Men were drinking at a tavern in the capital of Ars. The largest city in the Asura kingdom and some would call it the crown jewel of cities and human achievement. But within the walls schemes were hatched on a daily basis, composed of a lighter side on the surface and backstabbing, dirty politics, and plots beyond the public eye.
In this tavern a private meeting was being held in one of the building rooms.
"I have a job for you esteemed gentlemen." A man said, his voice was complimentary but his tone had the slightest hint of disgust. The man's name was Darius, a highly esteemed noble of the Asura kingdom, the very definition of politically corrupt if it was turned into a person.
"No problem at all so long as we are paid. So what's the job, protection or destruction." The leader of the group stated without a care in the world. The group was called Death Row, a band of mercenaries notorious for their lack of empathy or mercy when it came to executing a job. They have done almost every dirty deed imaginable. The group itself was composed of 20 swordsmen and 10 sorcerers. 8 or which were advanced class in their various skills and styles with the acceptation of their leader. His name was Clive Blackheart a saint class swordsman.
"It's a small town located a good distance from here called Buena Village. A family named the Greyrats reside there. The family head Paul Greyrat is a Advanced Swordsman, I need you to kill him and his family. There shouldn't be too much resistance." Darius said handing out several parchments of paper and a map. "This is a full briefing and their location."
"Discrete or Loud?" Clive asked. It was clear he liked to be loud, it built up the reputation of his group. He had already done several jobs for Darius but the only one he would refuse from the man was the assassination job on the princess Ariel. If was brought to light that Death Row was responsible for an attempt like that then their group would be hunted down to the ends of the continent.
"Discrete please. Paul used to be a noble and if his death is chaotic along with the rest of the countryside he watches over such an action may cause a domino effect and be a larger headache than I want to deal with right now. If possible, make it look like they were killed by monsters to decrease suspicion, just his families death will suffice."
"Sounds good, and the payment?"
"Half for now, half when the job is finished."
With that Darius pulled out a bag of coins, all gold pieces and was more than satisfactory for Clive.
"We will leave at once should take us about a months trip. Anything else you want to say?"
"Yes. Their sons name is Rudeus, recently my spies have intercepted a letter sent for a magician name Roxy, she will be teaching him magic. My spies let the letter pass and she is scheduled to arrive at the Greyrat household soon well before you get there. So be mindful that you may receive some resistance."
"Shouldn't be a problem, we have killed plenty of magic users before."
"Good. And with that I hope your business trip is successful."
Rudeus waited with baited breath. Any minute now a pointed hat much like any witches would appear from across the valleys of wheat. And then he saw her, his goddess. She was walking along the road with a indifferent face, as if a salaryman going to a job like any other day. It was good to see her.
'Even in my previous life right before I died from old age she still has the same complexion and look.' Rudeus thought. It was true, her species of demon lived to be 200 years old and only showed signs of aging around 140. Right now she was older than Paul and Zenith even thought by first glance she looked to be 16.
As she approached Paul picked up Rudeus and held him in his arms while he looked into the distance. It was obvious that he wanted his son to train to be a swordsman more accomplished than himself to spread the Greyrat name and not as much using magic. He was stubborn in his pride that was for sure, but he wouldn't let that hold him back from letting his son grow as his own unique person.
Roxy reached the home, walked up and stood on the front porch of the house, facing the Grey rat family.
"Hello, I'm Roxy Migurdia, pleased to meet you." She said professionally.
'Thinking back on it, I was imagining her having a beard the first time I came to this world, but I was glad my teacher was a cute woman instead. Should I still try to marry her in this world?' Rudeus thought to himself. It was true he loved the woman in front of him, but contemplations about doing the same thing twice seemed like it was too straightforward. His goals would be to build his relationships but at the same time shoot for a degree of ability even higher than that of Orsted or Hitogami.
"So, where is the student I will be teaching?" Roxy stated looking around the property of the house and the yard.
"You are looking at him." Zenith stated hugging Rudeus.
She let out a sigh looking disappointed "Ah, you do see them sometimes, idiot parents who think their kid has talent just because he is an early bloomer…"
'We can here you Roxy.' Rudeus stated smiling to himself.
"Looks like this one's a dud." Roxy finished her mumbling.
"Excuse me?" Zenith said trying to hold back her annoyance.
Roxy made quick assumptions about a few things in her life and sometimes came to immediate judgements, Rudeus couldn't blame her for that characteristic as it was common of every man or woman to operate under that form of narcissism until they had been shown otherwise.
"No nothing. Only I doubt that a child could grasp the complex matter of the theory of magic."
"Transforming ones mana or life energy into either physical matter such as water magic, or altering the properties of an object like healing and teleportation magic." Rudeus recited.
She looked surprised and a little caught off guard. Rudeus scolded himself a little, he didn't want to show off his knowledge but he couldn't hold himself back from stating that.
"Close but they are divided into three school, attack, healing, and summoning. But you have done some research. How did you learn about this?" Roxy asked curious at the extent of the boys knowledge.
"There were four books in the attic that I have read from, the magic book was my favorite however I have only read to the intermediate level." That was a lie but not a lie if he had said the same thing in his previous life. As for her statement about attack, healing and summoning on the surface she was right. But Rudeus was stating the purer form of magic and how it could be perceived, it would be several decades until he released that theory to the magical university though.
"I see. In that case I shall give a brief lesson, after that a demonstration, and then I want to see if you can do the spell I preform." Roxy stated with a hint of anticipation.
