In the middle of a peaceful range of hills, covered by grassed gently brushed sideways by the late afternoon wind, a mysterious door was standing. A heavy door, made out of dark wood with a strong metallic frame. Furthermore, the two handles were replaced by massive golden rings, giving it a surprising prestigious aura.

Without any warning, the door opened, introducing two young people in this calm scenery.

The first arrived was a boy, despite his young face and bright skin ton, he possessed white hair and scarlet eyes. Wearing a unicolour white T-shirt under an open black jacket and a classic pair of jeans, he arrived in this new environment like it was natural, and took out a small book that was attached to his belt.

After him, a girl entered. Her long hairs, matching the colour of her companion eyes, blew slightly upon contact with the wind. Her gold and silver eyes were fixed on the boy, releasing a subtle mix of annoyment and expectation, surely due to his indifference toward her outfit, as she chooses to come wearing only a short black top and a matching legging.

However, something on the horizon quickly caught her eyes…

Struggle#16

Objective: Slay the Copper Wolf

Sub-objective: none

Here we are, in another struggle. After a few relaxing days, we made our goodbye, with a tear in our eye, and we parted ways, once again. I really missed this little ball of kindness. Sigh… and I’ll probably miss her a lot this time too, until the 20th struggle, where we’ll all meet again.

In the meantime, we’ll have to face whatever danger comes in our way, and with this adventure, I am prepared for the worst of the… wait, the objective is already completed?

…

Wow, that was easy!

“Hey! Alice! Good news!”

“…”

“We won’t have to do anything, this struggle is already terminated!”

“…”

"I wonder what happened to the wolf though… did somebody kill it? That would be too much of a coincidence, right?"

“…”

“Hey, why aren’t you answering?”

She didn't say anything, instead, she just pointed to something on the horizon. That's really far... I focused my sight, and started to discern the shape of a woman. Slim figure, long black hair, she was wearing a white kimono, and walking toward us, with something on her back.

Wait, the thing she’s carrying, isn’t that…

“Good morning youngsters!”

Behind us!

I quickly jumped away. Readying myself for combat.

The woman, she got behind us in an instant!

To my surprise, Alice didn’t move at all.

Seeing it up close, there is no doubt, she's carrying the corpse of the Copper Wolf. What is going on? And why Alice doesn't seem surprised at all?

“Master…”

“What?”

“I guess it’s fair to call me like that… So, this is my part of the deal.”

She dropped the wolf in front of us.

So... she was the one killing it. For us.

Meaning that she knew it was our objective, and helped us. Moreover, she did that even before we arrived, so she had the information before we arrived… this is not normal, something is off.

“Eve is sending me again.”

Well, I guess that explains a few things.

“You know Eve? Who is she? No wait, who are you? Oh! Alice told me about you! At here 6th struggle, you are…”

“Kunan. The one and only.”

“…”

“Haha, just joking. Alice, who is this brat?”

“Samsy, my… hum, friend.”

She didn't answer my questions... but I'm too intimidated to ask it again. Nonetheless, I relaxed my stance a bit, as she was clearly not an enemy.

“Master, why are you here.”

“Good question, Alice. I am here to continue your training. You convince me of your potential, and I was told you are ready for the second phase.”

“Second phase?”

“Yes! Now is the time for you to learn real techniques!”

I don't know why, but this conversation is scaring me. Alice learning ‘real techniques'? She will never stop to grow, will she?

This was going fast, at least for me. Alice was apparently fine, and had already accepted the turn of event. Well, if I remember correctly, it’s not that different than the first time they trained.

I felt a tremendous and dark energy surging toward me.

Without realizing it I was already a few meters away. My body simply jumped back by pure instinct.

What the…

"Oh my! Your friend is not as useless as I thought! Even though… anyway! Thanks for giving up some space!… Sally, was it?!"

“It’s… sigh… okay!”

What has she done to me? Did she just try to kill me?

To top it all, Alice was about to burst out in laughter after hearing her master call me 'Sally'.

Sigh… I guess I'm on my own until they finish their business. I don't really like this, but Alice seems to be playing along, and the mother Kunan is probably not someone you want to disagree with. Maybe I'll ask her some question about their family later, I really want to know their secret. Maybe they are from an old session!

We know that it could be possible, but also, and more importantly for me, that would be pretty cool…

Anyway, this can wait, if Alice is training, I might as well be productive too.

My priority is to get back the entirety of my power, I still have the past vision, but as for the future one, I’m still blocked.

I hope it won't take too long though...

“Alright, I told you before, I’m no teacher, so it’ll go the hard way, are you ready?”

With Samsy away, the training could start. Alice felt the air getting heavy, and breathing became more and more difficult.

She sparred with Mother Kunan only once, but it left a strong impression on her. Deep inside her, she felt it, that this woman was an existence that reached the pantheon of power. However, for an inexplicable reason, she wasn’t overwhelmed. It was even the opposite, it was exciting.

