Riou walked past the dark mage and approached Max, the enemy observed with curiosity the boy that had just appeared.

As Riou saw the real extent of the damage on his friend’s body, Riou rushed to the magus side, immediately casting 2 spells”

“Heal! Full Regeneration” a golden light shone on the body of the mage and a green fog appeared around the magus, slowly penetrating the wounds and his whole body.

The bleeding stopped immediately and the hole within the mage’s stomach began to close slowly.

As the pain began to subside the old mage smiled “I’m not even surprised you can do this” the magus was miraculously recovering from a deadly wound.

The red glow within the dark mage’s eyes intensified after seeing such powerful healing spells.

“Sorry for being late… it took me awhile to get back here. It’s a warzone outside. I had to deal with some of them on the way back” said the boy looking around. He saw Therese and Leona fighting on the floor below, while Eileen was defending herself against two mages on the other side of the floor.

“I really thought you and Therese would be able to deal with these guys inside… Now that I think about it, I never saw you or her actually fighting, I may have overestimated your abilities” he spoke while observing the poor state of the dark mage before him.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, but these guys are not normal… be careful”

The dark mage had a hole in his chest but was still alive, most of his robe was gone and what remained of his body showed burnt marks.

“Did you really lose to him?” questioned the boy with disappointment.

“There was a more powerful one earlier… a shadow, but able to cast a black spear that pierced my defenses from behind” replied Max.

Riou nodded and turned once again to the girls’ foes. “Mass Silence” said the boy targeting the foes with Eileen and Therese. The dark mages were struck by an invisible force, all of them brought their hands to their throats at the same time as if something was constricting it.

No sound came out of their mouths, they were unable to speak and it severely impacted their magical abilities.

‘And to be sure…’

“Mass Drain stamina” cursed the boy, at them once again, they suddenly felt completely exhausted.

‘That should be enough. They will be able to handle them now.’

Once again, the dark mage seemed a little impressed by the display.

The boy turned back to the old man that was getting better, “So, what have you learned about these guys?” questioned Riou, walking in front of Maximilian, positioning himself between the fallen mage and the dark one.

Max sat down while leaning on one of the pillars near the corridor. “They are after Eileen. They wanted to kidnap her and take her to Iris” informed the mage, as Riou turned towards the dark mage.

“So you are the unknown mage helping Allard” the dark mage said, referring to Riou. “I don’t recognize you from any of the families. And you are using a young body too? Perhaps you are an adept of soul transfer? But how do you keep the body alive? What’s your na…” the boy quickly pointed his hand to the dark mage.

Without delay, the dark mage protected himself with his best barrier spell as an enormous energy blast was already coming in his direction.

The barrier held, but just barely. The shadow mage knew he was almost done for if he didn’t act quickly enough.

“Oh… you sure know protective spells, that was quick” said the boy, praising the dark mage.

Pushed, the dark one immediately fought back. Once again, the red shards were called and appeared in his hands. He pointed and shot them at Riou.

A black dagger was drawn from the boy’s back, with little effort, it cut through the shards dismantling the whole spell as if it was nothing.

“Impossible!” said the dark mage, looking at the strange dagger that possessed intense runes and an eerie purple flame dancing inside its metal. “No weapon can withstand my spells!”

“Shall we see how good your barriers and protections are? It will be a good opportunity to test my dagger” said the boy to the dark mage. “Are you ready?”

Riou vanished as the dark mage promptly protected himself once again, instantly surrounding his body with a heavy protective barrier to withstand any melee assault.

Despite his best efforts, he felt the dagger stabbing the right side of his torso. The boy was too fast for him to see. Before he even realized what happened Riou was already there and pulling the dagger out of his undead body.

A surge of death energy was thrown by the mage in response, all around him, but there was nothing there to be hit anymore when that occurred.

“Time magic? But my rune did not react!” shouted the dark one in anger as he saw the boy appear a few steps in front of him.

Riou just smiled. “That’s no magic, well, not time magic at least”

The dark mage could not reply to the mockery as he noticed something was happening from within his body, at the wound that the dark dagger just caused. Black flames began to appear from inside his body, spreading quickly outward and on the remaining of his clothes.

“Black flames? No… no… it can’t be. Only the master can use them. What in the world is that dagger?!” shouted the mage with a mix of anger and fear. He desperately tried to treat the wound and his clothes with spells, but the black flames could not be stopped so easily.

He quickly shredded the rest of his mantle to get rid of the black flame that threatened to reach other parts of his body.

It was the body of a young norseman. The pale skin showed signs of extended freezing damage and a complete lack of blood. Argonian runes could be seen all over his body but especially from his neck all the way to his chest and around his heart.

In his heart area Riou noticed a vertical scar, sewed with strings in an X format, it seemed to hold something inside of it.

Riou held the dagger forward with a normal grip. Suddenly a black flame appeared enveloping the blade.

Maximilian eyes widened and his mouth opened at the sight. The dark mage looked at the flames with fright. “The black fire… how do you have a weapon with black fire!?”

The dark mage could feel his dead body slowly burning and crumbling away from the inside, slowly consumed by the unending flame. His clock was ticking, the dark one knew that it would burn completely.

A sense of urgency took over him.

“I don’t have time to waste. I will kill you and take the princess… this body should hold until I get back…” The dark mage felt another puncture on the other side of his torso. The black flames were now consuming him from both sides.

