Throne room of Zhard, Drakke Empire

“Your Majesty! My men can take care of this! There is no reason to send that weak succubus!” Byakko roared. Byakko, one of the four kings of the Drakke Empire, had recently heard of Kianis’ response to the ‘Bright Night’ phenomenon and had travelled to the capital to seek an audience with the Emperor.

“Don’t take this the wrong way Byakko…” Kianis began, “I know you and your men would find the person of the prophecy, but I also know that the whole of Arcadia will know that WE know. We cannot afford to let the rest of the world know.”

Byakko wasn’t too bright; he became slightly confused after Kianis responded. Not knowing what Kianis was saying, Byakko’s anger only grew.

“So what if the world knows?! I say let them!” He bellowed.

“Hah~ Byakko, what I’m looking for is subtlety. We, the Drakke Empire, cannot risk another war like the last one. My wish is to make peace, to open up a new horizon for all of demon-kind. What’s more, I want to sway the ‘Chosen One’ in our favor. So I can’t have you and your men destroying everything in your path.” Kianis reasoned.

“*Ptui!*” Byakko spat out, “You and your ideals! We don’t need to reason with those that are lesser than us! You know what I say?! I say we go to war once more! We’ve more than recovered from the last one 300 years ago!” Byakko roared as he violently stomped out of the throne room.

‘Byakko… I hope you don’t do anything stupid…’ Kianis thought to himself while watching the back of his departing subject.

Byakko exited the throne room and was soon accompanied by his advisors.

“Your Highness, should we still send a small party to ‘solve’ the issue with the prophecy?” His advisor asked.

“Yes. We can’t have the ‘Chosen One’ interfere with our plans. Find him and silence him.” Byakko commanded.

---

Meanwhile within Adetia’s Forest

“AHHH!!!” Hiro ran as hard as he could from a raging mother bear and her cubs. While checking on a trap for small game, he had stumbled upon a small cub. The cub’s paw was stuck in Hiro’s trap and began to cry as soon as Hiro appeared. Next thing he knew, a mother bear, just as large as the last one came charging through the brush.

It had been one week since he decided to camp out in the woods. In that week, Hiro had grown accustomed to the strain that the gravity spell placed on his body. He exercised by weaving in between trees and climbing branches. He grew to understand how to run through the forest without tripping over roots and foliage. Now he was being tested to see if all that training paid off.

[Tenga!!!!!] Hiro begged, [Remove the spell!!!!] Hiro was asking for Tenga to remove the spell so that his escape would be guaranteed. At the moment, the bear and Hiro were moving at equal speeds. The foliage was proving difficult for the she-bear to charge through, slowing her speed, while Hiro was nimbly zipping around the brush.

[Nope. This is good practice.] Tenga answered.

[Eh~?!] Hiro cried internally.

Cursing himself, Hiro thought about climbing a tree and staying up there until the bear loses interest. Seeing a branch up ahead, perfect for climbing, Hiro dashed towards it. He was about to jump for the branch when he heard a small cry from the direction of the cub. He and the mother bear both stopped in their tracks. The next sound caused his blood to run cold.

“AWoOOooOo”

The cry of the pack. It was the signal of a hunt.

‘Fuck! How did they get this close?’ Hiro frantically jumped up onto the branch and began to climb up to a safe height. He turned around and looked down at the she-bear as she began to run back to its cub.

“I’m truly sorry…” Hiro apologized. His father had taught him never to kill a female or her offspring. Originally Hiro was going to cut the cub loose if it wasn’t for the mother. Feeling as if he himself had caused the death of the cub, Hiro apologized to the desperate mother.

He silently sat in the tree, waiting for the sounds of snarls and growling to die down. It sounded like a bloody battle, the loud roars of the mother, the weak cries of the cub, and the whimpers of the wolves. Soon, the sound of fighting died down. The growls softened and the cub’s cries was not present.

“Sorry…” Hiro apologized while tears formed at the edges of his eyes. He knew that what had transpired was only nature taking its course, yet he couldn’t help but feel responsible for the death of an innocent animal. The only sound left in the area was the yelps of the retreating pack and the grieving whine of the she-bear as she desperately tries to nurse her young.

Soon even that disappeared and Hiro was left in silence. Crawling down from the tree, Hiro slowly began moving to the site of the bloody fight. What laid before his eyes was carnage.

“Ugh!” Hiro gagged a little. In front of him laid the corpses of many wolves, all torn to shreds with their intestines hanging out. There were hundreds of claw marks on the surrounding trees. The grass was all torn up, laying all over the place and bathed red from the blood in the area. Hesitantly, Hiro began to walk to where he had set the trap.

“*Sniff*” Hiro once more began to tear up. In front of him laid the mangled body of the bear cub. All its limbs were bent in weird directions, blood coated its fur, and its eyes were half open.

“I’m sorry…” He began to apologize, although it was just a wild animal, he still felt guilty for causing it to die. He kneeled down and slowly placed his hand on the blood soaked fur.

‘Huh?!’ His expression changed.

“Tenga!” He yelled, “Is there a way to save him?!” Hiro pleaded. After placing his palm on the cub, he felt a weak moving as the cub struggled to breathe. In desperation he yelled to Tenga for help.

[There is. Do you want me to do it?] Was the sage’s reply.

“No… It’s my fault. Let me do it.” Hiro felt guilty for what he had done, so he wanted to do it himself. “What should I do?” He asked.

[I don’t think you are ready for this yet but…] Tenga hesitated, [‘Heill’ Imagine the wounds closing, the bones realigning, and the blood running.]

“Alright.” Hiro responded determined to save the cub.

