"Hey, Um...Ora."

"Hm?"

"Do you mind if I... If I give you a kiss?"

"Eh?... what kind of question is that?"

She twirled with her hair as she faced away from him. Her face was probably riddled with blush and happiness. The girl turned around and smiled at Ora.

Much to his dismay, her face was that of Rel, moving in for a kiss and his heart skipped 10 different beats. His eyes shot open and he immediately began to sweat. What manner of cruel joke was that?

That was a nightmare..no a nightmare of nightmares. He looked around the room and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, upon hearing a burst of laughter.

It was only then that he realized, he was not going to adjust. "Alucarde!"

In this blank void of the world, light did not exist.

"...You think that's funny. Stop playing around with my dreams."

"Oh, but I needed to get your attention anyway."

"What is it?"

"I'd like you to practice your abilities. I cannot keep doing everything for you."

"But don't I already know how to these powers?"

Alucarde yawned.

"No. You only know the basics."

"Had you known how to use my powers, you would have destroyed Liver Knight."

Ora tilted his head and stroked his chin, trying to decipher who he was talking about.

"Liver knight, liver knight! the guy with the armor..."

"eh? I don't recall a liver knight amongst them."

"He was freakishly strong."

"Ah! Kars!"

"--Yes, that one"

"You mean the silver Knight."

"......."

"........."

"............"

"Anyway, I need you to begin training on your abilities. So far, you can only use about 10% of the full abilities."

Ora's eyes widened. "Eh? 10? So its not even at full power?"

Alucarde nodded. "This is the power to reshape worlds and change continents. Am I not amazing?"

Ora was lost in thought. To be given power on this scale, especially when you've come from nothing. This was something that should not have been.

But even so, he understood that as things stand right now, there are those even more powerful than him.

He needs to get stronger or else he'll one day find himself the only one left alive amongst his comrades.

"Very well. When I wake up, I'll begin training."

"No."

"Whats the big idea old man, didn't you want me to train?"

"Oi. Don't call me old."

"It'll be better if you begin training in this world. I can monitor you this way....and you won't have to worry."

"About what?"

"Scrying. There are quite a couple people who you've caught the attention of. Even if you don't realize."

"Why would that matter? With this power, no one should be able to touch me."

"I may be all powerful, but in battle, information is everything. If one watches you enough, they can learn of weaknesses and countermeasures. Don't you forget that."

"Many of the powerful fall victim to cockiness."

Ora nodded.

"Alright. So we'll first begin on your tendrils attack. How many can you create all at once."

Ora thought for a second, then immediately burst shadows from his being. Multiple different spines and spores came out of his body. In total there were 136 of them. The more numerous these giant spikes were, the thinner and smaller they became altogether.

The sizes of all of them were around the size of an arm.

This flailing amalgamation of shadows hid Ora in the center of it all, making him seem like one giant black octopus.

"I see... Impressive."

"But- now we shall see how well you control them."

Alucarde rose up from the ground he was sitting on. With both arms to the side of him, he conjured fourth 2 giant orbs. These orbs were the size of houses. They were giant.

"I'm going to ask you to hit these targets. Thread your shadows through the center of them. All of them."

"Eh? This will be a bit too easy. They're huge!"

"Are they?"

Upon closer inspection, Ora could see that they were breaking apart into various tiny golfball sized orbs. How many must there have been? 500? 1000?

Shit.

They all spread apart to reveal clearly more than a thousand. "Fly" Alucarde said, aiming his hands forward. Each of these orbs came blazingly fast at Ora.

He attempted to thread them through each of the orbs with his shadows but to no avail. They began continuously bombarding him and he had no choice but to seek refuge in his shadows. They encased around him and protected from the impact.

"This is impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible, Ora. Don't be a coward. Take these hits like one who has inherited my power!"

Insane! This isn't even about training anymore. He's just trying to kill me.

"You won't improve without pain, Ora. This pain you experience now will be so your associates will not have to later."

Huh...that statement made a lot of sense.

"Alright... Here goes."

The tendrils that had encircled around him to defend him began to twist around each other. Continuously and continuously until they were strained and could no longer twist. Its appearance was like that of a closed flower, with Ora on the inside.

Then suddenly- BOOM.