A surge of death magic erupted from the furious mage in every direction around him. The boy went back to protect the old man and deflected whatever came their way with the dagger.

“I think you are overestimating your chances here… Why don’t we talk about it? Maybe if you explain why you want the princess and what’s this plan is all about, I might stop the flames”

The mage began to chant in a strange language, dozens of dark portals began to appear around him. Shadow monsters began to crawl through them.

“Nope, not gonna happen, Mass Banish Summon” said the boy as his mana quickly expanded covering the room, a bright white light shone at each portal collapsing them, taking the shadow monsters down with them.

“AAHHH!” screamed the dark mage in hate, as he shot every magic he could against the boy.

Purple rays of energy, fireballs and even ice shards followed by lightning. He tried everything he could against the young enemy.

Max watched the fight with a smirk. The boy was the perfect depiction of the vision he had inside his mind. A monster capable of unimaginable things. He watched as Riou called spells that defied the possibilities and his understanding of magic. The sheer amount of mana and knowledge needed to accomplish them couldn’t even be quantified by the old mage.

The great magus once again realized that he couldn’t even begin to conceive the depths of the knowledge the boy had.

But still, that black flame was something else entirely, he could tell it was the real deal. A black dragon’s flame, and he questioned himself how Riou got his hands on it, it must have been Lucian Brahm’s doing.

Touching his arm rune, the dark mage activated his time spell in a desperate attempt. Changing its surroundings to a gray color, leaving only him and the Maximilian unaffected.

But to the dark mage dismay, the boy was still moving as if nothing had happened, despite being clearly affected by the spell.

“You know? This isn’t a very good spell… It just slows things up but doesn’t really stop it.” said the boy, looking around him and moving as if nothing happened.

Cancelling the spell, the dark mage cursed, how come he could counter the time spell without a time spell of his own.

Max laughed to himself seeing such a display of power. Riou was vastly superior to the dark mage in every aspect so far.

“Damn you!” shouted the dark mage, finally showing signs of exhaustion. “You are far more difficult to handle than I anticipated, but as a member of the twilight council, I cannot be defeated.”

The dark mage pulled a dark stone with a red rune very similar to the one Riou took from Callas.

Without delay, the rune glowed in a red light and began to transform.

A dark red fog expanded from within it covering everything in around it. A knight clad in heavy dark red armor appeared once it dissipated.

He had a massive halberd in his hand with a very long thin blade on its top.

The knight was very tall and slender. His face was the only part without armor.

It showed a pale skin and delicate traces, but only where it remained. The lower part of his head was just teeth and the skull, displaying the real state of decay of the body. A portion of his jawbone was completely exposed and nothing but bone could be seen beneath it.

His eyes were red as his armor, showing complete lack of emotion.

His armor resembled a dragon, with scale designs and long horns on the helmet with a few spikes throughout the body of the armor.

“A Dragon Knight!” shouted the old mage surprised. “That can’t be…”

The old magus was about to tell Riou to run but held his voice. If it was anyone else but him, he’d urge them to run.

The Dragon knight was a legendary elven elite force of the old times, trained and prepared for centuries to fight dragons. Its legends are old as the time of heroes themselves. Max could not imagine how the council was able to find one of their bodies and even control it to their vile schemes.

But the mage knew better than to say anything to the boy. Riou was an entity on its own as well.

“Banish Summon!” tried the boy once again. But this time, the spell did not work and the knight remained.

“You fool, there is no portal for you to close this time! I was saving this to protect myself against the council master’s flame, you are really unlucky to have faced me!” said the dark mage, assured of his victory.

“This knight is one of the most powerful that ever lived in this world. And he is under my control! Dragon Knight, kill the boy!”

The Knight expertly spun his halberd and pointed it at the boy.

The thrust came without warning and at an alarming speed. Riou barely had time to dodge it.

‘Fast! too fast for a dead man’ thought the boy as he jumped to the side after dodging and gaining distance.

The knight continued with a flurry of attacks that Riou could only defend. It was too fast and powerful for him to even try to deflect.

The knight kept at it without tiring, not to mention that his weapon suffered no damage from hitting the dagger.

Luckily Riou got used to his pattern of attack, despite being fast, the undead knight was somewhat predictable.

Riou calculated the best moment and went for it. Predicting the knight's attack he used speed to avoid the halberd and quickly approached the foe’s body, close enough to stab the knight’s leg and then as he jumped back to avoid the following attack.

Taking a few steps back he waited to see the results of his attack.

The armor was pierced but the black flames did not affect the target. Riou looked trying to understand what happened.

“Hahaha!” laughed the mage. “Do you think I picked this knight for no reason? They were the ones to fight the dragons! They killed most of the Black ones! Their armor and body is protected against the black flame!” explained the delighted dark mage.

Riou nodded, impressed. “I see, thanks for the history lesson… but he can’t be one of the strongest if you can control him so easily” said the boy, grabbing his dagger with an inverted grip and holding it sideways towards the Dragon knight.

“So, let’s see if he lives up to his legend… I mean, you understood what I meant.” said the boy with a smile.

Riou smirked and became serious and spoke towards the dagger “Awake Shadowbringer.”

The daylight suddenly dimmed until the day turned into a dark night.

Everything silenced and stood still as the darkness befell the place.