Alice was about to answer the question, but her instinct kicked in a split second before. She suddenly bent down forward, but nothing happened.

No sound or blow of wind was felt.

“I guess that’s a yes. Maybe this one was too obvious, but it would be a shame to end this too soon. I acknowledged you after all.”

“What… what was that?”

“The first technique you will learn today.?Space Cut?”

Alice finally remarked the katana on her master waist. There was no sheath, the weapon was attached with a sort of long ruban used as a belt. She had it the first time they met, but at that time Kunan didn't use it at all.

She said ‘Space Cut'… did she just use it?

“Haha, I see you’re looking at Odenta. Don’t worry, I won’t use it. She wouldn’t allow it anyway.”

“She? Wait, you…”

“Is this really question time.”

Still down, Alice sensed the same danger as before. She immediately dodged by rolling on her right.

What is this? How is she attacking her?

She got up, and started to understand.

On the ground, where she was just an instant ago. There was a couple of her hairs splattered on top of the grass. She must be using an air slash or something similar.

Kunan smiled, and lifted up one of her fingers.

Alice had no idea what to expect, this will definitely be dangerous for sure, and deep inside her, she felt it. The monster sleeping inside her, the origin of her talent. Yes, she could feel it, the monster was waking up.

Everything went dark.

“Aaaaargh!”

A net cut passed on her face, through her two eyes, and shutting down her vision.

Despite the sharp pain, the adrenaline kept her focus enough to dodge another strike and create some distance.

The strike was too fast, and she was blinded, but that wasn't the worst. It wasn't the first time she gets injured, and it always hurt like hell, but this… this wasn't the same.

She kept jumping and dodging, and at this point, it was more random than anything.

Her injury was taking an awfully long time to heal, but it was slowly getting there.

Slash!

"Haha, it's harder when I lower the bloodthirst, right?"

Hit on the left shoulder! But it didn't matter, her eyes were functional again.

Enough of being on the receiving hand, it was time to counter-attack.

Alice drew out her own weapon, Samsy’s silver dagger.

She ran toward Kunan, who gently moved her finger away.

She jumped.

High.

Going way above her master.

With a hint of surprise, Kunan kept her finger pointed, and draw a circle while turning herself around, sending her mysterious air slash at Alice.

No, at where Alice should have been.

?Air Jump?

She redirected her jump, propelling herself toward the ground at a tremendous speed.

?Ascending Crescent?

The dagger went through the earth, and a cloud of dust and grass burst into the air.

As expected, it was evaded.

“Nice, I see you’ve already mastered the fitness basics. But you sure are taking your time for this.”

Her shoulder had just finished regenerating, but another cut spurged some blood in the air once again.

Obviously, Kunan was playing with Alice. The whole purpose of this was to teach her, but since the start, she was only on the receiving hand of invisible strikes. It shouldn't be a problem, Alice should be able to assimilate her technique, like she always does.

However, it was different than anything she has ever seen before, and not because her master was too fast for her senses to follow. The main reason was the nature of the techniques, it wasn’t just an air slash, it was a space slash. It didn’t cut through matter itself, but the space occupied by it. Simply, it was a blade skill capable of cutting any physical thing at sight, without any limitation of toughness or range.

Kunan was holding back, only inflicting small injury to her pupil, but she was theoretically able to split her in half with a finger slash.

Well, a finger ‘space’ slash.

This power was a threat for the balance of the world itself, and even Kunan spend decades to achieve it. There is no way a newcomer would learn it in less than a week.

Right?

The last 4 days were… calm, I guess? Counting out the occasional explosion on the neighbour hill, nothing disturbed my own training.

The plan was simple: getting back my power.

It failed brilliantly.

Seeing that I couldn't make any progress, I concluded it wasn't the right time, and focused on the power I had. Fortunately, I managed to make some progress, now I don't only see ghost, but the entire scenery, with real sound and colour.

Turns out that a lot of blood has been spilt on those hills, a long time ago.

Although, I don’t know the date at which the vision take place, unless there is a mention of it inside. I can more or less tell if it was yesterday, or centuries ago, but it’s really not precise.

It was actually thanks to Haru that I had this breakthrough, I remembered what she said about our Virtue, and how it can make us grow, so I tried to express my humility. A really easy task for me, I just had to remember all the time I lost against one of the crew, and it happened a lot. Thus, I dived into myself and found a genuine sentiment of gratitude toward the world and all the external element I depend on.

However, I might have gone too far.

I wanted to talk with Val, so I took my Quest Book out.

Quest Book - Samsy, the Sear of Humility

This book gives struggles relatives to Samsy's Quest. Further information unavailable.

Divine Object - Indestructible - Owned by Samsy

A reddish semi-transparent frame popped out on top of the book.

That’s spooky…