As Jonakai and his army walked across the Freezelands that day, they had hoped to find the Gold Centipede and kill it so that they could reap the benefits from it that were presented by the government.

They were in the crisis plateau; which was the place that was known for not only being the house of the Gold Centpede, but also home to many other massive and dangerous creatures.

As they roamed across the plateau, Jonakai's nineteen year old son, Tyde, followed closely behind his father as many other lead militants did.

"I can almost feel his presence..." Jonakai said in reference to the Gold Centipede.

"I'd hope so!" Called out Maylin, a leading officer called out while fighting off a Gronin. Gronins were purple beasts that had green spots. They had the body of a salamander, however they were nearly nine feet long and could switch between all fours and bipedal. They had short, stubby arms but razor sharp claws. Their head, which was completely purple, was almost that of a dinosaurs; however, around it's neck area was a massive flower-petal like neck brace composed of scales. All Gronins had these, and it separated their appearance from the other types of massive lizard-like creatures.

Maylin and many other officers and regular army men had been fighting off animals like this and many others that were even more dangerous for two hours in this plateau.

They were extremely annoyed that the Gold Centipede hadn't made it's appearance, but mostly, they were made at Jonakai, who had given that grand speech the night prior about a fierce attack on the Gold Centipede in which the army would prosper, and that they would go out on the plateau and take it out swiftly, and that they were on the final stretch and they'd be done soon...

However, looking around the plateau as it was now, this speech looked like a complete fabrication.

Tyde, Jonakai, and just about every officer, militant, or army man was fighting off some sort of monster. Abilities and weapons were flying around the battlefield seemingly like a tornado. People were screaming, crying, shouting, and mostly in distress.

There had already been a few hundred casualties and the day had barely started.

Jonakai was fighting off the biggest Gronin that had appeared that was about triple the size of a regular one. He was using his power strain, known as Lightning Oracle, to fight him off.

One of the abilities allowed him to map out a chosen vicinity that doesn't exceed his range, all with his hand. Essentially, he sticks his arm all the way out and lays his hand flat with his fingers spread out. If he puts down his thumb for a second and brings it back up, it represents an extremely powerful lightning strike that strikes within the field in front of him. Since it is his thumb on his right hand, it strikes on the left, however, he can choose where the bolt comes in that specific area, whether that be close left, mid left, or far left.

The Gronin Jonakai was fighting was very fast and was able to dodge these strikes as it came closer and closer to Jonakai. After seeing lightning strikes targeting it, t started to stay closer to the ground so it had more time to react.

The Gronin kept getting closer and it seemed like it would come close to Jonakai and strike him. However, Jonakai had an ace up his sleeve.

He turned his hand, palm side up, and then struck where the Gronin was now by performing the same finger down and up technique. Lightning now came up from the ground instead of the sky, and with this, it was a faster strike since the base of the strike was on the ground.

And it hit dead on the Gronin, and launched it up into the air.

With the Gronin now in the air, electrically shocked, and not being able to react quickly, Jonakai dashed towards it, nearly at the speed of lightning, and clenched his fist for his main attack.

Before he even reached the body of the Gronin, he took his arm back and then swung his fist in like a punch in the direction of the Gronin.

A bold, bright, and massive lightning strike came from his fist and hit the Gronin.

The Gronin was no more.

As Jonakai landed, he dodged the blood of the Gronin that was raining down on him. He smirked and let out a feint sigh just to affirm himself that his battle with the monster was over.

He looked over to his left with a smile and saw his son Tyde fighting a massive butterfly with sharp fangs.

Tyde's power strain was known as Spinsharp, and it was utilized as such:

When he did a 360 spin, the damage he would perform with an attack would double from the base. If he did two, it'd be triple, and three would be quadruple, etc.

When he hit, the next attack would be base damage, so the attack damage would basically reset after each hit.

And if he did not attack within six seconds of the first 360 spin, the multiplier would reset too.

As of then, he could only manage to pull off 13 spins in six seconds, in which he still didn't always reach because that was the maximum. He tried to limit himself on spinning too much in those six seconds too because he didn't want to get too queasy. He had grown accustomed to it, but he mostly did it so that it wouldn't interfere with the battle.

It's safe to say that his power was limiting. After all, he didn't choose his power.

But he was working to overcome the hardships faced with a power with these kinds of limitations, and it showed his commitment to being a warrior.

Every day, he trained to do a few things; to spin faster, to have better strength overall, and to extend the expiry time. Specifically, he wanted to extend the expiry time so that he could pre-charge massive attacks, or trick the enemy into thinking the multiplier had been reset when it reality he was just saving the attack.

As the massive mutant butterfly dodged his regular sword swings, Tyde realized he had to use his strain after all.

As he was fighting the butterfly with his massive metal blade, he had studied his movements and how he reacted to certain moves that he performed. That is when he finally did four spins, multiplying his attack damage by five times, and swung at the butterfly.

He had almost hit, but the butterfly went left more than he expected.