"Thank you ma'am." Rudeus said jumping out of Paul's arms and falling to the ground. He ran to the open yard where a picnic table and some chairs were set up.
With that Paul and Zenith went back inside of the house, they still had some work and chores to do inside, along with the food being prepared for Roxy's arrival. Plus Zenith didn't want to add pier pressure onto Roxy by watching her teach her son like a helicopter parent.
"What levels of magic are there Rudeus?" Roxy asked testing him.
"There are seven, beginner, intermediate, advanced, saint, king, emperor, and divine or god tier magic. The latter most of which is on a continental size when it comes to area of effect." Rudeus recited.
"Very good, now I will be reciting an intermediate level of magic known as water ball. Do you know the words." Roxy asked.
Rudeus shook his head. He hadn't used the incantation in so many decades because he had the ability to do it without speaking AKA silent magic. Speaking of, he wondered what words would be used to create the magic he had used, especially with his monster's creation and the ability to transfer part of his consciousness into the creature to control it. Questions for later.
Roxy sighed again as she began to demonstrate. She cast her water ball using her staff and a ball of water was created. It flew forward like a bullet with an insane amount of pressure and force behind it. The water collides with the trunk of a small tree on the other side of the yard, the tree snapped and fell to the earth.
The witch turned to Rudeus expecting a look of amazement.
"Hey miss, my mom put allot of work into that tree, she would be pretty upset if she had to replant it."
She then looked back at the tree with concern, much like a employee who dropped a plate accidentally at a diner, worrying they would be fired over their accident. She quickly ran over, dragged the tree, and used a healing incantation to get the tree to snap back together. Flowers bloomed as the healing magic caused it to be in it's prime of health.
She breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Now let me see you use the magic." Roxy said.
"Okay, but do I have to use the incantation?"
"Of course you do." Roxy stated annoyed.
"Well….." Rudeus outstretched his hand and a ball of water instantly formed, panic spread over his face.
'whoa that's way too big, reduce it, reduce it!' He thought to himself. The ball was several hundred times denser than he intended. His mana had multiplied enough that even a simple spell could wipe out a squadron of soldiers.
He tried his best to shrink it but a gust of coincidental wind make Roxy's skirt fly up for a brief moment showing her panties. Rudeus completely lost his concentration and lost control of the spell. It was like trying to keep a rabid dog on a leash and the spell was released at the tree.
Unlike Roxy's spell which sounded slow and peaceful which when released and collided with the tree sounding like a splash of water, Rudeus's spell sounded entirely different. It was like a waterfall right next to someone's ear. The sound was deafening and Rudeus's ears rung from the noise. He closed his eyes and covered his ears to control the damage to his senses. Roxy had done the same. He felt the shockwave as the ground vibrated from the collision of energy.
Hesitant Rudeus opened his eyes.
"Well mom is going to be pissed." He said mumbling to himself.
The tree was obliterated, along with the ground, and cobblestone wall that was behind the tree. Chunks of shredded branches and wood fell from the sky. If Rudeus was to question if the tree had the ability to speak to him, it's final words would probably be, "Why me you asshole!"
"What was that noise!" Paul shouted bursting out of the door and looking at the destruction, "Well Zenith is going to be pissed." He stated.
'I couldn't agree more.' Rudeus thought looking at his open hands, reflecting on what he had just done. He would need to get better at sword fighting in this life it would seem. He had no intention to stop multiplying his magic but if he continued, tomorrow a water ball would level a small hill, and the next day a village, and then the day after that who knows how destructive his abilities would be. 'I will have to find a way to supplement and contain my energy too without leveling a mountain by creating a simple water ball' He gripped his hands in a fist tightly solidifying in his mind his new objective. Maybe Roxy could give something to teach him about how to control his magic.
"Roxy what did you do to my tree!" Zenith screamed in horror and anger.
"It wasn't her mother! It was me, I'm sorry about the tree I couldn't control the spell." Rudeus stated. He would not allow mistrust to be created for Roxy so early and he would be glad to take the fall for his mistake.
"Really!? Roxy can you explain this?" Zenith said. She had already run up to Roxy in a blur looking directly into the witch's eyes. Those eyes displayed nothing but shock. It took her a moment to snap back and regain her composure.
"Rudeus Greyrat is a prodigy. He didn't even have to say anything to cast the spell. Mana is natural for him to use but difficult to regulate at least from what I have witnessed. Not only that he has an incredibly higher reserve of mana than anyone I have seen of someone his age.
"You hear that Paul! My Rudeus is a natural!" Zenith shouted, switching her mood on the dime from anger to joy as she jumped up into their air and embraced her husband. She then went over to Roxy.
"Please stay and teach our son how to control his abilities, we only have one house after all and we would prefer he not blow it up, he already destroyed part of our wall."
Roxy seemed at a loss for words at this point. She had had quite a full day in a brief period of time. No thanks to Rudeus. Speaking of which he wanted to get started as soon as possible with controlling his mana to a smaller scale. Beforehand he had only focused on growing his mana but precision was needed as well, and maybe by figuring out how to use a needle as effectively as a broadsword he would unlock some new abilities.
Roxy nodded blankly still in a little bit of a daze. Zenith smiled and took her as well as Rudeus inside.
"We hope you will like staying here Roxy." Zenith said outstretching her hand to the assortment of food laid out at the table. It was like a thanksgiving dinner, but in this case it was a welcoming party.
The young witch looked in awe at the display and she bowed swiftly thanking them for the hospitality. With that the feast began.
