"Rudi, how is the mine progressing?" An old sinister man asked.

"Master, those kids are doing not bad. They have actually mined for at least two hundred or so meters down. Maybe even three hundred meters. Not to mention, it's only because we are giving them such expensive pickaxes to use." Rudi proudly cried out.

"Did I not warn you to immediately notify me when the mine had approached approximately two hundred and fifty meters?" Budeen became ruthlessly angered by the fact that Rudi did not notify him. His face actually showed hints of worry.

Noticing his master's temper, Rudi couldn't help but cry out,"I am sorry for such a blunder. This will not happen again."

"Hmmph, get down there and tell them to stop mining. Gather them up here and kill them. They have no use to us anymore." Budeen gave out his order.

"Yes, master! I will immediately gather them up and kill them right here as you requested." Rudi ran as fast as he could down the mine.

"That fool! If he screws up and I find that my soul nectar was consumed, he's going to wish he was dead." Budeen cried out ruthlessly.

Being a sixth stage septem user, he had been stuck at the biggest bottleneck of his life. It was due to his business of selling young girls for profit did he accumulate an enormous amount of wealth.

It was during Budeen's younger days did he discover through written old documents that there was a thing called soul nectar. The nectar was able to make people move past their bottleneck and strengthen their soul. It was recorded that some people were even able to get to the seventh septem stage in just a day if they had enough soul nectar.

But Budeen ignored it because it was just a thing of the past and had nothing to do with him. What benefit was it for him if something that precious was already all used up. Not to mention, the people from the past had surely searched through thick and thin for such a thing.

It was during his mid sixties that he became compelled to find a way to get him to the seventh stage. Being only at the sixth septem stage, he would surely die from old age like any other person. Heck, there were a lot of sixth stage septem user on the continent, but only so few would be able to reach the seventh stage.

Sometimes, Budeen even thought of his past choices. He had gone greedy and didn't fuse just one thing like the majority of people. He had actually fused with three different things! Surely, that had prevented him from reaching the seventh stage.

It's through his regular customers did he learn that he would have a chance. It turns out, one of his customers actually had a soul nectar indicator device. By pouring in soul energy, the device would give a signal to its wielder's soul. You could say that the device was his family relic. Only by paying him an extravagant price was Budeen actually able to get the item off of the greedy bugger.

With renewed hope, Budeen had travelled across his entire hometown continent of Vernon with the soul nectar device. But just as he had thought, there was no soul nectar. But how can a persistent man like himself give up? So he decided to go to Keshiktas. It wasn't long until he had once again turned up with nothing.

With Xenodan as his last hope, Budeen prayed that the Gods would answer his call. Luckily enough, it was here in a rural mountainside did his soul nectar indicator suddenly tugged upon his soul and indicated that the soul nectar was within two hundred and fifty meters.

He had struck gold! It had taken him twenty years of traveling around the whole world just to find the soul nectar. Being careful, he had decided to have kids mine for him as the blind kids would be forced to follow orders.

If it was an adult or grown man, surely they wouldn't be scared to grow suspicious and steal his treasure once they found it.

That was why he had kidnapped kids to do such a task. There was only stone slabs, no gold at all. How could he get rid of suspicion other than using someone like Rudi to fill his sadistic needs while also making it seem like a torture mine for the kids.

Since he was going to kidnap some boys, why not also some girls? After all, he was a slave merchant back in the days in Vernon. With that, Budeen was going to get his nectar, some girls, and some money if he sold the girls. You could say that Budeen had it all. He was going to become a seventh stage septem combatant and be immortal. What could possibly go wrong?

"Master Budeen, I've brought all of them." Rudi had returned.

There were fourteen boys who were all nervous and yet curious at the same time for them to be called up together like this. Only when they did not meet their daily requirements were they brought up together like this. So what could possibly be the reason?

It was only after they had heard Rudi call the sinister looking old man in front of them "Master Budeen" did they understand. They were riled up together due to the command of this Budeen.

"Have you kids found a certain kind of liquid while mining?" Budeen said sinisterly. His voice surely did give you the creeps.

"What liquid? Why would there be liquid?" The kids all but chimed in.

"Can it be that the white liquid that I found is the thing he was looking for?" Kioxe pondered. Surely, the liquid could be called a treasure and during his mining, he had never found anything worth mining for.

"You there, come here." Budeen pointed at Kioxe.

"I saw the look in you eyes, tell me did you find some kind of liquid while mining?" Budeen asked politely. But in reality, he was ready to pounce the boy and slice him in half if Kioxe were to have taken his liquid.

"Master Budeen, I did indeed did see a tiny puddle of white liquid, but....." Kioxe tried to word it properly.

"But what?" Budeen shrieked. He immediately had thought that Kioxe had taken in his soul nectar and was going to say,"You touched it and it went inside of you?"

When Kioxe cried,"The mine collapsed and I barely got out in the nick of time. Isn't that so guys?"

"Yeah, we all saw the corridor collapsed." Another kid chimed in and saved Kioxe in the nick of time.

"Phew!" Budeen breathed out. He was relieved beyond imagine to know that his soul nectar was still there.

Budeen then looked at Rudi menacingly. "If it wasn't for the fates choosing to side with me, I would've lost my soul nectar." With but a pounce, Budeen had use his claws to swipe upon Rudi. At such an astonishing speed, Rudi had lost both of his legs without resistance."After I find my soul nectar, I'll deal with you. Marco! Come here and kill all of these kids! I'll be going to the mine for a short moment."

