so surreal and sudden that the events occurring around him did not register. He did not even notice the warmness in his underwear. However, for some reason the Horned Griffin did not kill him, and he could never figure out why. Was it because it had gathered enough food? Or was the killing committed on a whim? He was then found starving by a passing mountain hunter, who then took him to the village, before he was sent to the Blackfire Orphanage. ..... At the sight of Davins breaking down in tears, Nanny Lan told the onlookers to leave the Dining Hall, sparing whatever was left of Davins'' pride. Asura was now starting to feel bitter. After all, Davins was only 14 years old, and he had probably gone too far in teaching him a lesson. Even after having returned to his room, Asura felt that he should have been more lenient with Davins. He had also realized that at some point during his ''fight'' against Davins, Ishtar had disappeared from the scene. That damned harlot. "Master, what''s done is done. Actually, back in Muspelheim, whenev-" "Choronzon, shut up and continue studying the scroll." "..." Hours passed, and the golden rays of light from the evening sun turned into a dark blue shade of the starry night sky. "At last!" At this moment, Asura was finally able to completely understand the meanings of the ''Thousand Essences Absorption'' scroll. He immediately assumed the meditative position, following a breathing pattern while controlling the flow of mana in his body, and soon entered a trance-like state. Deep within his consciousness was a pure white world. Everything was so white that Asura could not tell the difference between the sky and the ground, left from right. It was polar opposite of the pitch black darkness when he was ''tested'' by Choronzon. "This is....the ''Origin of Life''!" Chapter 35: Thousand Essences Absorption Chapter 35: Thousand Essences Absorption "This is...the ''Origin of Life''!" The pure white world was dead silent, and there was nothing to indicate the difference between left and right. Utilizing his ''Mana Sense'', Asura could sense that the pure white world was densely filled with mana, as if the air was composed of mana alone. "Next step is..." Asura got into a cross-legged sitting position, placing both his hands on his knee caps and fell into a deep meditative state. After what felt like an hour, the area right in front of him warped, as if the mana was taking shape in the form of a human. However, the forming process was extremely slow. Starting from the ground up, leg muscle tissues and bones were starting to appear, followed by the upper body, where all sorts of body organs were being formed. Finally, the body was almost completely formed at the head, forming the face and brain. Soon, the process was finally completed. Opening his eyes, Asura could see himself standing right in front of him. A clone. To his surprise, he found that he could easily control the clone''s movements, just like the black gas and the Demon Avatar. The clone assumed the same sitting position as Asura, and he too fell into a deep meditative state. Asura followed suit. In front of them, two new bodies were being formed. "I have to this until there''s a thousand of me?" Just creating the first body took around an hour, and Asura needed to do this until he had a thousand bodies. It was a test of patience and perseverance. Thankfully, the clones could also help to create more clones or else Asura would have gone mad from the time it would take to finish creating a thousand clones minus one by himself. After what felt like a day, Asura finally completed creating his other 999 bodies. It was a strange feeling, seeing so many of himself standing right in front of him, their eyes lifeless and unfeeling.....and naked. "Kinda reminds me of that ''I,Robot'' movie, except the robots are me..." Asura scratched his chin, even though he wasn''t feeling itchy. It was a habit he had every time he was deep in thought. "The last step..." The thousand Asuras sat down simultaneously, all of them in a meditative position. Asura was tempted to create more bodies, but the scroll had repeatedly warned in bold letters that it was forbidden to create more than that, though the reason was not stated. It was now the most crucial part of the ''Thousand Essences Absorption''. This time, all of his bodies were to absorb the mana from outside the ''Origin of Life''. Expanding his senses, Asura could barely feel the wall between the ''Origin of Life'' and the real world, where his real body was meditating. As his bodies absorbed the mana from the real world, he screamed. No, they screamed. The influx of mana entering into the ''Origin of Life'' could be felt by all of them, and it was almost too much. Almost. Finally realizing the reason why the scroll had expressly forbidden the user from creating more than a thousand bodies, Asura willed himself and the other Asuras to calm down, and reduced the rate of absorption of mana. Soon, there was a pleasant feeling within himself, as if warm gases were flowing into his chest. I could get used to this. Soon, Asura could feel the mana density within his ''Origin of Life'' approaching a wall - a limiter, one that he was quite familiar with. His heart was starting to beat faster from the anticipation. For the past two years after reaching the 3rd Level a a magus, no matter how much Asura meditated, he could not break through to the 4th Level as a magus. What