After part of the meal was done Rudeus dismissed himself saying he was tired. He lay down on his bed. Relaxing his entire body and expanding his mana, focusing on the being residing in the mountain, his pet project known as Hollow.
The creature awoke.
"Well I need to see if water ball will produce the same result." The creature said. It had the voice of a young, innocent playful girl. Rudeus figured that if the monster ever had to fight the voice would be off putting to say the very least. Like seeing those two girls in that famous horror movie say "come play with us."
Speaking of if it caught people by surprise it would say something like, "Hey mister, want to play hide and seek." Followed by," You hide, and I'll find you." But Rudeus was getting ahead of himself.
He outstretched the creatures hand and let out a water ball. It destroyed a part of the wall causing the cave to get a little bit bigger. It was however on a smaller level of power than Rudeus's demonstration to Roxy. If his theory was true it would seem that the larger he expanded his mana outside of his body then the weaker the magic would be. This made sense, his release of magic was like a faucet. He had the same amount of water but the pressure would be reduced if he spread it out and kept it from building up pressure in one spot.
The downside of this theory was that if it was true the creature had a limited range and he would gradually lose the connection the further the creature was from Rudeus's body. And if that was true then he couldn't save Ariel after the teleportation incident when he stopped it, the distance would be too great from him and creature to maintain. He would stop the teleportation event from happening but the downside of this would-be Ariel wouldn't be saved by Sylphie. The upside of stopping the teleportation event was saving hundreds of thousands of people so obviously the pro outweighed the con.
It was also possible Orsted would try to save Ariel and keep her from dying as this was apart of his plan to kill the Man God. But Rudeus could not count on Orsted until contact had been established and he had no idea where the Dragon God was at this time. He would have to track him once he had fully matured, but for now he would continue to grow his power and prepare to stop the teleportation event.
With that Rudeus sealed himself in his ice coffin for the creature and opened his human bodies eyes again, back in his bedroom. He then closed them, falling into a deep sleep.
3
"Try again." The voice shouted at Rudeus.
He cast another stone wall but it kept going up and up instead of him stopping it at a fence height it became a wall.
Roxy smiled again. It was enjoyable having a challenge for a change. It was the difference in achievement from trying to build an athletic runner compared to trying to get a cheetah to pace itself. Both of those objectives were challenging but Roxy had trained allot of her students, many failed in the basics and she had to move pass them, they were what she referred to as "Duds."
As of right now Roxy had been training Rudeus for two weeks and he was a natural when it came to magic.
"Okay one more time!" Rudeus shouted, he had removed the previous stone wall and cast another. This one was a little bit smaller than the others but not enough.
"Good, now what did you change? Did you follow my advice?" Roxy asked.
"Yes, I put less mana into it and had a pre-determined shut off point." Rudeus said happily.
"Well done Rudeus. Remember when a magician is low on mana they need to conserve it as much as possible, so they must mentally picture a reservoir like a pool of water or in our case a pool of mana. We have a prebuilt cup of water that we pore a part of the pool into. And when the cup is filled we shut off the flow."
It was like training a child to not put too much sugar into a cake when mixing all the ingredients, it is hard to control that child's sweet tooth.
Rudeus had already learned all the basics that Roxy had taught him. Well, rather it had seemed like he was already well versed in the knowledge to beginning with. It felt more like she was telling him to jump and then he leaped up in the air and never came back down.
'Still though why are his abilities so strong. I haven't seen someone be able to use magic without speaking, not only that, his magical reserves are monstrous. I don't even know his limits…' Roxy paused for a moment in thought.
"Rudeus stop." Roxy commanded.
"Huh? Why? That rock wall was allot smaller than the other fifty I did!"
"I want you to show me where your limit is at." Roxy answered.
Rudeus had a look of panic on his face. "Master I don't want to do that, I'm worried I might destroy something important."
"You won't, focus your energy like a funnel and create wind magic, focus it up and point it at the sky keeping the air in a funnel. I want to see how strong you can make it."
"May I ask why."
"Think of it like a weightlifter, if I don't know your limits how can I push you to become better and grow more?"
"I guess that makes sense but that's not the goal of my training, it's to control my magic, not let it loose." Rudeus argued, but he made a valid point.
"There is another reason, once your magical reserves are depleted and a little grows back again, cast rock wall. Make it as small as you can, I want to see if you can make it as small as a fence and that way you will grasp the feeling once your magical reserves are back if just by a little."
'That wasn't something I had thought of.' Rudeus thought. He was hesitant, he still didn't want to intimidate Roxy but she was forcing his hand.
"Fine then, I will do it." Rudeus said gripping his fist.
"Not here though, we will do it a good distance from the house and the village in case your spell is destructive, pack two meals, we will get back by nightfall if we hurry now. I shall prepare our horse.
"Yes master." Rudeus shouted. It felt wrong for him to call her master considering that he was far more powerful than her but he had insisted on it, sometimes he called her senpai, when she asked about what that word meant, he said it was a word he made up to call someone a teacher. He was always humble and never complained, whenever he tried to argue his points were always valid.
He came back a few minutes later with a basket containing ham and cheese sandwiches Lilia had prepared for them and that Rudeus had insisted on helping to make. By the time he was done Roxy was finished securing the saddle onto the horse and they rode off.
Roxy and Rudeus talked along the way, about a large number of things. About Roxy's home in the Demon continent and her family there, how she originally learned magic and then at a later age began teaching people. She talked to him about morals and proper behavior. Honestly she just thought he was listening half of the time just to hear her voice.
"Are you listening to what I say Rudeus?"