Nothing but an eerie feeling was felt by everyone inside or outside of the arena as they looked up, noticing the daylight was vanishing without explanation, it was as if a dark shadow covered the whole place.

That was a dark omen, a premonition assaulted everyone’s mind as it uncovered a deep rooted fear of old and rendering everyone still.

The dagger shined with a purple light, it’s flame raged and even escaped the metal sometimes. A black and purple flame now danced together on the blade’s edge.

Without delay, the boy attacked the dragon knight that prepared to defend. But the moment the dagger touched his halberd it was instantly engulfed with the dancing flames, shattering into pieces. It was not able to withstand it.

With the dragon knight defenseless, the boy’s next action was to pierce his chest with the dagger.

“Burst!”

The dagger flames violently bursted inside his chest, destroying the red armor completely from within. The purple flame rushed through the rest of the knight’s body very quickly. Spreading and burning it completely at a moment’s notice, not even his fire resistance could withstand the purple flame.

His very form became ashes in an instant and as Riou removed the burning dagger from it, the ashes dissipated and vanished on the air.

Max was holding his breath almost in terror.

All he could think about was how in the world the boy was able to get his hands on that dangerous thing. ‘Brahm!’ was the only explanation that came to his mind… ‘somehow, the fiend was able to store and guard the dreaded flames for all those millennia… but why would he give it to the boy? And how was he able to imbue it into the dagger? Nobody should be able to hold something so powerful’.

The dark mage became desperate as he saw that flame. It was nor a regular black fire, he knew it was something else and he would not survive against it.

Sensing his doom, the dark mage began to prepare. “I don’t know what kind of monster you are… I may not be able to kill you, but I will end your threat to this world. I will send you back into the darkness you came from!” Both of the sides of the dark mage’s stomach were gone and his spine was beginning to show as the flames advanced further.

There wasn’t much time left for him.

The mage ruptured the strings on his chest with his hand, pulling an hexagonal crystal from within it.

The crystal color was strange, ever changing from green to a light blue and then fading into a violet, the pattern then continued over and over again. The dark mage began to chant very quickly in the elven tongue as he focused all his mana that flowed in an amazing rate directly into the crystal, it glowed more and more, quickly switching his colors.

Max seemed to recognize the spell and quickly forced himself up, but a sharp pain assaulted his stomach taking him down once again. “Don’t let him finish it!!” screamed the magus with all his lungs.

“You shall be banished from this world and cast into the darkness of the Abyss!” said the dark. A dark shadow ripped the ground below the dark mage and black chains lunged at Riou.

Moved by Max’s advice Riou quickly pointed his dagger towards the mage. “Dragon’s Breath!” shouted the boy as the dagger’s dancing flames raged forward towards the dark mage and everything in his direction. The flames consumed him and the crystal in an instant, not even ash remained from him.

But something was wrong, the spell of the mage didn’t vanish, looking down he could see the chains he created latched to his legs. But Riou could not feel them. With his dagger he tried to cut them, but the blade just passed right through the chains without touching.

“What the… These chains are Illusions?”

“No! They Are Ethereal!” Said the mage trying to approach Riou.

The boy focused his mana on them, trying to dismiss it somehow, but he was not able to find a way to do it, like his dagger, the mana seemed unable to touch those strange chains.

Riou Tried to move towards Max but he finally realized he couldn’t, despite not feeling the chains, they were definitely holding him.

“How do I get rid of these?” He asked the mage.

But before he or Riou could do anything else, the chain suddenly pulled him with great speed, down through the dark rift on the ground.

Max moved towards it, but the rift had closed and the boy was gone.

----------------------------- Descending into the Abyss

Riou suddenly found himself thrown into a thick liquid. He was able to see himself, his body and arms as he looked but nothing else aside from it. He felt like swimming deep and was unable to breath.

The pressure and difficulty to move was a familiar sensation

As he stood still for a moment and noticed he was sinking at an alarming rate.

He looked above, towards the light that was coming from far above and realized it was getting smaller and dimmer every passing moment.

Down and around him, there was only darkness.

He thought the chain was still pulling him down, but as he looked at his leg, he found it had already vanished.

There was nothing but a deep dark abyss, so deep that the light was not able to reach its bottom. He quickly sheathed his dagger and tried to swim up towards the light.

Despite his attempt to swim, he was not moving up. The light continued to get dimmer and dimmer despite his effort.

Knowing he’d not last much longer without air. He then tried to blast the water to impulse him up.

But it was to no avail, as the strange liquid absorbed the blast entirely as if consuming its magic essence.

He then tried to control the water to create a current to bring him up, but the water once again absorbed the mana, denying him of any control.

Getting desperate and starting to run out of air, he decided to go all out.

With all his might, he ignited the mana he could in a single and violent blast towards the water beneath him in an attempt to propel himself towards the light.

With sheer power and a huge amount of mana, he was able to displace enough of the water to push him up with great force and velocity.

The light was growing bigger now, he was moving quickly towards it and finally broke out of that strange waters.

Outside of it, he gasped for air desperately.

But his joy didn’t last long.

The gravity suddenly pulled him down, but not the direction he was expecting and prepared for. To his surprise, the ground was on the very opposite side of where he emerged from.

The water was a lake in the sky, silver in color and mirrored the ground far below it amidst its waves.

He found himself falling towards it at great speed.

Freed from the liquid, he began to control his fall with wind with magic, slowing him down.

