As he summons the power of the Dark Dragon, his senses get pushed to their current limit.
The bandit looks at him surprised.
"We got another Awakened here! You can cover your face but I can see that you are just a kid. Do you think I will have mercy just because of that?", Aren was immune to that type of taunting, he fought so many battles in his past life where falling for that would have meant defeat.
His eyes were following the energy moving inside the opponent's body. Both snakes were coming from the same source, which was the back of his right hand.
I need to either disable his emblem or kill him before he causes more damage.
The people that got poisoned already didn't have much time, he had to rush.
Focusing the whole energy on his feet he dashed towards the enemy, while the right snake moved forward heads on. He avoided the hit by going even lower and rolling on the floor.
The dash stopped and he was two meters far from him, ready to stab him in the heart, but the other snake blade was stopped by a shield of energy. It was the other snake which wrapped itself around his chest.
"I got you!"The bandit used the left arm that was holding the sword, and slashed Aren aiming for his head, but luckily enough he stepped back at the last moment.
I am too small to keep him at range, and my weapons are pretty short compared to his arms and the swords.
He didn't have enough time to think so he decided to run around in circles. The bandit followed him with his eyes and by doing so he commanded the snakes who were chasing him.
When both swords were close enough , he jumped as high as he could and threw his black dagger which was soaked in dark energy. The bandit lifted his right arm trying to protect his chest but the blade passed through it, destroying the hand with a blast.
"Ahhh! You little shit! You are dead!" He screamed while his right arm was dangling.
Fuck, his hand deflected my throw. The blade was indeed stuck, but not in the heart, just on his ribs area.
He still had the axe, but he couldn't run away for long, or his energy would have not been enough to deal with him.
He rushed again towards him, but this time one of the snakes disappeared, probably because of the hand now the connection with the blade was severed.
The cobra was bigger, probably because all of his energy was focused on his left arm. He deflected a couple of hits with the axe, holding with two hands, and when the moment came he jumped up and forward, ready to throw the axe this time, but while he was in mid-air the snake came back along with the sword and with a precise swing, it cut the handle of the axe.
"Ahaha! And now you die!", the bandit saw the energy dissipating from the axe, and Aren falling on the ground, losing the sunglasses. With a swift movement of his fingers his sword chased the boy vertically, but at the last minute he rolled on the side and the blade got stuck on the ground.
"You! Take this!", it was the voice of an old woman, who was holding a sword. She ran towards the bandit and tried to pierce him, but he blocked the blade with his bare hand, which was still protected by the snake emblem.
"You bitch, it's all your fault! Die you pig!" But in that moment the bandit realised that his sword was stuck really deeply on the ground and by the time he focused his energy, Aren was already in front of him, with his eyes vividly glowing giving him a chill running down his spine.
"Thank you for the help. I got this.", he knew that she couldn't understand him but she seemed reassured as she left the grip and stepped back from the sword.
Aren's hands held the handle of the sword and the dark energy flowing from his chest ran through his arms, reaching the sword.
The blade from silver became black, and with a decisive movement he pushed in the blade, piercing the whole body, and after tilting the blade diagonally he made a complete rotation of the sword, cutting the body in half like nothing.
The upper part of the bandit felt on the ground while the lower part did not move for a few seconds, before collapsing as well.
His dark energy disappeared as he consumed everything with that swing, but without losing the focus he started to check the pockets of the bandit.
Aren found in a pouch on the belt a series of pills..
"Val, run a fast scan and tell if those can be medicine for the poisoning."
[Scanning… Affirmative, their composition seems to fit the structure of a remedy], his intuition was correct, most poison or curses users tend to bring with them the cure for their own abilities, in case of accident or for their comrades.
"Val, I need them to understand so I am going to say, help me!"
[I can use the translator in reverse, and project the sound as if it was coming from your mouth. I will simulate your voice. There will be a small delay since it needs to be translated.]
"Good, I have the scarf on my mouth so it won't look weird"
[Ready whenever you are, Your Majesty]
"Everyone starts to search through the bandit's bodies. We need to find anything that can look like a pill or a medicine! Those are probably the cure for the poisoning! You don't have much time!" He screamed at the crowd while pointing at the people in pain.
The crowd started to mumble, quite confused, they were in shock or afraid, but Aren didn't have much energy left to speak or move, and he would have collapsed in a few minutes.
It was at that moment that the old lady spoke up.
"What the hell are you doing? Do you want to keep standing there while those people are dying? This kid here is the only reason why we are alive now! So why don't you at least move your asses and look for those medicines!".
She rushed towards Aren who was almost passing out and before falling on the ground she held him safe.
"God, you are so light. I knew you were young but you are just a kid!"
Aren closed his eyes and the image of the old lady in front of him became blurred, she reminded him of the old Val and he wondered how she would react in this situation.
⁂
The room was dark like the last time he visited it, while the shadow of the Dark Dragon was standing staring at him.
"Welcome back Aren of House Valoria"
"Your Eminence", he was bowing in front of the creature, knowing that every interaction with this entity would mean something either good or bad, based on his mood.
"I have been observing you from here, and I saw how you used my power.", there was a pause and Aren stayed silent waiting for the judgement.
"I gave you a fraction of my power and you managed to use it well. I am indeed amused, but I have to ask you a question."
"Ask me anything, I have no secrets with you, Your Eminence."
"Why did you help those people? You could have just ignored the bandits and moved on."