"Was that a combination of the cheetah and bear? That speed and power really was amazing." Kioxe could only sigh in his heart. As he looked at the wailing Rudi with pity. Although his eyes were able to follow up on what had transpired, he wasn't so sure he would be able to dodge Budeen's pounce at such close range or have his buckler out in time to deflect Budeen's claws. "Good thing I didn't choose to escape long ago."

After Marco had arrived, Budeen had made sure that Marco had heard what he had said. "You see Rudi there, he didn't listen to me. So you better kill these kids and notify me if anything happens. Let no one through this mine!" Budeen shouted. Budeen wasn't going to let his chance to attain the soul nectar slip by. Much less have anyone near this mine. Budeen then quickly turned and left towards the mine.

"Now won't you look at that? The sadist just became the masochist? Why the sudden change?" Marco was putting dirt upon Rudi.

"Ahhhh F*** you!" Rudi replied as he continued to wail in pain.

"As for you kids, although I'm not fond of getting my hands dirty like Rudi, I'll still obey orders." Marco stared at the boys like a preying hawk. His hands immediately grew out six sharp bladed talons and his back grew out two enormous wings.

Seeing as he was about to attack, Kioxe decided to wait for the right moment. Right when Marco's talons were about to rip off two of the boys' head, Kioxe sent out his Nahlia at Marco, while his buckler in front of the two boys.

*splat* *splat*

Nahlia pierced through Marco. At the same time, Marco's left talon was able to rip off one of the boy's head.

"What?" Marco stared in shock at the hole in his belly. "Who?" *splat* as Nahlia turned back around and sliced through Marco's head.

"It's a shame I couldn't save the other boy." Kioxe thought. His buckler after all was a buckler, which was relatively small and would only have been able to save the lucky guy closest to Kioxe.

"We're free, run!" Kioxe declared as the boys around him were still shocked.

"F-f-Freedom!" The twelve other boys yelled in unison. "We are free!" They couldn't believe their luck. They had all accepted their unlucky fates, but it was Kioxe that had turned it around.

Wasting no time at all, the twelve boys immediately ran away as fast as they could. As for Kioxe, he ran towards the really large stone shack.

When he had arrived and gotten whipped by Rudi, he had still saw where Marco had taken Sasha and Lily. Although it has been three years, he hoped they were still alive and well.

Although there were still some henchmen who worked for Budeen outside the mine, all Kioxe had to do was see and hear where all of them was and kill them with Nahlia. They were at most third stage septem users but held no chance against Kioxe who could kill a fifth stage septem user. After having Nahlia slaughter every single one of the henchmen in half, Kioxe continued his way towards the stone shack.

"Die Boy!" A man suddenly popped out of the ground and blew several darts, which completely caught Kioxe out of guard. Although Kioxe was able to block most of the darts with his buckler, there was still one where it changed directions midway and impaled Kioxe's right arm. That one dart that was able to actually impale Kioxe was the moleman's dart septem.

"You die!" Kioxe screamed in rage. It was the first time someone had injured him today and it was mostly due to his fault for not being more aware of his surroundings.

Nahlia was able to slice the moleman's head in half right before he was going to dive back in his hole. Truly, Kioxe was going to listen more carefully to his surroundings as he could've dodged the darts. After pulling the needle out of his right arm, Kioxe quickly continued running towards the shack.

Seeing as there were a couple chains tied in front of the door, Kioxe quickly slashed it with Nahlia and barged in.

"Eh?" A few dozen girls stared at the ten years old boy.

Looking around, Kioxe decided to cut the chains on all of the girls. Though upon not seeing Sasha or Lily, Kioxe couldn't help but be saddened. They were probably sold long ago.

"Excuse me, is that you Kioxe?" A soft voice came around the corner.

It was an older Lily, most definitely! There was no doubt about it that the ten year old blonde in front of him was her. Rushing over, Kioxe quickly cut the chains apart and hugged Lily.

"I'm glad you're safe Lily." Kioxe cried. "What about Sasha?" As Kioxe quickly noticed that he had yet to see a trace of Sasha.

"After we came here, she was quickly sold off to someone." Lily had tears in her eyes.

"Oh....I'm sorry....." Kioxe comforted the girl.

Finding some way to change the topic, Kioxe said,"Let's get out of here before Budeen comes." Kioxe then helped get Lily up and ran towards the east. Seeing as Lily was so weak and fragile and was unable to keep up, Kioxe picked her up and carried her princess style.

"Eh?" Lily couldn't help but blush. Kioxe had came and saved her like a knight in shining armor. He then picked her up in such a dreamy way. Who couldn't help but feel their heart swain?

"Hmmmr? Are you sick? It'll be okay once I get you to a town. We can get you some medicine there." Kioxe continued running, oblivious to why Lily was blushing.

Author's Note:

I've noticed that my phone auto correct words that I don't want a lot and that I sometime accidentally put in words by accident, so please point out sentences that may not make sense as I was able to spot a few (probably not all) after rereading my chapter.

Also, I hope you all enjoy as I'm sure it'll get much, much interesting from now on (I’ll also make this story kind of steady and not like the tragedy that came out of nowhere; Kane was more of like a character that I could show that death is always near & least when you expect & that the world is not so always safe). :D