As he travelled down, he could see broken isles drifting in the air, waterfalls pouring into nothingness, mountain ranges continuing in many shapes that just kept going without end, jungles, forests, plains... and all kinds of terrains and environments as far as his eye could see from very far high in the sky.

But there was no sign of human activity, smoke, roads or cities anywhere.

Something else caught his attention. That world was strangely flat. He was very high and could not see any curvature.

He continued his descent, controlling his fall more and more as he was reaching the ground, there was nothing to aim for since there was no civilization in sight.

As he approached the ground, he could notice strange beings wandering about. He could not see what they were exactly but they were many and of varying sizes.

After a long fall he finally reached the ground, on land he sat down to rest and looked up.

A silver lake covered the skies entirely, way above the clouds. It moved slowly as its waves barely undulated his silver surface that reflected the world below.

“Where the hell am I?” said the boy looking around.

He landed on some plains, a thick forest could be seen far to his left, mountain ranges to his front and the continuation of those plains to his right and back.

“Fuck!” cursed the boy, as he blamed himself after what happened with that dark mage, if only he did not play with him… it was all his fault. His thoughts quickly went to the princess, he was very concerned with what happened with Eileen and Max since he was not there anymore.

“What was that damn spell? Why couldn’t I counter it?” said the boy with anger, trying to make sense of what happened. “Was I banished to another world? Come on, not again… there should be a limit how many times one can be thrown around like that”

“Noctis Aardwing!!” screamed the boy a few times, to no avail. It seemed that even the dragon couldn’t hear him from there.

He reached for the portal crystal in his pouch.

Despite the mana being applied, it seemed unable to reach its counterpart and create a portal.

He was stuck.

Suddenly the earth beneath his feet began to shake, stronger at every passing moment.

‘Damn… one of those huge things must be on its way’ he looked around to find a strange huge monster coming in the distance.

It was massive.

A fat, furry bull like creature, way bigger than an elephant was coming in his direction at a very fast pace shaking the earth as it moved.

His horns went from the side of his head towards the ground and curved to the front.

“Come on big guy… you caught me in a bad mood” said the boy while preparing to release a spell to pierce through him.

For his surprise, he noticed the beast was not attacking, but fleeing, something else was chasing the large thing. A white lion pounces at its back.

Much smaller than the bull itself but still twice as large as a normal lion.

The feline was completely white with red glowing eyes and horns, easily spotted even from afar.

‘Don’t mind me’ thought the boy moving away slowly.

The lion bit the giant bull’s back making it stop in pain, it then jumped down and with a quick swipe of his claws the lion ripped one of the legs of the big beast that fell down shaking the ground.

The Lion jumped at its throat using his horns to easily pierce the flesh and bleed the prey out.

The white lion was now covered in red from the blood and began to eat its flesh.

Riou increased his speed to move away from the beast, but the lion seemed to notice him anyway.

Despite having its prey, the lion suddenly looked towards the boy as if deciding what to do.

‘You already have your meal… don’t look at me now,’ thought the boy, moving backwards without turning away from the lion.

Suddenly and without warning, the beast gave chase to the boy, approaching in great speed.

“Look at the size of that thing you just killed, why are you coming after me?” complained the boy getting tired of all that action.

Riou shot fire at the Lion that didn’t even dodge it, it hit the lion head on but did absolutely nothing to him.

“Really?”

He then tried to push him back with wind and force spells. But the lion’s strength was enough to push through them and keep on going.

“What is this lion made of? Lead?”

Tired of his failed attempts he finally pulled out his dagger.

The white beast immediately slowed down and stopped not too far from the boy at the sight of the dagger.

“Now you stop?” said the boy looking at the big lion more closely.

The lion’s eyes looked at the boy, as if deciding once again if he was prey or not.

Riou released the black flames on the dagger. The beast’s nose immediately began to move, smelling the air. A moment later the beast turned and fled back towards the bull carcass.

Relief was brief as he noticed a large shadow moving on the ground, very fast. Looking up, he saw a flying creature circling him not too far in the sky. It was big and had 4 legs and 2 wings coming from its back.

“Does everything here wants to eat me?” he looked around once again. ‘Maybe in the forest I can hide for a bit… need five seconds without something wanting to kill me’

He rushed towards the forest to avoid another useless confrontation.

As the boy entered the forest, he immediately noticed something moving fast nearby. “Shit!” but he didn’t stop to see what it was, he knew it was onto him already so he increased his speed in an attempt to outrun it.

He ran as fast as he could at the thick forest and uneven ground. A sharp pain suddenly was felt on his right leg, turning it numb instantly causing him to fall. Because of his speed he tumbled for a while until he hit a big tree that held him in place.

He looked at his leg as he sat down. Something like a spike or a thorn was stuck on his leg, looking closely it looked like a sharp quill deep rooted in his calf.

He removed it with a lot of pain and promptly healed the wound.

Suddenly he began to feel dizzy, light headed and his eyes began to get heavy… ‘Oh fuck, I know this feeling!’ thought the boy, recognizing the sensation, luckily he had devised a counter to that. “Cure poison” he said as a white smoke came out of his body, especially his leg near where the quill pierced.

Recovered, he looked around once again and from the corner of his eye he noticed a very large snake approaching silently.

It was big enough to eat him whole without trouble. It had a dark brown color from its head until its tail where a dark green could be seen merging with the forest around it. On the tip of the tail were many of those quills that he just removed from his leg.

