“Boy” Exidium’s voice boomed, but only I could hear him. “Their contracts are incomplete. If they were complete, their power would increase by a large margin.”

Incomplete contracts? How did such a thing come about? All I had to do to respond to him was to think.

“They haven’t been fully accepted by the contracted beast, and can’t communicate with their beasts like you or Lux can.”

Is there a way to fix that? I must’ve looked strange, as I haven’t answered their plea, and simply remained there thinking to myself.

“If you bring them into the Starless World, I’ll be able to take care of everything from there. Don’t worry, a simple touch will do.” He still insisted on teasing me, after making me believe that I had to kiss Lux in order to bring her to the Starless World.

“Come here.” Confused, they simply gathered around me.

One at a time or all at once?

“One at a time works.”

I stuck my arm out and placed my hand on Maximus’s shoulder. In the next instant we were both in a different realm, surrounded by a faint darkness. “Welcome to the Starless World.” Exidium welcomed the confused man, who hadn’t realized that there was a Lion next to him. The lion had fierce golden eyes that were taking in it’s surroundings. It’s golden fur shined through the darkness and was like a beacon of light.

The lion recognized Exidium as soon as he saw him, and immediately sat down and lowered his head, as sign of respect towards the dragon. “Justitia. I’m surprised you’re still alive.”

“Old friend, I’m not known as Justitia any longer. I’m now Exidium. When I returned to from the Dark Realm all those years ago, I couldn’t bear to let you see me the way I was. I created some havoc and disappeared from the sight of others.”

“So it was you that injured the two divine birds.”

“Two divine birds?” I interjected into their reunion.

“The Phoenix and the Cryophoenix. They’re known as the two divine bird sisters. They’re as old as time itself, and that old dragon over there somehow put them into a rather sorry state.” The Lion explained to me, and the confused Maximus continued to just watch.

“They mistook me for a daemon who made his way into the spirit realm, and I exercised a bit of power to make them stay away. That’s in the past. Validus, will you do me a favor and entrust your power to that boy?”

“No. I won’t. Not even for you. If he wants my magic and power, he’ll have to complete a trial on his own. Teamwork is valuable, but having your own strength is just as important. If he wants my power he’ll have to pass a test that I’ll impose on him.” The lion wasn’t about to give out his power for no reason.

“I’ll take on whatever challenge you have to throw at me.” Maximus answered without a moment to hesitate. There was no fear within his eyes, and he was going to face whatever he had to. “I need more power to protect my friends. I was shown that there is too much of a difference between myself and a true elite.”

“True elite?” Exidium chuckled, “Kid, you simply shouldn’t compare yourself to such a freak. This boy isn’t something that Validus’ power can help you catch up to.”

“Freak? That’s pretty mean.” I pretended to be offended but I knew what he said was true. I’m far off from normal, between my excessively strong contract and daemon blood from a Sovereign of Hell. There was no way that even Lux could compare to my full strength, what’s to say about these people with incomplete contracts.

In truth Maximus probably couldn’t fathom my true strength. Even I didn’t really know my limits right now, because of the fact that nothing since the Labyrinth a few years back has been able to challenge me. The 250 people who came looking for us a while back, I would have fought them if Lux wasn’t there, but since I couldn’t be assured of her safety I opted to flee instead.

After a few minutes of them catching up with one another, they said their goodbyes and the world began to fade back to the original one.

“How much time has passed?”

“What do you mean? Not more than a few seconds.” Amethyst replied, not knowing what was going on with me. I continued to drag them one by one into the starless world, and there were some different reactions to them seeing Exidium.

Apparently, The twins had been contracted to the Divine Birds, and they were both petrified at the sight of the mighty black dragon. They remembered clearly what had happened to them, and were still slightly resentful of what had happened. The Phoenix’s reaction was much more... Violent than that of the Cryophoenix.

She had attempted to shoot some flames at him, to which had no effect.