They untwisted, spinning at a very rapid pace and battering all of the incoming balls as well as thrashing outwards towards Alucarde. They became like fan blades and he had no choice but to retreat back.

"Impressive."

However such a move lacked in the defensive department. After the first initial revolutions, they become extremely slowed down, losing all the initial torque they had. And once that happens-

Alucarde appeard right behind Ora. No. Directly behind him. 1 single foot away. He was within the shadows's radius.

"Ora, do you know what I'm going to do?"

The field of orbs surrounded them both and filled the skies around them.

"In just a second, all of these balls are going to be coming right towards you. You have no choice but to thread through them."

"Try to incase yourself again, and I will be in your sanctuary and finish you off from inside."

Ora grinned. "Heh...cheap." He reluctantly prepared for the oncoming onslaught.

The first one came down upon him and before he knew it, he was bombarded and unable to protect against all of them.

In order to defend multiple ones at the same time, it required him to move all the tendrils at the same time in various controlled ways. Simply keeping track of that many appendages was impossible.

He only ever had 4 to worry about. Ora fell to the ground. His body ached and groaned.

Alucarde smiled. "You're not quite done yet. There's still the other orb."

"Y-you mean to tell me its still going on?"

Alucarde nodded. "The price for failure is to endure."

The second giant ball split into multiple tiny ones just like the first and rushed towards Ora who was already on the ground exhausted. It was a weak attempt to defend against them all. He was simply bombarded yet again.

Since this was the realm inside his mind, his injuries in this world were not existent in the real world. However, mental fatigue does not go away.

Alucarde took the time to manifest another giant ball. And another. And another. And another. And another. And another...and another.

This training...was hell.

___________________________

Ora woke up at the first hint of morning. He couldn't wait to leave that crazy lunatic. Surprisingly, he was not tired when he awoke. Perhaps, even though he was awake in that world, his body was still resting.

He had finally convinced alucarde to start smaller. Or else they would get nowhere. They tried the activity a total of 60 times before he finally agreed. Even then, towards the end he was so battered it was hard to keep up anyways.

Ora got out of his bed. This was the first time he had ever slept in one. To think it was this comfortable..

After moving everyone into the guard barracks, they all had their own rooms, facilities and even beds. It was a luxary none of them believed they could afford. Aren walked over to him as he exited the room into the halls

"Oi. Oraa!"

"Oh? Hey, Aren."

"What are you doing up so early?"

Aren pondered the answer for a second then replied. "I usually get up early. I've been exploring this place a bit more every day."

"Ah..I see"

"The wall that surrounds Essen-Sei'O is huge. I didn't know the guard barracks go all the way around."

Ora nodded. He was clearly not too interested in the conversation.

"Anyways, me and Rel and a couple others are about to head over to the hot springs they have on the base floor."

Ora seemed shocked. They even have hotsprings? What kind of wall did they build here? How many resources must have been spent?

"Hmm...I guess I should come along."

"Heh, I figured you'd say that. Let's go!"

The hot springs were huge. Easily accommodating for 20 different people. By the time he had reached there, everyone was already there and staring at the two of them coming.

"Hoho, if it isn't Ora! Nice of you to come around." Rel said beaming

Suddenly, an image flashed from his dream and he broke out in cold sweats. "Onn- second thought. I change my mind."

He slowly began to turn around before Rel hopped out of the water at blinding speeds. "OI ORA! DON'T THINK YOU CAN LEAVE!"

He picked up ora, jumped high into the sky, and slammed him into the tub with so much force that all the water rose and splashed everyone. "LIIIIGEEEER BOMMB!"

"What the hell, Rel! calm yourself down!"

Everyone scurried away from the burning water that hit them. The tub was entirely empty with Ora just laying passed out on the ground. It wasn't that he was slammed to the ground itself, just the impact with the water.

"uhh..I hit my hand." Aren groaned.

One of the guys scowled and hit rel on the head as hard as he could. Of course, all this amounted to was some light damage.

"Oi. I think you killed Ora."

Ora hadn't moved for quite a while. When suddenly a light trace amount of darkness seeped out of him.

"HIIEIEEEEE!!!" Rel jumped out of the pool and everyone followed with him, opting to escape the wrath that was clearly emanating from his body.

"Tch...RELLLLLL!"

The mountains and the skies seemed to tremble for the wrath that was coming towards them all.