With a swift swing of the tail, many of the quills were shot towards the boy once again. He jumped to the side and behind the tree to avoid them.

From behind him, he heard more movement.

Looking back, there was a lizard-like creature twice the size of a man, ‘Fuck! A dracar? Here? During daytime and this big!?’ thought the boy as he recognized the monster that was already lurking towards him at that moment.

Without delay, Riou shot an energy blast towards both his foes by pointing one hand at each enemy.

He was not able to hit the agile giant snake, while the reptile was just stunned for a moment from the spell. ‘This dracar is tougher than the one in Allard’ thought Riou as he dashed to the side to gain space, he was preparing to escape both beasts.

The sound of heavy armor approaching at a fast pace caught his attention.

Looking at the sound origin he could see a full plate black armor rushing with a great sword towards him.

Inside the armor he could see only bones, a skeleton wearing a very set while a black fog emanated from his long sword.

The boy took his dagger to defend himself.

As the dead knight approached him, the snake was already approaching as well. Noticing the knight the big snake threw its quill at the undead. The quills pierced the armor but had no effect on it.

The dead knight looked at the snake and opened his mouth at her.

A black magic arrow was shot from his mouth at the giant snake that slithered, avoiding the spell completely, the snake started the undead and raised up, tall amongst the trees. The undead stepped towards her and the beast turned and fled immediately, clearly not wanting anything to do with the black knight.

Riou moved to the side, positioning the dracar between him and the skeleton.

The reptile was ready to fight again as the dead knight advanced. The dracar stood on his back legs ready for him.

But without a moment's notice the undead sword moved and cut the dracar in half as if it was not even there, the knight then continued moving towards the boy.

In an instant, it moved forward with another fast swing against Riou, all he could do was block it with his dagger. The heavy impact cut the old dark sword in two.

The moment the sword was broken, the armor fell down with the skeletons bones inside as if its strings were cut loose. A dark fog resembling a skull left the broken sword and vanished into the thin air.

‘What is this place?’ thought the boy, breathing deeply while keeping his awareness to his surroundings.

Something else was coming. ‘Fuck! I need time to think.’ He looked up and searched for the biggest tree he could find.

He quickly rushed towards it, jumping and climbed towards its top.

At the height, he rested for a bit as nothing seemed to be looking for him anymore.

He used the opportunity to breath and take a good look above the trees. The Forest was very thick and full of activity.

Big things lurked as the trees moved consistently with its movements far in the distance while Riou knew there was something nearby waiting for him to get down as well.

The whole place was savage and the feeling the forest passed to him was very strange. It was darker beneath the trees as the light had difficulty passing through the massive branches and leaves, even on the parts where there were no trees. The boy looked up once again.

There was no sun. ‘Where is the daylight coming from? Through the lake in the sky?’ he thought, unable to answer the question.

He rested and looked around the forest with more care, trying to discover what to do next.

After a while, Riou noticed a thin white smoke in the far distance, deeply inside the forest in a place with a lighter shade of trees.

‘Smoke? A village? It has to be…’ thought the boy, setting his course.

Riou took off his heavy coat, strapping it on his waist as it was not cold anymore.

With time to think and rationalize, he thought it better to release the spell that was containing his presence, it was an attempt to scare most of the beasts away from him, hopefully it would not bring something even worse towards him.

And so, he began to move again towards the smoke. And as expected, far less attacks occurred. But differently than Allard and the Norse, there were plenty of strange beasts that didn’t care about his presence and attacked anyway.

Like the dark armored undead, he also found an unusual number of undead creatures roaming the forest. They all attacked him on sight. He couldn’t quite tell the bones' origins, the decay was too severe to tell if they were human, beast or something else.

Time passed and the night seemed to be approaching as the light seemed to be going away.

He still wasn’t sure on how the day worked in that place so he hurried to avoid any other surprises that could come during the night.

Reaching the place with the smoke, Riou observed it from afar first and slowly approached it. The village was very primitive and very small. It had a precary wooden fence and spike walls with many carcasses around it, probably to keep things away.

A large pyre burned at its center, probably in preparation of the night that had arrived by then.

Riu estimated about 20 large tent-like structures. They were made from wood supports with long, thick, leather walls and ceiling.

The boy could see the villagers anywhere. So he approached the village more and more.

The moment he was in the open field close to the entrance, he was immediately surrounded.

They were men and women, all of them with poorly made leather armors from the strange beasts that roamed the forest. Some were wearing an improved studded leather and even fewer with some kind of plating with it, much similar to what Therese used to wear.

Only a few had actual swords. Most of them used spears made of wood and iron tips while the others improvised with sharp stones, large teeth or even claws.

They were many steps away from the boy, surrounding him with over 40 people. ‘This guys are good, despite their crappy equipment… I didn’t notice them at all’ thought the boy, looking at them.

‘Beastmen?’ thought the boy at first look

Riou noticed some resemblance with wolves, lions and even bears, but it was at a much less degree than Leona and Therese.. Most of them seem to have more than one beast aspect to them as well… all that while maintaining a human appearance and size, most of them at least.

One of them had what seemed to be a Lion’s mane like hair and beard with a light brown color. His body language was very similar to Therese’s, imponent and unapproachable.

Riou resolved to try to introduce himself, with his hands up he looked around. The fighters tensed up, ready to attack with weapons drawn and pointed at the boy.