he didn''t know was that most geniuses took half a decade to reach the fourth level! Right after he got his little power up from Choronzon, he would have taken a decade to reach the 5th Level! "Finally, just a bit more!" After several hours of slow progress, Asura could finally feel himself pushing against the ''wall'', like a hatchling pushing against the shell of its egg, struggling to get out. He could now feel the tiny cracks appearing on the ''wall''. At long last, the ''wall'' shattered, and Asura could immediately feel the density of his mana increase by five times! "5th Level Magus!" Asura woke up from his ''Thousand Essences Absorption'' state, and activated his ''Mana Sense''. Instantly, a sphere of 250 metres in diameter spread out, encompassing the entire mansion! Looking at the window, Asura could see that the moon had barely moved from its position since the time he went into the ''Origin of Life'' meditative state. "It only took a moment of meditation for me to break through to the 5th Level. This scroll is like a godly cheat! Well, I don''t need this scroll anymore," Asura thought, and the scroll instantly burst into flames, and the ashes flew out of the window. Three down, three to go! Reaching into his robes, Asura could feel the remaining three scrolls. Taking another one out at random, he unrolled it on the bed, the words written on it illuminated by the moonlight shining through the windows. "T-this is..." ..... A boy opened his eyes with a start and gasped for air. Where was he? He looked around the stone chamber, and two faces filled his vision as his eyes came to focus. Both people were dressed in black. One was a short, gaunt old man. He had grey hair and a sinister smile. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. The youth felt that he had been sleeping for a long, long time. He then noticed a woman standing beside the gaunt old man. She appeared to be just as old as Yong, perhaps no older than eighteen. Her red hair flowed down her small face, causing shadows to create an illusion of dancing strings in the scant light. "We welcome you to our little family," the gaunt old man said. His high-pitched voice was at odds with his aging face. His sinister smile was disturbing, but not quite as disturbing as the girl''s. Her grin carried madness, a deeply etched insanity that chilled him to the bone. "For the time being, you will refer to me as Redemption, and you shall refer to my daughter here as Requiem." They were odd names, but the boy didn''t press the point. The youth looked around the room. It was some sort of an underground shelter, ones that was build in case of a magical beast attack, except this one seems to be a lot bigger. It was just like a dungeon, dark, with rows upon rows of empty wine racks. The boy had no recollection of how he had gotten there. In fact, he could not recall anything, other vague memories of himself standing at a temple, sparring with a plain-looking boy. "Who am I?" The boy asked, his voice hoarse. "You are Ruin." The gaunt old man smiled, and gave the boy a small piece of paper. "Now, read it out loud." "...Ruin? My name....is Ruin?" Ruin thought. His memories still felt fuzzy, and his heart, empty. He held up the piece of paper, and read the words written on it. "I am here because of my right, the one that God has given me. I am here because the three of us, as well as those who will join, will reshape the world." Ruin looked around at the unchanged faces of the two. Did he say the proper words? Requiem was the first to speak. She slowly licked her bottom lip. Her madness did little to betray her beauty. "Excellent answer, Darling." Redemption nodded. "But before you can join us in changing the world, before you can possess the greatness we offer, you must first be cleansed." Redemption''s smile grew until his yellow teeth were visible. "It is already dark," he continued. "Tonight, you must kill three people. Any three you wish. Bring to us something personal from each, and your admittance will be complete." A shudder spread throughout Ruin''s spine. "Kill people? Is it really okay to kill people?" Requiem sighed and met his eyes. "We, as superior beings, have the God-given right to take life from any we please. Don''t forget that, ever." Ruin''s eyes fluttered around the room before answering. "But...shouldn''t we kill people that deserve to die? How do I know if they deserve to die?" "Ah, but the people who deserves to die are the ones you pick," Redemption said. "You have these abilities because you are great. Your strength gives you the right to choose." Requiem placed a hand on Ruin''s knee. "Ah, my poor baby, you still don''t get it, do you?" It is because you want them dead that they deserve to die." A look of something resembling sadness crossed her fiercely beautiful face. "These gifts we have allow us to make choices others cannot. And one of these choices can be made at this very moment. Are you a frightened sixteen year old boy? Or are you a great man, capable of great things? We will leave you to think on it, but I do hope you think quickly, Darling." Ruin was entranced by the soft, soothing sound of her voice. Even with her madness, he felt an instant attraction towards her. "I understand." "I knew you would, Darling. I knew you would." Redemption and Requiem stood up from their chairs and then climbed the dirt-filled stone steps to the door. "Go, and accomplish your task," Redemption