"No not much, but you don't have to listen carefully to the beautiful chirp of a birds song to appreciate it's beauty. Your voice however, is a much purer melody than the all birds in the world." Rudeus said.
"Say that line again in ten years and I might blush." Roxy stated. No one had ever said something so kind like that before, normally it was incredibly perverted or they were scared of her because of her hair, thinking she was a terrifying demon.
They ate the sandwiches on the way and they later arrived on a hilltop with a single tree after a few hours of trotting on the horse. Roxy dismounted, picking up Rudeus and putting him down on the ground, and then she incased herself in a dome of stone as well as the horse to keep her safe and the horse from being blown away. And then Rudeus started.
He outstretched both of his hands and twisted his wrists and body as if throwing a dough of pizza into the air over and over again. He gradually put more and more magic into his spell. And the air turned from a gust of wind to a violent one. It kept building in ferocity, Rudeus was in the eye of the storm and was not harmed by its effects.
Lightning cracked across the sky from the friction being produced by the movement of the air and the earth shuddered every time the ground was struck. It kept going, getting bigger and bigger.
Many landscapes away Clive Blackheart stopped his party, Death row and all the men looked into the distance at the thunder and lighting, it went higher into the sky than they had seen any storm before, they could feel the gusts of wind from where they stood.
And then he saw something he had never seen. It was a pillar of light that was pure unbridled energy. What he was witnessing was a column of pure plasma. The atoms in the air were being condensed by Rudeus's spell and coming together, when they were being struck by the lighting the atoms lost an electron and the atom became positively charged with an electron creating plasma. Rudeus was creating a beam of energy that at it's core was hotter than the surface of the sun.
Rudeus had a moment of dangerous curiosity and used gravity, electric and wind magic to condense the mass of plasma.
"Come on, push it together, tighter, tighter."
The column of plasma descended down into the space between his hands becoming a ball. Using gravity, electric and wind Rudeus forced it to condense. Rudeus imagined it like a balloon as he squeezed each side, trying to make the gas get tighter. Now the temperature was getting really intense. At this point it had turned white in color and was impossible to look at. Rudeus's flesh started to burn a little. The combination of magic he was using was like a stone and mortar furnace, protecting him for the most part with its insolated walls but Rudeus still felt the heat. He couldn't hold it anymore. He shot his arms up and the small sun flew into the air. Rudeus kept it condensed.
'If I release it now the explosion might be too much. I need to throw it up higher!' Rudeus thought.
Meanwhile Clive looked and saw a small bright white light float up into the large storm, the light didn't go away though when it reached the clouds, it illuminated the storm like a beacon as it continued to climb.
"What the ever-living fuck?" Clive whispered.
And then BOOM!
They saw the light first before they felt the shockwave. They saw the effects of the shockwave coming though. The storm was disappearing and was being sent back, soon it became completely destroyed, the trees on the ground nearest to the explosion were cast aside like ragdolls and then the grass was swept up along with a layer of dirt.
"Everyone brace yourselves!" Clive shouted.
The men got off their horses and held onto the horse's leashes and saddles knowing that the animals would buck when the shockwave hit. The men closed their eyes and squeezed their ears with a free hand if they had one.
And then the shockwave hit them.
Clive gasped for air, it was like someone had just ignored his skin, muscles and bone, and punched him directly in the heart. He knelt down and clutched his chest trying to get himself to inhale.
After a few moments of panic he managed to get in a gasp of air. He breathed a few times to make sure he was alright. Then he looked up.
Some of his men were still recovering and others were alright like Clive was. Some of the horses had run away from their masters from shear terror. The rest continued to buck.
The leader of Death Row fell to the ground in a daze at what he had just witnessed. It was something he never thought he would experience or get to see in his life.
"Boss, what was that?" One of his men asked.
"The only explanation I have for that, was that that was a god tier level of magic." Clive stated. How could it not be? That shockwave will be felt for weeks worth of travel on horseback if not further. you saw it's effects. The noise would continue to get dimmer and dimmer but based on what you had just heard it wasn't going to get quieter any time soon"
"No way….. please tell me our information was correct and we aren't facing a god class Roxy?" One of the men spoke up.
"No, our information is solid, Darius wouldn't lie to us about our targets, he hasn't before. I don't think this will be a problem to our mission. The family we are targeting is only advanced and the one known as Roxy is only a saint class in water magic, she is advanced in the rest of her fields but not near that level."
"Understood boss, we trust you."
"As you should, Darius is the one paying you all, I trust him, and therefore you should trust me. Either way it doesn't change our objective. But for right now we will try and take a moments rest. We should arrive at the house by the middle of the night. The darkness will hide what we do to them, discreate just like our employer wanted."
And with that the group set to recuperate themselves.
Rudeus on the other hand back at ground zero of the explosion was on his knees looking up at the skies. He had done it. His mana was empty. He had normally pushed himself to this extent when building his creature and teleportation circles along with other magical circles for him to do but that took hours for him to be spent. This however had only taken a few minutes. But this feeling was like pushing yourself at the gym lifting to your limit until failure over a brief period of time, compared to several hours of pacing until failure.
Then a small drop of mana came back. He outstretched his hand and he cast rock wall.
"I did it master Roxy."
The wall was a perfect fence. There were no flaws in its design and Rudeus focused on remembering the feeling of the amount of mana he spent to make it, just one small drop, not enough for even an ant to get hydrated from with a droplet of water that small. It looked like a small picket fence you would see in a painting of a farm countryside. And then Rudeus collapsed, completely spent.