From inside the village, Riou noticed some people peeking. Children and older adults from inside their tents, curiously looking and with fearful expressions.

“Hello?” said the boy to the people surrounding him, with his arms up.

The man with the mane approached him with caution. Everyone seemed very tense, ready to attack at any moment.

“I need some help, do you know where I am?” questioned the boy.

As the boy moved to look around him, everyone watched cautiously, they were all very tense. “Can you understand me?” questioned the boy.

“Silence” demanded the man. He was breathing slowly and maintaining his focus with widened eyes watching all Riou’s movements.

His eyes were the same as Therese’s, a golden color with a vertical cat-like pupil. Riou could sense a great flow of mana on his body, he was completely ready to fight at full at any moment now.

“Great, you can understand me. You are beastmen right? Are you feeling my presence? Is that the problem?” said the boy who quickly restrained it again. “Usually beastmen can’t feel it like that… if I knew you guys could, I’d have turned it off before coming here” said the boy, trying to explain himself.

Everyone was astonished and glanced at each other as the presence had vanished. But nonetheless they never lost sight of the boy, nor took their weapons away.

“Do you think you can fool us, shapeshifter? We sensed you coming, trying to hide yourself now is of no use. We can still feel your wicked mana. Don’t think you’ll trick us by passing as a human boy. Kill him before he transforms!” shouted the man, as he rushed to attack followed by the others.

‘Really? Come on, can I catch a break here?’ thought Riou as he began to dodge the first spear strikes. He knew the beast men were fast and strong fighters, but these guys were something else. Probably something around Therese’s level, estimated the boy.

The constant strife by living in that world must have improved them on every aspect.

Riou used his hands to hold some of the spears and by empowering his muscles he threw some away to get some room. They were coming from all sides so Riou jumped off and away from the circle center.

But still, they were coming from every angle, right after him. He dodged every attack trying not to hurt them, Riou turned, jumped and tumbled around away from them.

“Hey! Stop this! Let’s talk it out!”

“Lion guy! Tell them to back off! I don’t wanna hurt anyone!”

“Don’t you guys ever tire!? Stop it!”

Despite his attempt not to hurt them, they weren’t showing any signs of stopping.

As that continued, Riou finally got fed up. “I don’t have time for this” said the boy getting angered “Stop this already! I mean no harm!” he shouted to them as they paid no mind for his appeals and continued desperately trying to kill him.

“Ok… you guys asked for this,” Riou reinforced himself with mana, careful enough to not kill anyone, just incapacitate for a few moments, and so he started to counter attack, punching those that came too close and blasting away with magic others that tried to approach him, keeping them back with minor wounds.

But the beastman were tough. They quickly recovered and continued coming. “Stop, listen to me!” tried the boy, as the fight escalated more and more every passing moment.

After a while at it, some were already spitting blood and had cracked bones. Despite his effort to take it easy on them, the consecutive strikes and attacks began to take effect on their bodies. But still, they were not stopping..

They fought as their lives depended on it.

Their leader was the worst of them. He threw himself with his sword many times against the boy. The lion was an outstanding fighter, perhaps the best amongst the tribe, probably even able to rival Therese in skill and power.

But still he was no match for Riou. He had been punched so many times that he was heavily bleeding and his face was already swollen all over and cut, blood ran through his nose and mouth but he just wouldn’t quit.

They were all wounded and tired, most of them couldn’t even stand up anymore and just laid down to the ground.

“Take heart!” shouted the man with the mane. “If we fall, all will be lost!” With regained resolve all the attackers began to force themselves up, once again preparing to attack. Riou realized they were too stubborn to be reasoned with and were putting their lives in danger by their recklessness.

“Hey, enough with this already, I just want to talk!” exclaimed the boy.

In unison, they came toward Riou once again with great speed, despite their wounds they tried to subdue him once again, coming from all directions towards him at once.

“I said ENOUGH!” shouted the boy, with an echoing voice of sheer anger.

By releasing all his restraints and expanding his mana with a wave of power, a fierce force blast was formed in all directions around him that hit the attackers throwing them away.

The earth beneath their feet shook and the ones at the village screamed in fear as the children cried loudly as the tents shook and some of the wooden walls fell down.

Even the clouds in the sky vanished above him, even hitting the silver lake that now showed large ripples as if a massive force struck its calm waters.

At the distance, everyone could hear the beasts and monsters rampaging away, fleeing as fast as possible.

The boy’s presence before was big but now that he was truly angered, it was terrifying.

Even the veteran fighters of the tribe, used to battle in that world, couldn’t help but to be stricken by fear of it.

They were all repelled easily and thrown away with such a fierce power that they fell down, far away from the boy, scattered.

None was able to stand, as they were all heavily wounded and shaken.

With fearful eyes they looked at the boy and glanced at their leader. The man with the mane was gravely injured but still trying to fight. With difficulty, he standed up but his limbs failed him as he once again fell to the ground.

‘I have to give it to them, they are a fucking tough bunch’ thought Riou, as he began to calm down and walk towards the brown mane man, holding his angry eyes and serious expression.

The beastmen could feel that their end had arrived. That boy defeated them with ease. Not a single strike of their best fighters landed on him, he was just too much for them.

They could do nothing but watch. Despair began to afflict every single one of them.

The boy was a monster without equal, something they had never seen before, there was no hope for them to win now it came to this.

