The Vermillion Tyrant?

“I think so,” Joseph said.

That bag of crap is here? How come those idiots come here with their full body and I just come as a Soul fragment? Isn’t this discrimination, you unfilial disciple?

“Master, I—”

Silence!

Unbelievable. These douchebags are here and I, the First Martial Saint, can’t even go beat them up personally. I am stuck with my disciple.

Joseph listened to the First Martial Saint complaining about not having a body. It wasn’t his fault that new monsters appeared left and right. The last one had been a super-powerful man who looked like a woman, apparently.

“Master, are you sure that this is the right solution?” Joseph looked at his small luggage and felt like crying.

There is no getting stronger among sheep, disciple. You need to challenge yourself. Fighting Charybdes was extremely good, but you have now been here dilly-dallying for a month. I was used to fight Demonic Beasts hordes at every turn!

“Shouldn’t we tell Jacob?”

Tell him? Tell him what? That you need a solo journey to become stronger and go look for your parents? And what do you think he will say, disciple? ‘Sure, Joe, we are on the verge of humanity’s exctintion. Why don’t you go do something so selfish in my eyes that I would rather lick a toilet than let you go on your business?’

“Tommy, I have to tell him. Him and Linda. They took me as if I was their family,” Joseph tried to protest.

The thing was. Joseph knew he wanted power, much more than he let others think. He had been obsessed with finding his parents since Jacob had sent his élite fighting group to Ochre without him.

He was falling behind because his potential was limited. And it had already been more than a month since the start of the apocalypse. If he didn’t go now, he might never see his parents again. And that was assuming they were somehow still alive.

For all he tried to keep living his life like everyone else, he just wasn’t able to, he couldn’t. he wasn’t the same person Jacob or Linda were, nor Marina, nor Geneva. He wished he was as strong and resolute as Juliet and Helena, but he wasn’t.

He was fading in the background, and anxiety gripped his heart, making him unable to think straight. He needed something, he needed release.

And his master had suggested he should go and face the world alone, fight his way out of things, meet the truly terrifying Demonic Beasts that were only spoken of inside St. Peter. If he kept living under a bell made of glass, he would one day not be able to keep up with the others.

And more importantly, how would he be strong enough to go find out if his parents were still alive.

Joseph needed strength.

The First Martial Saint didn’t say anything this time around because the expert could feel Joseph’s true emotions through his soul.

Joe, disciple, listen to me very well. Cultivation is a lonely path. If you want to become stronger, strong enough to be independent, you will need to face many things on your own. Jacob, the Devil Queen and now that idiot did all of this in their past life. You didn’t. You do not understand what it means to fight a battle you cannot afford to lose. They did that. They did that countless times. Jacob went close to death so many times that even with his disgustingly weak talent he made a monster of himself.

“What if I die?”

Well, wouldn’t it be nice to have a safeguard for everything? Maybe knowing that no matter what happens, there is a safe haven for you, something you can always turn to. How nice.

Joseph didn’t feel any irony in the voice and was confused.

“I don’t understand.”

The world is not nice anymore, disciple. Actually, it never was. But one could live sheltered from most things, at least in a first world country. And even then, not in every case. But one could hope there would always be something to cushion his fall, a safety net, isn’t that what they used to call it? I was born during the apocalypse. I know such things because my parents told me, and they taught me that maybe one day, they would forge once again a world where you could feel safe.

But I never got to see such a world. I ended up hiding in a mountain, trying to escape everything. I was there, alone, hoping no one would see me, and what a pathetic thing I was. Turns out, the weird Cultivation Technique I found was actually very good. And then, monsters started coming. And I had no choice. I had no one, nothing. I was a person without anything else in the world but fighting. And fighting was what I started doing.

I fought, Joseph, I fought day and night. Sometimes, I would even doze off while fighting a Demonic Beast horde by myself. I was so tired sometimes that I thought of letting a beast kill me there and then, just end it.

“And why didn’t you?” Joseph asked.

Why? Because.

The laughter that came after somehow convinced Joseph to finish packing in the middle of the night, take a look around, dry a traitorous tear that was coming down his cheek and bid goodbye to St. Peter.