"Hey Rudeus?" Roxy said looking down at Rudeus. He was sound asleep and she was using her lap as a pillow for the boy, she had been doing this for the past hour or so. He looked so relaxed and quiet.
Looking at the surrounding landscape was not a pleasant sight. Somehow Rudeus had protected the closest area around him and Roxy. The area they were in was like a small island and then that small island was surrounded by a sea of dirt and rubble from Rudeus's spell. He used some type of condensed wind magic to keep the shockwave from damaging them and Roxy didn't even hear the explosion. It was like he created a thick atmosphere.
"Rudeus you sure are amazing. You made some type of shield didn't you? If you hadn't done that we would have been pretty badly injured, hell we might have even died."
"I'm sorry master, but I wanted to push myself like you asked." Rudeus responded.
"How long have you been awake?"
"Oh a few minutes now, I just wanted to enjoy the feeling of your lap." The young boy smiled in a semi innocent and perverted manner.
Roxy chuckled a little bit and got up letting Rudeus's head fall softly onto the grass. After a moment he got up. His pool of mana was regenerating quickly but it wouldn't be completely back until tomorrow. Right now he had about 1/10 of his power back.
"Rudeus, cast rock wall again." Roxy said trying to get Rudeus to show her he had managed to control his mana.
"oh, okay." Rudeus said, he focused and held out his hand, closing his eyes as he remembered the feeling of the small amount of mana he had used to create a stone wall.
He cast it and to his joy it was the exact size he wanted. A small fence made of stone was formed identical to the one next to it that he had previously made before he fainted.
"Very good Rudeus, you have now learned how to control your magic. Now let us return to your home."
Roxy was already getting onto the horse and she held out her hand when she had steadied herself. Rudeus got on and they were off.
"Hey sensei is it alright if I continue to take a nap on the horse, I'm pretty tired."
"If you fall asleep now then your sleep routine will be off and you won't be able to sleep tonight." Roxy stated, she was true of course but Rudeus was incredibly exhausted from the spell he had used.
"Pleeeaase master Roxy, I'm so tired from casting that spell." Rudeus begged looking at her with puppy eyes.
She sighed defeated. "Okay but first you have to explain to me that spell."
"I don't know how I did it, I made a column of energy and I didn't want it to hurt us so I tried to capture it, when I realized I was making it worse I threw it away and the explosion happened." Rudeus was of course lying, but Roxy didn't know that. He knew he had created a miniature sun between his hands. Honestly he was surprised himself that he had managed to pull off something so intense but this gave him another idea. Could he harness energy turning it into mana?
He looked up at the sun in the sky thinking of solar panels. If he could capture some of that energy he might find a new level, more so than just what his body could hold. Still he had about another six years before he hit his peak and his mana stopped growing. So for now the thought of harnessing and making mana from other things could wait.
Rudeus then fell asleep on the horse, dreaming about naked women.
The young boy and his master arrived at the home just before nightfall like Roxy had planned. They dismounted and got into the house. Immediately Rudeus was assaulted by Zenith and Paul asking if he was okay.
"We saw the sky and saw the light, then we heard the explosion, explain yourself Rudeus was that you?" Zenith asked concerned. Paul had a different response.
"If that was you son you might be strong enough to challenge any man or god by the time you are a teen." Paul then burst into laughter, he was a bit jealous sure but he was also proud of his son that he could perform such a feat.
Roxy stepped in and reported what she had seen.
"I believe Rudeus captured all the lightning from the storm he had created using wind magic and then he threw it up into the air when he realized he couldn't keep it contained. Originally he was trying to protect me from the lightning at the start and the explosion wasn't intentional." Roxy responded with a cool head.
"Rudeus is that true?" Zenith stated.
Her son only responded by acting coy and looking at the ground sheepishly while scratching the back his head. It was a dead giveaway that he was saying yes but he still didn't want to admit it.
Zenith leapt up into the air screaming hurray, she was now incredibly proud of her son, Paul slapped him on the back, Lilia smiled faintly and Roxy gave him a thumbs up. But Rudeus wasn't proud of what he did. He looked up putting on a fake smile.
'Will I be able to stop the teleportation event with this amount of power? Is it enough? And should I fail should I create countermeasures?'
But unbeknownst to everyone within the house, they would have more pressing matters to attend to that night.
Thank you for the reviews, I know I don't have allot written as of this point in the story but I love feedback and questions. To answer your question, epantaja521, yes. Rudeus will become more powerful in body and in magic than his previous life. I intend for him to learn more on how to manipulate the world around him as he gradually improves. As for his abilities they will be unique and not necessarily explosive. Just OP as fuck, however that will not happen for some time. But in the meantime his largest goal is to stop the teleportation event.
The night was blanketed in a sheet of fog, the moon was dim and darkness was being cast all around death row. The only light source was the one made by their torches and they could barely see in front of themselves. It was the perfect cover to kill discretely.
Clive and the men of death row were approaching the house. Normally if given the task to destroy a single house they would let loose some arrows that were covered in oil and set on fire, or using a fireball incantation, and shoot them at the house and burning the people inside. But Darius had asked that they make it look like a monster incident. So the plan was to surround the house, not allowing a pathway of escape, Clive and his top men would raid the house and slaughter everyone inside, if anyone tried to flee then the men on the outside would hunt them down and kill them.
They approached the house and confirmed it was the right address. Clive signaled for the men to approach the front door, pulling out his sword while doing so. His heart started to beat faster at the anticipation, killing was his second favorite thing to do, but if he could he would execute his number one favorite thing to do first which was torture. Before he could touch the handle, he heard a little girls voice.