With each step that boy made, stronger was their affliction.

Some screamed, others cried, those with a bit of strength and courage left threw whatever they could at the boy in an attempt to divert his attention from their leader.

But the boy just walked calmly towards him.

The beast man leader wouldn’t surrender. He’d fight to his last forces and would gladly bite him to death if necessary, his eyes staring back at Riou told him, the lion would never back down.

Riou stood before him, the man was laying down and still showing a burning hate in his eyes. The boy looked at him from above with wide eyes and a serious expression.

“Mass Heal” said the boy, as green light shed at everyone that was injured.

The leader looked astonished around him and at himself, his pain and swollen aching body was getting better. He was able to stand up once again.

The lion looked around as everyone was looking at their bodies as well, recovering at a miraculous rate.

He stood before the boy, confused and with suspicion, while the strange boy still looked at him with a serious expression.

Once again, the boy restrained his mana and presence and looking at the man’s eyes, he nodded and leaned his head slightly towards their leader.

Surprised by the action and recognizing his intentions, the man cautiously brought his hand towards his head.

Touching the boy’s head, his eyes flared once again. He had the same exact reaction as Therese. A moment passed as he promptly stepped back. Everyone there watched their leader with attention and entered an alert state once again. Ready to continue the fight.

After a moment, the man’s focus returned, his eyes became normal. He looked at the boy with a surprised expression.

Their leader immediately kneeled and lowered his head to the boy to everyone’s surprise.

Everyone in the village was watching it by now and one by one began to kneel and lower their heads, following their leader. They looked at each other unaware to why he was doing it, but they followed him nonetheless.

Riou could see the ones inside the village, elders, women and children leaving the tents and into the open, slowly, cautiously and they also kneeled.

“Please forgive us master… we did not know any better,” said the man with extreme deference towards Riou.

Riou was confused by his response.

“What’s your name? What are beastmen doing in this place?” questioned the boy.

“I’m Arthas, leader of this clan. We have lived here for many generations since our ancestors were banished by the great evil of the desert” replied the beast man, still kneeling and looking down.

“How long have you lived here?” questioned the boy. “What is this place?”

“We’ve been lost here too long, master. It has been many generations since our ancestors were thrown here. We are descendants of the greatest army under the white king and the hero of Allard.”

“White king? Hero… what army are you talking about?”

“They fought against the dark god in unison and fearing our might they used their foul magic to cast our ancestors into the spirit world” replied respectfully the lion.

Riou nodded. “So this is the spirit world?” Riou looked around once again. “Stand up. Show me around and tell me what you know about this place.”

Arthas finally stood up. Everyone stood up as well, watching curiously their leader spoke to the strange boy.

“After being cast into this world, our ancestors found this grove where the hunt is easier and water is abundant. They learned to fight and live in this land throughout the years. We learned that we are the safest within the forest boundaries” said the Lion while he walked the boy through the small village.

The others were following them from a distance, very curious to what they were talking about.

The first to decide to move and approach Riou were the children, led by their curiosity since Arthas was being friendly with him.

They approached, little by little while some of the others tried to hold them down. Riou threw glances at them, sometimes he’d make some strange faces, playfully trying to make them laugh.

When they were close enough Riou smiled and patted them on their heads as they looked at him in awe. Meanwhile, Arthas continued explaining.

“Our village is small because many die due the constant attacks throughout the year. The children suffer the most” said Arthas, leading Riou to a stream nearby followed by a few kids.

He noticed claw marks in the trees and stones, the beasts didn’t respect the village at all.

The water was crystal clear and erupted from some rocks. It flowed in a rather large stream.

“What is that?” questioned the boy, looking at the silver mirror lake at the sky.

“That’s the sky lake. The elders told us that it splits the spirit world in two, here and the abyss” told the man. “The most powerful beings are born in the dark abyss and some of them eventually find their way to this side.”

‘So I was falling into the abyss…’ thought the boy, remembering his dive at the sky lake.

“How do you speak the common tongue?” questioned the boy, intrigued by the beast man.

“It’s one of the teachings. Some of us must learn it, so we can communicate with the hero” replied Arthas.

“Call me Riou” said the boy. “And what is this hero, who is he?”

“As you wish master Riou. The hero is you. You are exactly as the elders described you to be. A man with a presence of a humongous proportions, a beast whose body cannot be measured, giant eyes far high in the skies that see far beyond any creature can and a maw capable of devouring the world if so he wishes.”

“Oh… really?”

Arthas nodded “But despite all its fearsome power, it will have a gentle heart” replied Arthas, as they began to return to the middle of the village.

Riou laughed. “That’s crazy stuff you know… I’m no hero nor beast as you can see… so you can drop this master thing”. As the kids seemed comfortable enough near Riou, the fighters and villagers began to approach as well, slowly becoming more comfortable and curious.

Arthas kneeled once again, immediately followed by everyone. “Please master, accept us! It has taken so long for you to come. Please let us be of service to you once again. Please lead us once more!” plead with the utmost respect and desire.

The boy looked around “Hey, there is no need for that. I was about to ask you guys to let me stay here for a while, this is the only village I found”

With a bright smile, Arthas stood up and turned towards the village and in the Beastmen language he began to shout, “The hero of Old has returned to us!” The whole village shouted in happiness and excitement.

“The legends were true! Once again we can fulfill our duty under his command, as our ancestors did before us! The prophecy has been fulfilled!”