said. There was a surprising touch of sympathy in his voice. "And know this. What we''re asking you to do, we''re not asking out of cruelty. This kind of business was difficult at first for us, as well. Ruin, you are my son, and we will be the only family you need. But first, you have to prove to us, really prove to us, that you will do anything to change this wicked world we live in. And for that, it takes three." Ruin heard the creaking door open and close, leaving him alone in the dark stone chamber. He could feel great power coursing through his veins, and hear sounds that penetrated through the stone walls. He picked up a steel sword that was lying on the stone bed. One hour, that was when he would begin. [Author''s Note: Still having a sore throat and headache, so I could only release this one chapter today, though I think it''s a pretty good one. Shit''s getting real, boys. Well, imma head to bed. Oh, and if you loved this chapter, I''d appreciate it if you took a moment of your time to rate and review. Thanks!] Edit: Slapped myself for forgetting about Asura''s powerup from Choronzon. Many thanks to Bioman2411 for pointing that out. Chapter 36: White Serenity Sword Style Chapter 36: White Serenity Sword Style [Author''s Note: It''s lame, I know. My naming sense is so shit.] "T-this is..." Asura''s hands were trembling. His heart, hammering at his soul. Even in the dimly lit room, Asura could vividly see the contents of the scroll. "White Serenity Sword Style!" Even though the disciples could learn high level sword techniques at the White Serenity School, they were nothing compared to the sword techniques that were taught to School Leaders and Future School Leaders. It was one of the training manuals that the goddess Mazu had given to the Founder of White Serenity School! It was also with these techniques that Shane utilized to massacre his enemies, in his quest for vengeance, thus earning him his nickname ''Blood Devil Shane''. Drawn on the scroll were various sword stances and instructions that indicated the flow of mana that the user had to utilize before performing a sword movement. Even though Warriors have a comparatively low amount of mana, this style did not actually require a large amount of mana, and was extremely compatible with warriors. It was literally a God Technique. "Finally, just the thing I need!" Asura grinned. So far, all he had learned was the ''Elemental Synergy'', ''Mana Sense'' and ''Thousand Essences Absorption''. After his fight with Khara, Asura had realized that his proficiency in sword techniques was still inadequate. During a fight, if he had run out of mana and Demon Force, he would have to rely on his physical strength and sword techniques. Looking through the various sword techniques, Asura''s heart was surging with the desire to start practicing, and was about to get off his bed when Choronzon''s low voice stopped Asura in his tracks. "Master, you don''t actually have to go out to train. There might be a way to practice with a sword without wielding one." Practice the sword without wielding the sword? Choronzon''s words had piqued Asura''s interest. "You had my curiosity... But now you have my attention." "Master, from what I understand, the ''Thousand Essences Absorption'' is able to cultivate mana by utilizing the ''Origin of Life''. However, the Demon Force is able to create tangible objects. This is just my theory, but there might be a way to combine the two, allowing you to train both your sword techniques and using mana while not having to wield one in reality." "Go on, tell me more about it." "First, you must use the ''Thousand Essences Absorption'' skill. Once you do so, I will speak in your mind." Asura quickly got into the meditative position, performing the breathing pattern that was instructed in the ''Thousand Essences Absorption'' scroll. In a few seconds, he had already slipped into the pure white world - the ''Origin of Life''. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "Now, you must try to reach out to the Demon Force with your mind, and absorb a part of the Demon Force into the ''Origin of Life''. However, I''ve never done this before, as Demons do not have the power to absorb mana. And never have I ever seen a human with a Demon Force. There may be side effects, though I hope not." "Really, Choronzon? You''re only telling me this now? Well, whatever. I''m already here anyways." Reaching for the Demon Force with his mind, Asura gave it a light tug, pulling out a tiny cloud of black gases. Here goes nothing. The tiny cloud of black gas slowly inched towards the ''Origin of Life'', and in a few seconds, Asura could feel the walls around the ''Origin of Life'' resisting the cloud of black gas. C''mon, harder...deeper... Finally, he could feel the cloud of black gas penetrating through the walls of the ''Origin of Life''. In an instant, the black cloud dissipated into the pure white world, instantly turning it into a world of grey. In the surrounding space, Asura could see distortions swirling about. "W-what the? Choronzon, what''s going on?" "Master, the distortions are actually the flow of your mana. Worry not." Is this going to be permanent? Asura couldn''t help but feel unease upon seeing the grey world, where it was neither black nor white. Focusing his consciousness into the grey world, Asura could sense the Demon Force was scattered around the grey world. Come to my arms. At once, the dissipated Demon Force gathered together into a black sword, the ''Demon''s Avatar: Blade of Shadow Flame''. At the same time, the grey world returned into the pure white world, putting Asura''s heart at ease. Whew, that scared the shit out of me. "Now, time to practice the White Serenity Sword Style. Let''s see, what were the instructions... Wait, where''s the scroll?" Oh, for fuck''s sake. [Author''s Note: Couldn''t write much today, got off super late at college, mah bad. Super tired too. TGIF! Multiple releases incoming tomorrow, and on Sunday, boys!] P.S. Actually wanted to make the scroll an erotic literature thingy. And then Asura would go, "what the hell, Shane?" But I also wanted to maintain the ''dark'' atmosphere, so I made do with an innuendo. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Chapter 37: Victims Chapter 37: Victims Throughout the night, Asura went through the contents of the ''White Serenity Sword Style'' scroll, putting his memorization skill from his past life to good use. He also had a little ''help'' from Choronzon. Night turned to dawn, and the first rays of the morning sun shone through the window, illuminating the room in a golden glow. Asura got into his meditative position, using the breathing pattern of the ''Thousand Essences Absorption''. Soon, he once again slipped into the ''Origin of Life''. Once again, he drew on the power of the Demon Force to break through the walls of the ''Origin of Life''. As the black cloud seeped through, Asura kept a steady control on the black gases, so that the white world would not turn grey. Once the black cloud had completely entered the ''Origin of Life'', it instantly condensed into the ''Demon''s Avatar: Blade of Shadow Flame''. Within the pure white world, Asura could feel the flow of his mana several times more clearly than in his worldly body. For hours, he practiced the stances and movements, simultaneously controlling the flow of his mana. In the outside world, Asura would probably have taken months, if not decades to master some of the sword forms. But in the ''Origin of Life'', Asura felt that he could practice for months, or even years with just a few seconds or minutes passing by in the outside world. Minutes turned into hours. Hours turned into days, and days turned into months. After what felt like a couple months, Asura felt that he had had enough, or else he would have gone mad from the repetitiveness of the training, and the solitude of the white world. When Asura woke up, he noticed a visible change in the room. The walls that were previously coloured a golden hue was now a light yellow. Asura quickly got up from the bed and looked out of the window to check the sun''s position as he was worried that he had accidentally been training till afternoon, missing the promised time of his spar with Khara. "Two hours have already passed. It seems that a month in the ''Origin of Life'' is equivalent to an hour here" Asura thought. "If I train for a year in the ''Origin of Life'', then it would be half a day out here, though I doubt I''d ever train for a whole year." Remembering the techniques he had mastered, Asura grinned as eagerly got up from his bed and headed towards the Dining Hall in quick strides. Get ready to get your ass whooped, Khara. As Asura stepped into the Dining Hall, he instantly noticed that something was odd. The usual cheery atmosphere of the children clamoring over the food was not present. Instead, the mood was extremely sombre and most of the dishes were even left untouched. "What''s going on?" Asura thought. "Ah, you''re here, thank god," Khara said as he walked up to Asura. His face was serious and his usual carefree demeanor was gone. "Did something happen?" "I don''t know either. Nanny Lan has forbidden us from going out," Khara said. "I think something serious happened in the city." Asura heard light footsteps coming from behind him. Turning his head to look behind him, Asura saw Sehn approaching them. His small round face had a worried look. "What''s wrong?" Asura asked, grabbing a loaf of bread from a nearby plate. "Overheard Nanny Lan talking to the city guards. Heard there were three murders last night. Victims had their heads chopped off, seeming to have been killed by the same person," Sehn said in a flat tone. Stolen story; please report. Khara and Asura looked at each other, shock visible on their eyes. "Three murders," Khara mumbled. "Guess we won''t be sparring today, huh? " "It''s okay, I don''t mind." Asura smiled, and looked at Sehn''s worried face. "Why''re you so worried, Sehn? I''m sure the city guards will take care of it." "You know nothing. The three people that died were all 7th Level Warriors. Anyways, I''m going back to my room. Take care." Sehn sighed, and walked out of the Dining Hall, leaving Khara and Asura behind. Asura put down his half finished loaf of bread, as he had lost his appetite after hearing about the murders. "I''m going back to my room too," Asura patted Khara on his shoulders, and walked back to his room. "7th Level Warriors, all killed by the same person? The killer is probably an 8th Level Warrior, though there''s an extremely low chance that he or she is a Deva." Asura thought. "Master, could it be Ho''Vah or Nilfim? They''re the only ones I can think of that could kill 7th Level Warriors." "We can''t be sure about that. Anyways, Choronzon, I have a question for you. Is it possible to train in that pitch black world? Is it possible to