"Hey mister, do you want to play hide and seek?" It was pure and innocent but off putting at the same time.
Clive looked quickly side to side but didn't see anyone.
"Who is there? Show yourself!" Clive whispered a little loudly. If the people inside were still asleep he wanted to dispatch of the little girl before she screamed. And there shouldn't even be anyone awake at this hour. Something was very off.
"Well if I showed myself to you. Then it wouldn't be hide and seek now would it? But where are my manners, my name is Hollow" The girl laughed teasing the men.
"Hollow huh? Is that some kind of joke? I'm not fucking around little girl, show yourself!"
"But mister, I don't think you will like what you see, every time someone sees me they run away in fear. They scream. MOMMY! MOMMY! Or something like that, honestly I just want to play hide and seek with them. But it looks like you have come here to do something much different then hide and seek, you stink of murder after all." The girl didn't change her tone, she was still playful in her voice.
"Do you even know who I am? I've killed hundreds, don't think I won't kill you too!" Clive hissed.
"Oh I know your name Clive, you have killed many people, but I didn't expect to see you here at my doorstep."
Before Clive could retort one of the men behind him tapped on his shoulder. He glimpsed and saw that his mercenary was pointing up above them in sheer terror. Clive looked up and saw a hooded figure floating above them. It towered over the group. Then it flew down and landed on the ground not even making a sound. It was so fast it was almost as if it had teleported. Drops of blood fell from its lips as it smiled demonically at them. The drops landed on Clive's forehead. He didn't move a muscle. For one of the only moments in his life he was completely frozen at the sight before him. He had faced countless monsters but this was no monster, it was intelligent, and it could speak to them in clear words.
He threw his sword forward as his instincts kicked in. The blade was stopped by one of Hollows arms that protruded from its back, the arm itself looked like a single edged sword and it was composed of hardened bone, it could not be cut through. The only way to destroy hardened bone like that was to shatter it with a hammer or use a saw.
"Hey mister, before you throw another swing at me, I will give you an opportunity. Tell me who hired you, and I will let you go. They will pay for annoying me, and you get to tell others about me. Deal?"
The monsters offer was sincere, he could hear that it was serious behind it's playful manners, but he didn't go back on a job when he had already accepted it and he never turned in an employer. The creature already noticed Clive's answer through his facial expressions.
Hollow smiled at him and let out the joyous laughter of a little girl. Then it attacked. Using its other free sword like arm to go directly through the skull of one of the men standing to Clive's right, killing the man instantly. The monster bent down and whispered into Clive's ear. "You hide, and I will find you."
And then the monstrosity became a blur, killing indiscriminately. Screams reverberated through the night.
Clive evaded or blocked several of the monsters attacks. It was quick but it wasn't advanced in hand-to-hand combat, that he noticed. His plan for killing this being would be to injure it bit by bit, a sword thrust here and a slash there, always retreating whenever the monster tried to attack him. Like teasing a pissed off cat, he would win if he was faster at getting away than the swipes of its claws. However his men couldn't say the same, it had already killed four of them.
"Everyone get back, weaken the monster with arrows and jabs! Will, use a fireball on the house!" Clive knew that their ruckus would wake up the people inside so they had a precious few seconds to complete the job before Paul and Roxy entered the fight.
Will, one of their advanced sorcerers outstretched his hands and began the incantation. Whenever the monster tried to attack Will one of the other members of Death Row moved Will out of the way, blocked the attack for the monster, or stood as barrier and attacked, distracting the creature.
A fireball formed and shot at the house, the spell was done successfully. Clive smiled in a moment of celebration now that they would have two pieces removed from the board and just had to deal with the monster but they were cut short. A ball of water intercepted the fireball and steam exploded everywhere making the fireball neutral and useless.
Clive looked down at the hand of the monster. It smiled at them gleefully laughing.
"My turn mister." Hollow outstretched its hand and a stream of blue flames engulfed Will. The man would have screamed but the fire was infused with wind magic, it was so fast and strong of a spell that his flesh was burned off before he could blink, by the time the spell had finished he was nothing but chard bones.
Then the door to the house burst open, Paul stood with his sword at the ready. He was shirtless and it was clear he had only managed to put on his pants and rush downstairs. He didn't flinch at the sight of the dead men littering his yard but he did freeze at the sight of Hollow, the creatures figure was illuminated by the blue flames casting an ominous shadow over the house. Roxy burst in right after Paul but her reaction was the same.
"Paul! Rudeus is missing! I can't find him!" Zenith screamed in desperation from inside the house.
'Where was the kid?' Clive thought, they had to make it out of tonight alive but if the child survived that presented two problems. Firstly, always end the bloodline of a family if they are a witness to your kill, they will swear revenge, and become strong to face the one who killed as an act of vengeance, the second was that this mission was supposed to be discrete. If the kid survived and saw them then Death Row would lose it's bonus from Darius.
"Hey mister, don't worry about these guys, I will play hide and seek with them, so far they suck at hiding but you know…..well…. They are trying to kill me so it's kind of hard to do that while hiding." The monster shouted at Paul, it waved at him with one hand while having it's other hand cupped to the side of it's mouth like a microphone. Then a rock dome covered the house. Sealing Paul and the rest of the people safely inside the building.
"Well I have a few moments before Roxy gets rid of that rock wall with her incantations. So I will get serious."