This was his realm. He was basically omnipotent here. A little flame wouldn’t be able to hurt him in the first place, since she didn’t use all her power.

After failing, she became much more docile, and then listened to what Exidium had to say. All three of their responses, including the hydra were the same. The hydra was about the same size as Exidium, but recognized him immediately, and referred to him as his own brother. It seems the two had known each other like him and the lion.

No matter what, each of the 4 wanted to know what their power was alone. They wanted to know that they could be trusted with their power, and they wouldn’t just rely on their teammates all the time. My appearance furthered that thought process. A team is only strong as their weakest link, but if they’re all weak, it doesn’t matter if they’re in a team or not.

I don’t know why, but Exidium trusted me with all his power off the bat. Maybe he saw something in me that I couldn’t. Even if he didn’t, I would still have showed him my strength in my two years in hell.

Lux might have been the same, but I wasn’t sure how her relationship with the griffin, Salus, was. Maybe she also got immediate access to her full power, maybe she had to earn it like these guys had to.

By the time I had finished bringing them to Exidium, all of them knew their task. They all had the same one, but would have to work on it by themselves. Each one of them would have to rely on their own power to kill an orc. No magic was allowed to be used.

“How are we supposed to do that?” The twins were at a disadvantage when it came to close quarters combat, and would have a lot of trouble dealing with an orc without the help of Maximus or Virgil.

Not just the girls, I don’t think any of the four of them were in condition to be able to take down an orc alone. They would need a lot of training, in both body and technique. An orc was one of the higher tier monsters within the labyrinth. The minotaur could be considered to be a medium class monster, and goblin was a low tier. This would be a difficult task for them. Especially since they were used to working in a team.

“I’ll help you.” Lux and I both said at the same time.

To make it easier, I was going to train the two guys, and she would take the two girls. It was simpler that way. My training methods were better suited for them, while Lux knew how to make the girls stronger. They would need to put a lot of effort in if they wanted to make it through my painful training. I wasn’t sure how much of a burden Lux would put on the Twins, but I knew she wasn’t about to go easy on them.

“Why don’t we make it a little interesting,” A smirk found it’s way onto my face, “How about we have a little challenge every couple weeks until they’re ready. Boys will spar against the girls. 1 on 1 of course, because teamwork holds no value in the upcoming challenge for you all.”

It gave them an alternative incentive to get stronger, rather than trying to best an orc, which was way too far out of their league, they would get stronger in increments, making it an easier time for them. It was also a way for me and Lux to have a “friendly” competition to see who could train their pair better.

“That’s a pretty good idea. Just don’t complain too much when your boys loose. ‘Kay Dusk?”

“Who said that they’re going to lose? Your girls aren’t going to be too much of a problem. There shouldn’t be any problem since you’re a strong girl, right Dawn?” A friendly rivalry. It must’ve caused quite the stir to our new pupils, because a flame lit in their eyes and they looked to be ready for war.

My training regiment was anything but nice. It was kind of like the training I went through during the four years I spent isolated in the mountains. Physical strength and sparring. I made one of them spar with me, and the other improve his physique by running, lifting something heavy, or both at the same time. For the sparring, I went rather easy on them, but wouldn’t let them hit me. Their movements were sloppy at first on their own, and wouldn’t know what to do after being repelled by me again and again.

They would switch every hour, and would have a break once a day for an hour or two while Lux and I went out to complete some missions. Their break lasted as long as we were gone, so they might’ve prayed we took on a mission that was a bit more difficult some days.

Their movement improved over the first couple weeks, and showed signs of increasing their control over their techniques as we continued to spar. My attacks and methods of defense shifted every time we sparred and wouldn’t let them get comfortable with any style of fighting. They had to think on their feet rather than devise strategies ahead of time.

When the competition came around, I was ready for them to win with ease. The result after each one of them encountered one of the twins? Both of them were crushed. They were beaten mercilessly. Why? I had no idea and when I asked Lux what kind of training these two went through, she gave me a pretty smile and said, “It’s a secret~”