spar with you?" "Master, I''m afraid not. Back when you entered the pitch black world, I still had my Demon Force. However, I should be able to possess a body if you create one for me in the ''Origin of Life''." Choronzon continued, "I will also teach you some Demon Force techniques in the ''Origin of Life'', as the only technique you know of is the Materialization technique. As Khara had already explained, you''re indeed inexperienced when it comes to real combat, so it''s vital to master the Demon Force as soon as possible." "That''s no prob-" Asura''s thought was cut off when he saw an eye-catching girl dressed in a blue satin dress walking along the hallway. Ishtar. "Hmm, I still haven''t paid her back for making me her shield..." Asura''s eyes narrowed, and his lips curled up into a smirk as an idea popped into his head. [Author''s Note: I''ll be releasing another 2 chapters today, so worry not!] By the way, I''m sure some of you have seen WorldSerpent''s latest ''chapter''. As a fellow author, it disgusts me to see that there are haters that actually spend their time and efforts sending hate mails to others. Here''s my 2 cents worth - if you don''t like a story, don''t read it. Instead of sending hate mails, it''d be so much better if you actually took the time to explain what''s wrong with the story, etc. Some of you may not know this, but your comments and mails affects the author a lot more than you think. I''m sure that most of the authors here, including me, take the time to read every single comments. It gratifies us everytime we see that someone took a moment out of their time to tell us that they appreciate our efforts. Even if I do not reply to your comments, rest assured that I''ve read it. I guarantee it. So please, spare a thought for others. For the lurkers out there, I encourage you all to create an account and start commenting your thanks, etc. It only takes a minute, if not two. Thanks for reading! Chapter 38: Sparring with Choronzon Chapter 38: Sparring with Choronzon [Author''s Note: Once again, my awful naming sense rears its ugly head. Also, thanks for the lurkers who got out of their caves! Makes me feel like I summoned an army of lurkers, lols. Of course, I haven''t forgotten you guys that comment on every single chapter. Feelin like my motivation meter is at 999999% right now xD Anyways, enjoy!] "Master, don''t do it. Don''t waste your time on a little girl, aren''t you supposed to prepare yourself for Nilfim and Ho''Vah?" Choronzon tried to persuade Asura. "Oh, fine then." Asura sighed. "I''ll pay her back on another day." Asura coldly watched Ishtar turn around the corner, before heading back to his room. In the ''Origin of Life'', Asura sat in a meditative position and started creating a body that looked exactly like Choronzon. Once he was done, the body seemed to glow slightly for several seconds, before Choronzon''s eyes opened. At the same time, Asura could sense blood lust radiating from Choronzon! It far surpassed what he had felt from the four men that had ambushed him at the Warrior''s Hall. "Master, what is thy wish? To spar, or to learn the techniques of the Demon Force?" Choronzon''s low voice rang out from his body, instead of his mouth that kept still the whole time he spoke. "Spar," Asura instantly replied. "Good. In here, you can use both mana and Demon Force. Master, I will use physical attacks against you. Please go easy on me, I don''t have any control over your mana and Demon Force." At once, Choronzon''s muscular frame burst forth, with the speed of a 6th Level Warrior''s! His right hand reached outwards, as if his touch alone would crush Asura''s skull. Asura, who was only a 4th Level Warrior, had no choice but to reinforce himself with mana to level the playing field. In an instant, he could feel power flowing through his muscles, before stopping the injection of mana the moment he felt that his body had reached the 6th Level as a Warrior. Choronzon was now inches away from Asura, his right hand was about to grab at his face. Quickly sidestepping Choronzon, Asura quickly gave the Demon Force a light tug with his mind, and a small cloud of black gas seeped into the white world, before condensing into a black sword. ''Demon''s Avatar: Blade of Shadow Flame'' Reaching out for the black sword with his right hand, Asura then noticed that Choronzon was now following through with a roundhouse kick flying towards Asura''s head, like an arrow from a bow. Asura quickly converted the mana in his left arm into earth elemental essences, before creating a thick layer of earthen armor that wrapped around his left arm. As he blocked Choronzon''s roundhouse kick with his left hand, the black sword had finally reached Asura''s right arm, and he slashed upwards, cutting off Choronzon''s right leg. "Well done, Master. Now, I''ll increase the difficulty. But first, could you fix my right leg?" Choronzon grinned, his fierce eyes glinting with excitement. "Of course." Grasping for the feeling of being one with the ''Origin of Life'', Asura willed for the mana around Choronzon''s right leg to condense, instantly making Choronzon''s right leg appear as if it had not been cut off in the first place. "Thanks, Master. Now, here I come," Choronzon said before he once again surged towards Asura, this time sidestepping left and right to disrupt Asura''s rhythm. "Not so easy!" Asura smirked, and the black sword Asura was holding started to glow. A thin layer of wind elemental essence was wrapped around the black sword, before Asura made a horizontal slash towards Choronzon, causing the space that was cut by Asura''s sword to distort. A light blue arc burst out of the distorted space, flying towards Choronzon at the speed of sound. ''White Serenity Sword Style: Wind Cutter'' Choronzon, who had been studying the ''White Serenity Sword Style'' scroll with Asura, had already expected Asura to unleash it. Throughout the night, Asura and Choronzon had been studying the Tier 1 techniques, as the Tier 2 and Tier 3 techniques were far too complex to memorize in a single night. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Choronzon somersaulted over the light blue arc, and continued his rush towards Asura. "Fuck!" Asura muttered under his breath, before drawing on more power from the Demon Force. This time, a cloud of black gas appeared, ten times bigger than the one that condensed into the ''Demon''s Avatar: Blade of Shadow Flame''. The huge black cloud hovered towards Asura, before swallowing up Asura''s left arm, and then condensed into a massive black hand. At the same time, Choronzon was already within striking range, but was about to retreat upon seeing the black cloud swallow Asura''s left arm. ''Demon''s Avatar: Left Hand of the Devil''. The massive black hand spread out into a palm, and then swatted the fleeing Choronzon like a fly, causing his body to disintegrate. "Master, not fair..." Choronzon''s voice echoed from where his body at disintegrated. "Oops, sorry! But Choronzon, the Demon Force is really too powerful for me to control its strength. At full power, the ''Left Hand of the Devil'' could probably hold enough strength to defend against an 8th Level Warrior," Asura chuckled. "Master, you can''t keep relying on the Demon Force! You also have to train your techniques and fighting instinct." "All right, fine. Wait a bit, I''ll create another body for you." For months, in the pure white world, Asura and Choronzon fought against each other without rest. In the beginning, without the use of the Demon Force, Asura could barely fight off Choronzon''s wild and erratic attacks, even with the use of mana and the Tier 1 sword techniques he had barely mastered. And each time Asura managed to defeat Choronzon, he would increase the complexity of his attacks. Also, Asura had uncovered some facts about the pure white world. It seems that in the pure white world, his current body was not made out of flesh, but mana. Even if Asura cut himself, he would not feel any pain. It also meant that he could move his ''body'' for months without getting exhausted. The lack of mental exhaustion was also another benefit that Asura could not understand. It probably had something to do with the ''Origin of Life'', or whatever laws of magic that governed the human mind. "Choronzon, enough," Asura commanded after four months of non-stop training. "I''m already close to completely mastering the Tier 1 sword techniques, and gained quite a bit of battle experience, though I think if we fought in a more realistic environment, it would be even better." Asura continued, "Choronzon, you still have not taught me the rest of the Demon Techniques other than the ''Demon''s Avatar''. Also, how do I increase the power of the Demon Force?". "Master, just mastering the ''Demon''s Avatar'' took me several years, but I forcibly transferred the information about it to you, as your life was in danger. However, for the rest of the Demon''s Techniques, they took me several decades, if not more. There are even other Demon''s Techniques that I have not mastered yet." "Also, it''s not possible to increase the power of the Demon Force. A demon''s Demon Force is set at the same power level for the rest of his life. The only way for a demon to level up is to increase his mastery over the Demon''s Techniques. For now, I''ll just teach you the techniques by slowly transferring the information into your mind. In the meantime, you should start training in the ''Thousand Essences Absorption'' to increase your mana." Upon hearing Choronzon''s last two sentences, Asura felt somewhat annoyed. "Really, Choronzon? You should have done that the first time I used the ''Thousand Essences Absorption''!" Chapter 39: Breaking Curfew Chapter 39: Breaking Curfew In Asura''s room, the golden rays of light that seeped through the window had turned dark blue, with the shadow of Asura''s silhouette projected onto the white wall. The sitting Asura had been in the meditative position for an entire day. Twelve hours. That was equivalent to spending a year in the ''Origin of Life''. "Master, quick!" "I know," Asura laughed in his head, quickly tucking himself under the soft white blankets. Earlier, in the ''Origin of Life'', Choronzon was teaching Asura a Demon''s Technique when he detected a presence approaching outside of Asura''s room, and was afraid that it was someone who was dropping by to check on Asura. It would have seemed suspicious for a 12 year old to be awake at this time of the night, even if he seemed to be cultivating his mana. The wooden door creaked open, and Asura could hear the wooden planked floor creak, as if someone was tip toeing. Just in case it was an assassin sent by Nilfim or Ho''Vah, Asura had stealthily formed a black dagger in his right hand, and he had also reinforced his body to the maximum of what his body could handle, causing his body to reach the boundaries