He jumped back and spun only twice this time. He wanted to see if the butterfly would change up his movements, and he wanted to figure this out quickly, and thought maybe two spins would do the trick anyway.

As he swung again, he nearly hit the butterfly again, but just missed it because it moved more right.

Left, right. Tyde thought to himself.

He spun three times and had four seconds to spare. He lunged straight in the middle of the butterfly and analyzed which way it moved.

Left.

That is when Tyde jumped back, allowed the butterfly to reposition, and then went for a quick and rough strike.

All with just a second to spare.

He swung very hard right, and slashed through the butterfly like butter.

He had predicted it's movements in a way; it had went left once and then alternated right; and as the pattern reset back to left, he ended up striking right based on the first pattern;

And he was right.

Tyde smirked and looked to his right, only to see his father smiling and clapping.

Tyde's confident smirk then turned into a wholesome smile.

Although these two were smiling, the same could not be said for everyone else on the battlefield who was fighting these other creatures, some being severely injured, and some dying.

"You did good. Took you a bit but you did end up getting it. But as my son at this age, I expect monsters like that to be small fry that you just wash to the side, don't ya think?"

Tyde looked around, ignoring what his father said as it seemed like the least important thing to him at the moment. He then looked back at his father with a serious expression. "No time to waste! We've got people to save" he exclaimed, taking off and running.

Jonakai gritted his teeth and then gave out a sigh.

Tyde's eyes fixed on a fellow soldier fighting a Gronin, and he charged into deliver an attack.

However, in a flash, a great rumbling occurred.

Tyde stopped in his tracks and looked over worryingly at Jonakai.

Everyone on the battlefield, including the monsters, stopped completely.

And then the monsters went into the ground or flew in the opposite direction, away from the source of the rumbling.

Just about four hundred feet from Tyde and Jonakai, the massive Gold Centipede darted out of the ground, flying upwards, head first, straight up into the sky.

"HE WAS HOW BIG?" Tero questioned curiously.

Jonakai snickered. "Big, son. Too big."

"The worm came up fast and mighty, destroying snow and ice in it's path like it was nothing, debris flying everywhere, snow flying everywhere, and worst of all...people. My soldiers."

Tero's curious expression then turned serious.

"Several hundred people died from the damn thing just rising from the ground. It took around three minutes for it to fully come up. It was going up rather slow, but it was so big that slow meant several dozen feet a second." Jonakai's face was now melancholy.

"Many things happened in those three minutes. A little too much. Tyde..."

Jonakai paused. He was now looking at the ground with a grim expression. His eyes were fixated to the ground for several seconds, and each second he opened his mouth to say something new, but the words never came out.

"Your brother...Tyde, rushed towards the centipede, spinning, looking to get some damage in and... when it finally stopped going up, and it was looking face up at the sky, ranging from hundreds to a thousand feet, it was clear what was going on."

Tero paused and stared at his father.

"It started to fall forward. Thousands of my army men were in it's path...one including my son."

Jonakai eyes widened as he recalled the events. Tero sat serious and listened attentively.

"Not even my lightning speed could compare to the speed of the beast falling. I went in to save Tyde. He was sprinting fast towards me, and we met about halfway under the beast's falling body. I grabbed his hand, and I used my lightning speed to bolt out of the centipede's range."

Jonakai looked up and met Tero's gaze. There weren't any tears in Jonakai's eyes, but there was also no life.

"And as we finally made it out of the range, I looked back to see how far we were away from it's head. We had finally made it!" Jonakai then looked down again.

"But Tyde had already been crushed completely by the centipede. I had felt the grip of his hand...he must have been just a few inches away from escape...we..no...he was so close to escaping..."

Tero's expression of concern then turned to a horrified face. He had known that these stories were dark, but he did not realize the extent of them.

He always knew that his older brother had died. He just didn't know how. From what he remembers, it was something to do with battle.

But this was what Tero never imagined.

Tero's face became more sorrowful and grim as he pictured the story, but these dark pictures that he was imagining soon stopped forming as his father continued to tell the story.

"Losing my son that day had been the worst anger, grief, and sorrow that I had ever experienced. I used those emotions to unleash all my power against the beast and ultimately kill it. It took several minutes. But I was finally able to kill it."

Jonakai got up from his chair and spoke again. "I received the rewards, but nothing could compensate for the loss of my son."

Tero started tearing up.

"Thousands of my soldiers had been killed on the expedition, and the bounties that were put up for the Gem Beasts were slowly taken away because of this. Not only did I lose my son, but the King lost his Grandson. He realized the devastating effects of a bounty system like this."

"I also disbanded my army and settled here to focus on family instead."

Tero sighed. Everything his father was saying was too much to bear.

"He seemed really cool. I wish I got to know him." Tero said.

Jonakai half smiled. "Me too. Now as for your other brother..."

Tero had instant flashbacks of his brother. The one that was closest to him in age, only being five years older than him.

"His name was Temiente." Jonakai stated.