"What kind of person would stand there and watch others being abused or pushed around. Especially people who have the power to make a difference."
"Correct, as a king you have a moral compass to follow. As the holder of my emblem you have the power to change things. But what do you think about those who use their power for evil deeds?"
"In that case, they don't deserve that power. It should be taken away."
The dragon grinned, it was a smile and Aren slowly lifted his head and started an eye contact. The eyes were still bright like burning flames but he could see an expression behind that fire.
"I think I can help you with that. With my power there are many abilities that I can bestow upon you. You already witnessed one."
He means the fact that I can see the energy flowing and the locations of the emblems.
"Your Eminence, I think your emblem allowed me to be within someone's power."
"Correct. You received my sight, which allows you to see the emblems' Alma."
"Alma? I am afraid that I have never heard this term before."
"Alma is the living energy that flows inside the emblems. The force that allows you to manifest their power. Your body is a vessel for my Alma. And the same goes for the other emblems and their hosts."
"I was able to see it, but also to touch it. I remember hitting them and interrupting their flow. Is that part of this power?"
"Correct. My power allows you to detect and interact directly with the Alma. You can see their true shape and if you are strong enough you can touch them or interact with them."
"Strong enough? What are my current limitations?"
"Your physique is outstanding for its biological age, but it can be improved and it will improve with time and training. My emblem will improve with that, but for now stronger emblems will have more Alma than others and you won't be able to reach them, and sometimes neither can see them."
"Do other people have the same ability? Can they see your Alma, Your Eminence?"
"Yes, some people can. With my current constraints I can only conceal my real power up to a certain degree. But some people trained their whole life to see through others, with or without any emblem."
"Thank you for the explanation of Your Eminence."
"Hold on a minute. Do you really think that I summoned you here just to teach you about Alma?"
I was wondering why, but I didn't want to force my luck. I already asked too many questions.
"I am here to give you a gift. You fought well and you will need more support for what you are going to do."
At that moment the floor's tiles started to glow. The patter of lights was leading to a door, which seemed to be standing in the middle of nothing.
Aren didn't have to ask, he just started to walk towards the door, being careful of his surroundings. Once he was in front he realised that there was no wall, just the door standing in the darkness. The dragon disappeared in the darkness but his voice was still echoing.
"Let me introduce my gift to you. Please enter the door." And as Aren pushed the door, an empty bright room revealed in front of his eyes. The room did not have walls, just an infinite white surrounding it, the floor seemed to be of white marble while the door stayed standing behind him.
In the middle of the room there were two easels with two canvases on them. As he approached them he saw some pencil sketches on them, they were incomplete but he sensed that there was more to them.
"This room is a projection of my power through you. The reason why it looks like this is because of your subconscious. What do you think about it?"
"Your Eminence, I am sorry but I fail to understand. What am I supposed to do?"
"What would you usually do in a room like this? In front of something like this."
As he touched the canvases he could feel a sound through them, like whispers but not properly speaking.
"I feel like those canvases are alive. They are speaking through me" he started to observe the sketches and he could see a pattern that he saw already, but was fading away.
"Those are… emblems? I can see a snake here, and here a beast? Wait… are these"
"Exactly, Aren of House Valoria. Those are the emblems that you fought and destroyed with my power. What are you going to do?"
"I feel like they are asking me to bring them back. They want another chance, Your Eminence."
"Good. Will you grant it? They hurt you".
"Your Eminence, if it was for me, I would give them another chance. They were acting on behalf of their host and their situation."
A silent moment followed and then the dragon's voice echoed in the room.
"I want you to fix them and give them a new life, can you manage this. Aren?"
He didn't have to ask twice, Aren lifted his right hand the moment he felt that those whispers were calling him. The energy flowed through his arm and concentrated on the palm of his hand, materialising something solid, it was a paintbrush. The handle was black and shiny and the tip seemed to be already wet, with a black shining ink.
Aren followed the trace on the first canvas and after a few strokes he traced the emblem's shape as he remembered it, and so the feral emblem appeared. He did the same with the other canvas, recreating the cobra emblem after a few decisive strokes. Once he finished he took a couple of step back easels and disappeared, leaving the two canvases floating. They were fully in black, unlike their original colours, but they seemed to be still the same.
"Call us, and our powers will be yours", both voices spoke in unison.
"Bear emblem, Cobra emblem, come to me!" After that, both emblems started to glow and the dark energy started to take shape around Aren, first it wrapped around his arms and legs.
I feel stronger, and faster!
He started to dash around and realised that it was the same power that enhanced the bear's physique.
After that, the energy dissipated and took another shape, a snake came out from his body and wrapped around his neck like a scarf. It wasn't scary, Aren didn't feel any danger and he was sure that it could understand him.
This will come handy as well.
After that demonstration both emblems stopped glowing and their canvases moved away from the centre of the room.
"This is your new power. You will be able to choose if you want to pardon the emblems that you come across, and eventually use their powers. But beware, at your current level you won't be able to use more than one at the time, and you will need to learn how to use them. They are other emblems but they still use my energy", the dragon's gift was really generous this time.
"This is an amazing gift, Your Eminence. I really thank you for this" he said, bowing with his head down.
"It's time for you to go. Remember, should not be taken lightly, it is a reflection of your choices and also your growth. And by those I would be able to judge you."
Aren nodded and with that last warning the lights turned off and he found himself lying on a bed.