It outstretched its hands and some of the men floated in the air, no wind seemed to gush and force them up. It was as if the creature was using telekinesis. Then rocks formed in a spiral and pierced through the men like bullets from a gun. Other men fell into the ground, it was a trap that was covered by grass when really they had stepped into waist high mud, they were quickly dispatched by more rock bullets.
By the time Clive could get a breather half of his party was already dead, however since he didn't need to worry about his men getting in the way as much he was free to use his skills without the need to be concerned for collateral damage.
He breathed in as much as he could, tensing all of his muscles, then he imagined himself becoming liquid, flowing like a jet of water released from a pressurized tank.
'Sword god style, sword of light!' Clive shouted in his mind.
The world around the monster turned red as Clive shot forward, the wave of light was then proceeded by darkness. After a millisecond light came back into focus and the ground cracked along the path of Clive's sword technique.
"Wow mister that was pretty colorful and flashy." Clapping and laugher filled the air.
Clive looked behind him but no one was there. Then he looked around and came face to face with the monster. It was bent down so it was at eyelevel with him. He would have seen Hollows eyes had it not been covered with the cloak. Clive leapt back, keeping distance from the creature.
"You are probably wondering how I avoided your attack. Well I will put it this way, I have fought against people who were way better than you using that technique. Sword of light is easy to avoid if you are experienced, and I've lived a long time. Now then." Hollow bent down and shot forward.
Clive swung his sword out but was met again with Hollow's sword like arm. It grabbed Clive's face and slammed him down on the ground, then raising him up and slamming him down again, dragging him across the dirt while doing so. It was a brutal display of dominance.
The leader of Death Row let go of his sword and in a desperate attempt to get free grabbed Hollow's head with both hands and slammed his knee into the monsters face, shattering it's nose.
It threw him away. Clive got up and put both of his hands to his head in an attempt to stop the ringing and the mind numbing pain coming from the back of his head. The monster on the other hand acted as if nothing happened.
Hollow raised its hand and outstretched two fingers. Clive's sword began to float off the ground. Then the beast squeezed it's hand tightly together. The Sword shattered into small fragments.
One of the men shouted at the monster "Are you trying to mock our boss? Shattering his sword like that proving you are his greater?" Before the man could ask another question or mock the beast the fragments flew in his direction going through his body and vital organs, he collapsed as he started to hack up blood from his damaged body, it was clear he was going to die.
Clive reached for his dagger and lunged forward but one of the fragments blocked his attack while another shot through his arm severing the tendons in his wrist, then another shard went through his bicep followed by another shard to his shoulder. Clive screamed in pain as his arm was rendered completely useless falling limp as all three tendons in his arm were cut.
The dagger then began to move as if it had a mind of its own and went into his foot pinning him to the ground. He screamed again and attempted to reach for the dagger with his only good arm now in an effort to pull it out but his fingers were all of a sudden sliced off at the base by Hollows boney sword. Meanwhile Hollow was using the fragments like birds of prey as they whizzed around faster than the eye could keep track of. He used these pieces of shattered blade to slit the throats of the rest of Death Row.
Clive looked up at Hollow.
"Now you won't make it out of this alive, but just incase you are ready and I want to check one last. Reida Reia, Darius Silva Ganius."
It was a psychological tactic, it was done to people who were in a moment of stress and being interrogated. When a name or place was mentioned without them expecting it they would flinch, their heart would skip a beat, or their eyes would dilate. Either way their body would give the interrogator the answer.
Clive stiffened at the last name, Darius. After a moment Clive's composure returned.
"Go to hell." Clive shouted, it was a last breath of retaliation. And his final breath, as Clive's head was decapitated by the fragments of his blade. They rotated around and around like a bandsaw blade as they cut quickly into his flesh and then through his spine. Leaving his head cleanly cut.
"You first mister." Hollow whispered coldly. It then sat down beside Clive's corpse, and Hollow had stopped smiling as it looked at the stone dome it had made. Hollow lied about Roxy being able to break through the rock dome it had made, Hollow was constantly growing it back so whenever she cast an incantation to remove it the beast simply fought against the spell by casting a new one.
Looking across the mayhem there was no one left alive. "I'm sorry it had to come to this, I knew who you were but I gave you a chance to live tonight despite the cruelties you had done on others, I don't like killing, I never have." He was talking to the corpse of Clive.
Hollow stood up and walked over to the dome wall which would fall down any second. It knelt down in a submissive manner, Paul would mostly try to kill Hollow if it showed any sign of aggression but maybe he would think logically and realize Hollow had no intention of hurting the family.
The Rock dome finally went down. Roxy was panting, she had made numerous attempts and kept trying to remove the rock barrier but her attempts were met with resistance or another rock barrier to replace the one she took down previously. Paul didn't move from his spot, his eyes were completely set on Hollow.
"Where is my son you monster?" Paul asked coldly.
"Mister he is safe. Rudeus shall return at first sunlight in the morning, he was exploring in the night because he couldn't fall asleep, he was in a direct path to meet these men, so I knocked him out and took him to safety, then I followed these people to see what they were doing at this time of night." Hollow stated.
"Why did you kill these men, who are they?"
"They were sent here to kill you, so I killed them, they are a mercenary group known as Death Row. I tried to interrogate their leader Clive as to who hired them but he would not give me an answer. So I ended him."
If Hollow gave Paul the truth that Darius was behind this his next objective would be clear and he would leave to challenge the prime minister of Asura.
'This creature doesn't show any intention of hurting me or Paul,' Roxy thought.
"What are you?" Roxy stated with her own question, interrupting Paul's follow up question.