of a 7th Level Warrior''s. Every time Asura''s level as a Magus increases, the effect his mana has on his body also increases. Now that Asura was a 5th Level Magus, he could reinforce himself even more than before. "Master, you''re breathing hard," Choronzon whispered in Asura''s mind. "Calm down." "Oh." Breathe in... Breath out... Breathe in... Breathe out... Asura''s reinforced ears could now pick up the sounds of the person that had snuck into Asura''s room. The sounds of the breathing came just right in front of Asura''s bed, which was facing towards the wooden door. Asura increased the grip he had on the black dagger, ready to strike if he detected even a single bit of danger. "Psst... Wake up..." A soft hand tapped Asura''s feet, but he continued to pretend to be asleep. "Dude, I know you''re awake, the blood lust is literally pouring out of you, man." Damn. Peeking out of the corner of his eye, Asura saw that it was Khara. Letting out a breath, Asura allowed the black dagger to slowly revert into its gaseous state before seeping back into Asura''s hand. Wait, why is he dressed like a ninja? This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. From neck to toe, Khara was completely in black, with a black bandanna tied around his neck. "What are you doing?" Asura whispered. "I''m breaking curfew, what else?" Khara grinned mischievously, and Asura instantly knew he was up to no good. Seeing Asura''s confused look, he continued, "You see, the city guards are mostly 3rd Level Warriors. If the murderer strikes again, how are they going to capture the murderer? Don''t worry, with the two of us versus the murderer, we should be safe, even if the murderer is an 8th Level Warrior." "Are you mad? You''re only a 6th Level Warrior, how are you even going to fight against someone who can fly in the air?" Asura whispered, before realizing something. "Wait what? Two of us?" "Yeah. You and me," Khara smirked, pointing towards Asura and then back at himself before giving a thumbs-up. Asura didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. "Fine, I''ll come with you," Asura sighed, worrying about his friend''s mental state. Khara''s eyes were full of excitement and determination, and Asura doubted that he would be able to talk Khara out of it. "Here you go, change into these," Khara tossed a set of black garments that he had been holding in his left hand the whole time. As Asura caught the set of black garments, he instantly noticed that the black garments were not ordinary. The thin black fabric seemed to be as tough as steel, yet it was also as flexible as rubber. The black cloth seemed to blend in perfectly within the shadow that Asura''s head had projected over it. Looking back at Khara, Asura asked, "Khara, where did you get this?" "Eh, it''s a secret. Hurry and change, I''ll wait for you outside," Khara whispered back before tip toeing out of the wooden door, closing it as he left. Asura quickly removed the contents of his robe - a bronze rectangular token, three scrolls, a circular token with the logo of Blackfire and a jade ring. Even if an 8th Level Warrior comes out, I should be able to protect myself with the Demon''s Avatar. Yep, no problem at all. [Author''s Note: Well, here''s the last chapter for the day! Imma head to bed now. Enjoy!] P.S. But first, let me check for manga and novel updates.... Chapter 40: Prowling in the Dark The cold air of the night sky whooshed against the two black figures that were sprinting through the alleys, concealed by the darkness of the shadows of the walls and buildings. The lanky black figure seemed to be completely relaxed, contrary to the rigid demeanor of the shorter figure that was following behind the lanky figure. "Master, I''ll keep an eye out for potential threats, so please calm down." "Thanks Choronzon." The shorter figure relaxed visibly, and his movements seemed to become somewhat smoother and more efficient. The entirety of the city''s outer districts was fast asleep, except for several shops and inns that continued to operate throughout the night. "Where are we going?" Asura asked. Khara had seemed to be heading towards a certain direction, and Asura had been following behind, and had remained silent since climbing out of the mansion walls. "In case you haven''t realised, we''re unarmed, and I''m sure as hell not fighting against an 8th Level Warrior without my twin broadswords. We''re going somewhere to get weapons," Khara replied as he continued sprinting forwards. As the pair sprinted through several corners of the alleys at top speed, appearing as black blurs, it was close to impossible to see the black mist that was wrapped around the right hand of the shorter figure. Finally, they stepped out of the alleys of District 13, arriving at a spacious plaza, with several pavement food stalls that were still open for the night, and some lovers that were too busy making out under the starry skies to notice the two black blurs that had popped out of the alley. Khara continued to sprint towards the other end of the plaza, before slowing down to a walk as he approached a stone pavilion with a dome roof. Its stone platform was littered with foliage and dirt that had accumulated throughout the season. Khara stood at the middle of the stone platform, and made a two fingers gesture, pointing towards one of the stone pillars, which Asura had just noticed was somewhat odd. Compared to the other stone pillars, it seemed