Everyone shouted and went towards the boy wanting to touch him.

Arthas promptly stopped them and looked at Riou.

The boy nodded with a smile and sat down so even the children could reach him easily. The lion stood aside and let them approach.

Everyone was in a joyous mood after the Arthas words.

As they were coming, Riou could take a good look at them all, so much time must have passed in that village, so many generations went on that there were no longer any pure beasts or humans there. All were a mixture of races now, still sometimes one of the traits standed out and gave them a bit more of the clan’s characteristics.

Like Arthas, having the lion’s trait more predominantly, he naturally became the leader.

Everyone went through the introduction, one after the other had the same reaction. No matter how many the beastmen saw it happen before it was their turn,.

The boy built a small house with mud and fire magic, creating a relatively good house for him to sleep in and the villagers helped as they could with things he’d need. Straw, leaves and pelts to increase his comfort.

Riou ate a strange meat they served, he didn’t dare to ask what it was, but the aspect and the taste was nasty, seemed like a fishlike meat with a bitter taste.

He went to sleep soon after, he was exhausted from all that had happened that day.

--------------------------- Next morning

Riou woke up as he noticed 2 women standing guard inside his house. They had swords by their belt and were wearing the best armor he saw so far in the village.

They were all bruised up, with cuts and bandages all over their bodies and looked exhausted, as if they were fighting all night long.

The women were young, in their 20. One had golden straight hair, while the other had wavy brown hair. They were very pretty as most of the women in the village were. Riou somehow felt hints of Therese’s mannerism on both of them.

‘Do these girls have the lion traits as well?’

“What’s going on?” he asked, but they didn’t reply. They just lowered their heads in respect.

Riou walked outside the small, improvised house and both promptly followed him.

Outside there were another two girls, very similar to the ones inside. They were guarding his house door. All four of them seemed beaten up, the two outside a bit more than the other two.

Noticing him, both of them lowered their heads respectfully as well.

These two had black long hair. All four of them kinda looked like Therese in the way they moved and stood. That strange beauty of the Lioness and a very similar body shape as well, but not nearly as big or strong as the great Lioness herself, they looked like normal humans more than a Beastmen.

Arthas, seeing Riou awake and outside, promptly came to meet him.

“What’s this?” immediately questioned the boy, pointing to the girls after him.

Arthas looked at the four with quite a surprise, he talked to them for a few moments in the beastmen language and then nodded with a smile.

He turned to Riou “Master, it seems they had pledged themselves to you”

Riou was confused. “What does that even mean?”

“It’s a very old custom for the lion’s clan based on the Lionesse tradition. It means they recognized you as their true and only master” said the proud Arthas.

“Really? But we didn’t even talk… Tell them that’s really not necessary” replied the boy.

“I know master, but you must understand it in their instinct and their utmost sacred tradition. For a young lioness, to find someone worthy, a master that they can pledge themselves to, giving their body and soul, is a very rare thing to happen. Most never experience that feeling throughout their lives. Once they have it, they must follow it.”

“What? But… why, don’t I have a say on it?”

“That’s not how it works master, such honor cannot be refused”

“What? Why? And Why are they all beaten up?”

“The lioness of the village must have met during the night and fought for the right to pledge, tradition demands that only four can be granted that honor.”

Riou sighed. “Really? What are their names? They shouldn’t decide these things without asking me first. Tell them that”

Arthas spoke to them and both promptly bowed apologetically.

“The blond is Attia, the one with brown hair is Bellica and the other two are Gadora and Fabila. They understand Master, but that won’t change their minds” replied Arthas.

Riou scratched his head “And they fought amongst themselves for it?”

Arthas looked at them and talked to them for a bit in their language. He turned to Riou and continued.

“There was a fight to determine the strongest ones, then four remaining had to decide the hierarchy to serve under you.”

“And what all that has to do with them being inside my room?”

Arthas spoke with them and replied to Riou “Attia and Bellica won the fight”

“What? That explains nothing, just tell them that I don’t want anybody watching me in my sleep” said the boy as the man turned to them once again.

After he spoke with them he replied “They said it’s their wish to be there and as tradition demands…”

“Tradition, tradition, it’s not mine tradition…” he sighed “Tell them to go sleep and rest, I don’t want them all exhausted following me around”

Arthas told them and the 4 replied one after the other and then moved towards Riou taking their place behind him.

Riou looked at Arthas waiting for a response.

“They said they have no need for rest and are more than glad to serve you in any way you need” replied Arthas proudly.

“Goddamn… Fine, I don’t care anymore…” said the boy clearly annoyed, he turned towards them and raised his palm towards the girls. A green smoke appeared around the group, healing their wounds. He then turned and went towards the village center.

Riou knew if he was to stay there, the village would need some improvements. Not only on the defenses, but also in the life quality of the place as well. Unfortunately, he knew it would take him a while for him to get out of that place.

He was not using the hiding spell anymore, that way he was able to keep most monsters away from the village which gave them a good breathing room. With the use of magic he proceeded to build better walls and houses for the people there.

“Arthas, help me out with giving orders here. We need to improve this village as fast as possible so I can start scouting the region and find a way out of this place” said the boy, as Arthas joined him.

Riou looked at him “Do you have any idea how to get back?” But Arthas shook his head “The prophecy says that the hero would come and bring us back to our world”