"I am Hollow, I like to play hide and seek, that is all you need to know."
Paul grimaced but he didn't want to be disrespectful towards the creature, if it was unwilling to tell them what it was then there was a reason for it, and Paul wouldn't push it. One last thing was on his list of questions.
"Will you guarantee my son's safety? If he doesn't come back what will you do?"
"He will come back unharmed you have my word mister."
And with that the monster flew off.
The morning came and Rudeus could be seen walking towards the house in the distance. His eyes showed a look of panic when he saw the corpses littering the area around the house.
"Father! Mother! Roxy! Lilia!?" Rudeus shouted running as fast as his legs could carry him.
Zenith was the first to appear from behind the house. She ran over to her son and embraced him, crying with tears of joy and relief. Rudeus cried too and held her as tightly as he could. Paul and Roxy came running embracing him as well. Lilia smiled faintly in the distance.
"Don't you ever run away again!" Zenith scorned her son as she continued to cry.
"Okay mom I promise. But what happened here?"
"Men came to attack us in the night but a monster showed up and killed them, it didn't hurt us though. It said that it knocked you out when you went to go for a midnight walk, you were about to come in contact with those men." Paul stated.
"Yes, I was walking around but then it got really foggy, I wanted to head back as soon as I could but before I could turn around something hit me and I was out. I woke up when something splashed water on me, I looked up and I saw the creature called Hollow. It said hello to me."
"Were you scared? Did he say anything?" Roxy asked.
Rudeus gripped his arms together tightly, trembling and nodding his head slowly. He then went into a long story about how Hollow and him had talked, about what had transpired, and about Death Row.
Paul gripped his fists together. "I am going to find out who did this!" He shouted with determination.
'Shit I have to think of something fast. If Paul leaves no one will try to get me a job to teach Eris in the future. Paul will go off on a quest for vengeance instead.' Rudeus thought cursing himself.
"Hollow told me it is already looking into that." Rudeus said.
"Huh? Why would that creature be interested in protecting us even further?" Paul asked.
"It gave me three reasons. One, if you want to kill a weed you have to pull it out by the root, and two, children are precious and meant to be protected, the third was because you exist as the strongest line of defense for this family other than the creature. And my own point, would you really like that thing hanging around the family instead of you?"
Paul didn't hesitate in his answer that he didn't want that thing to hang around the family instead of him. And in the meantime he would practice some more and try to become stronger. Maybe he could reach saint tier. He gripped his hands tightly looking at his son.
"I will become stronger to protect you son and everyone here who is dear to me." Paul promised.
Rudeus smiled, glad he was going to stay, on the other hand years from now he was not looking forward to Paul knocking him out with a wooden sword to get him to leave the household. That all depended if Rudeus could play out those future years as normally as possible.
Later on Rudeus and Roxy looked out across the plains. Recalling last night.
"I was so scared." Roxy stated gripping her arms tightly together. "We were completely surrounded by many men as advanced as both me and Paul. If that monster hadn't shown up we would all be dead, and besides the fact it saved us, I don't think I will get the haunting picture of it's smile out of my mind any time soon."
Rudeus put his hand on her sleeve in an attempt to comfort her.
"Master Roxy, please know it didn't mean to scare you, I was scared too when I met it, but it has a kind heart. It saved us. It's like an ugly or scary person with a soft heart. I don't know what else to say, so please stop shivering." Rudeus said softly, but there was pain in his voice.
'I never wanted you to see my other side, the side I created to defend my family and to keep my real powers hidden.'
Looking back to the night before Rudeus was exploring but he was flying around instead of walking. He saw the lights above the layer of fog. The mist was not thick enough to conceal the torches as Rudeus viewed them from above. He took a closer look, as close as he could without separating the fog. He recognized death row as he had faced them before. Granted some of the members had changed over the years but he knew the leader Clive, Eris had killed death row single handedly in his previous life when she was a sword king.
Either way, the reason why they were here was clear, this was the work of the man god Hitogami. Rudeus thought about ways to deal with Darius now that it was confirmed that the prime minister was an apostle throughout Rudeus's early years of life. Hitogami kept with his apostles until they died or left him, and if they left him he would usually find a way to kill them. And then he moved onto the next person to be his pawn, three people was the limit the man god could contact and control.
Hitogami also could see fifty years into the future at most. Something Rudeus would do in the timespan would affect Hitogami's plans for the negative and so the man god had gotten Darius to commit an assassination attempt.
There were two options here, go after Darius or mentally Rudeus would commit himself to not fighting Hitogami until he met Orsted, which would change the future for the time being. After that point Rudeus much like in his previous life would work with the Dragon god to kill the man god, but Rudeus didn't like that idea much either. A sense of pride was lost to Rudeus that day when he was defeated by Orsted, while he was humble for the most part, a very small part of him wondered if he could beat the dragon god this time around, not kill, just get him to submit.
One advantage stood out to Rudeus against the man god. Hitogami didn't know that this was Rudeus's second time in this world, and the man god didn't know that Rudeus already had his eyes on him. He would know about Hollow and Rudeus being the same person so he might try to throw a wrench in that secret, Hitogami could see anything happening in the world excluding Orsted.
For the time being Rudeus would have to think hard on his next step. He didn't expect himself to be thinking so hard so early but life had other plans. And if he took a misstep then Hitogami would destroy his future.
Roxy looked up at the sky, staring aimlessly, Rudeus looked up with her, wondering what she was thinking as he pondered his own options. They stood in silence letting the minutes pass by until they decided to walk back to the house.