to be just a little thinner than the others. "Susam hapur!" A yellow ball of light shot out of Khara''s fingers and hit the stone pillar, causing the yellow ball of light to disappear into the stone pillar. Asura was about to ask Khara what he had just done, when he suddenly hear the creak and rattle of gears and chains coming from below the stone pavilion. With a low rumble, the stone pillar started to sink downwards into the stone platform. Alarmed at the sudden commotion, Asura checked his surroundings but it seemed that no one had heard the noise. Looking back at the stone pillar, he found that it had been completely buried, and a hole had appeared where the pillar had been at. "Follow me," Khara beckoned with his left hand, before jumping into the hole. A second after Khara had disappeared into the hole, a soft thump was heard. Making sure that no one was watching Asura peeked through the hole but it was took dark to see inside. With a sigh, Asura jumped in, allowing the darkness within the hole to swallow him. ..... "Lord Coran, the Four Horsemen are ready," a black robed man stood before Coran, who was in his usual military general uniform. "Excellent. Ho''Vah, deploy scouts around the borders of the Kingdom of Griamor, so that even if by some chance, the royal family finds out about the attack, they will not be able to escape from us," Coran snickered as he poured red wine into two silver goblets. Picking up both of the silver goblets, he walked towards Ho''Vah and handed one to him. "Ho''Vah, we''ve been in a partnership for over a year. At last, our plans - no, your plan will soon come to fruition," Coran smiled as he raised his goblet, before emptying his goblet in one gulp. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. "Haha, you don''t have to give all the credit to me. Without your power, we wouldn''t have been able to accomplish all this. Besides, you even brought back perfect test subjects from the White Serenity School, or we would not have been able to create the Four Horsemen," Ho''Vah sipped on his goblet before continuing, "I''ve something to show you. Follow me." Ho''Vah put his goblet down on a nearby table before leaving the chamber, with Coran following behind. They had just left Coran''s study, and were heading towards his basement, which was out-of-bounds to everyone except Coran and those he permitted to enter. As they stepped through the basement hatch, a stench hit them, an abhorrent, loathsome, reek of decay, which overpowered every other sense. The stench of death was so strong that even the battle-hardened Coran could not help but grimace. However, it seemed that Ho''Vah was not affected by the stench. As they went deeper, the horrendous smell got even worse. Finally, they reached the deepest level, and Coran''s eyes narrowed at the sight that greeted him. In the middle of the makeshift dungeon was a haggard-looking man who seemed to be in his fourties, and was standing as still as a rock. Looking closely at the man''s face, he could see that there were countless scars and scratches, and his tattered robes was soaked with blood and there were even bits of flesh sticking to the longsword in his right arm. But it was not the sight of the man, but rather, the mutilated state of the bodies that were scattered all around the blood soaked man that shocked Coran "Lord Coran, my teacher found this man twelve years ago. Back then, he was an 8th Level Warrior, even though he seemed to be in his late twenties or early thirties. My teacher, who had noticed his genius, tried to recruit him was refused flatly, alas. Out of fear that this man would grow into a Deva, my teacher decided to bind him with a soul binding spell. However, it seems that he still retains a tiny portion of his rationality, as he keeps mumbling the name of someone he knew. Probably his wife." Coran''s eyes were filled with fear at the mention of soul binding magic. He had heard that Ho''Vah''s teacher was a Deva, but it was the fact that his teacher could use soul binding magic that frightened Coran. He had never heard the likes of it before. Looking back at the blood soaked man, he felt somewhat relieved that he was not the enemy of Ho''Vah''s teacher. "Ho''Vah, when did you bring him into my basement?" "Lord Coran, he was brought along with the prisoners of the White Serenity School. But that is not important. The question you should be asking, is why. Well, let me show you." With a wave of his hand, five balls of white flames appeared in front of Ho''Vah, before flying towards the blood soaked man. Looking at the five white streaks that flew at the speed of sound, Coran gulped at the thought of fighting against Ho''Vah, an 8th Level Magus, or otherwise known as a Grand Magus. As the five white streaks neared the blood soaked man, he suddenly jerked his head towards the incoming spells. With a loud roar, the crimson longsword flashed through the air, causing a huge gust of wind to change the trajectory of the five white streaks. The blood soaked man suddenly jerked his head forwards, causing his long black hair to cover his scarred face, and a sound in between a moan and a whimper escaped from his cracked lips. "Myyyleeriaaa...." [Author''s Note: So sorry guys, could only release one chapter today, as I had to prepare for a demonstration on Tuesday. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Didn''t have time to proofread, so let me know if you spot any mistakes.]