[However, don’t forget.] Tenga warned, [If it feels like the spell is too much for you, cut the flow of energy.]

“I know…” Hiro answered, though he had no intentions of stopping the spell short and Tenga, who was connected with Hiro, knew it.

Reaching once more into his consciousness, Hiro breached and began to draw power from his life source. Feeling the familiar power course through his body, Hiro pointed his palm towards the cub and uttered, “Heill!”.

The next thing that happened could only be considered a miracle. The blood soaked fur began to wriggle as the skin underneath it began to sow itself together. The cub’s limbs gave out loud crackling sounds as the bones once again fused into place. The shallow and slow breathes from the cub strengthened. Of course Hiro didn’t notice anything of these things. He could only concentrate on controlling the flow of energy as he fed the spell. One small mistake and he would expend all his life energy and die.

‘Not enough!’ Hiro began to panic, the drainage of the spell proved too strong. He felt his limbs beginning to give out. His heartbeat began to race as it tries to provide oxygen to his tired limbs. His body began to cool down, he was succumbing to hypothermia.

[That fool…] Tenga criticized. Secretly, he had been helping Hiro control the spell. While Hiro had activated the spell, Hiro had no idea how to control the spell and specify what to repair. It was Tenga who was directing the healing and providing detailed work when fusing the bone fragments together. Knowing that Hiro didn’t have nearly as much energy to maintain the spell, he had taken the initiative to inject some of his into the spell, thus preventing Hiro from dying. Of course this was all done secretly, without Hiro noticing.

“There…” Hiro felt the spell cancel and was left breathless. His body was shaking uncontrollably and he was cold, very cold. However he didn’t pay much attention to himself and smiled warmly has he saw the cub began to stir.

[Thank you Tenga…] He said, [Without you, I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to do anything to save this cub.]

[You’re welcome.] Tenga sternly replied, [Now are you just going to lay there or are you going to find its mother?] Tenga questioned, while injecting some more life energy into Hiro to prevent Hiro from succumbing to the hypothermia.

[Thanks again… Haha…] Hiro said as he got up and cut the cub loose from his snare.

‘I really owe Tenga a lot.’ Hiro thought to himself, as he wrestles with the cub.

After a few minutes, Hiro had the small cub tucked under his arms and walked back to his camp at next to the waterfall. Although he knew the spell worked, he had to make sure there weren’t any cuts or damage that he had overlooked. When looking for the mother’s tracks, he noticed that the she-bear had chased after the pack. Knowing that there was no way he, in his tired body, would be able to give chase.

The cub had given up and decided to follow Hiro. At first it struggled a bit until Hiro put it down, but as it tried to run away, Hiro would grab it and lift it again. This went on until the cub finally accepted its fate; to follow its captor.

On Hiro’s way back to camp, he checked on the rest of his traps. Finding a few hares and a fat grouse caught in the snares, he quickly retrieved them and reset the traps. Now that he had time to think, he was very hungry. The act of using his life source to fuel a spell had caused him to burn up calories, thus with food in sight, his stomach began to grumble.

Arriving at the camp, Hiro made a small harness and strapped it to the cub’s body. He tied the other end to a large rock near the falls.

“Wait here buddy.” He urged, “I’ll get us something to eat.” As soon as he saw the cub calmed down, he quickly set about cooking lunch.

Soon he had a steaming pot of rabbit stew ready with some roasted grouse on the side.

‘I’m not sure if the cub will like this…’ He wasn’t sure if the cub would eat the cooked meals. In is hurry to cook a meal, the thought of what the bear could eat slipped his mind. Reluctantly placing a small bowl of the stew in front of the cub, Hiro watched.

The bear cub cautiously crawled up to the steaming bowl and gave it a sniff.

“Gaooo!” Shaking its head, the cub retreated away from the bowl.

“I guess he doesn’t like it…” Hiro had flavored the stew with many types of spices, since he was so hungry he had gotten carried away when cooking.

Taking the bowl back, Hiro tried to present the small grouse to the bear cub. The grouse was only lightly salted, so it should be alright for the bear. The bear cub slowly walked up to the cooked bird and took a bite.

“Gao~” The cub began to attack the food happily, resulting in a wide smile appearing on Hiro’s face.

“Hm… I can’t call you ‘it’ or ‘he’ forever. I’ll give you a name…” Hiro began to think, though he knew the name was only temporary until he found the mother. “I’ll call you Kumabo!” He laughed.

As if accepting its name, the bear cub looked up from the food and yelled.

“Gaooo~!”

Now full and settled down, Hiro began to think of his next plan of action; to return Kumabo to his mother.

‘I could the mother’s tracks until I find her, but who knows how far she went.’ Hiro knew the mother had chased after the wolf pack in order to avenge her cub. Hiro looked to the cub as it playfully splashed around at the water’s edge. Earlier he had taken the harness off, seeing at it was causing Kumabo to become irritated.

‘My only choices left are to remain at the site of the wolf encounter or search for Kumabo’s den.’ Knowing the cubs don’t stray too far away from a safe place to hide, Hiro could start searching for its den which was nearby.

Turning over to look at Kumabo, Hiro yelled, “Kumabo!” to draw its attention.

Kumabo, who heard the call, clumsily trotted over to Hiro all sopping wet. Once in front of Hiro, the little rascal decided to dry itself right there, just like a dog.

“Kuhaha! Stop it!” Hiro cried out, “Ok Kumabo, I’m not sure if you can understand me, but do you know where Mama is?” Hiro asked expectantly, hoping for some sort of answer.

The only thing Kumabo did was tilt its head, as if asking, “What?”.

“I thought so…” He felt kind of silly asking a wild animal a question, even more so when he expected an answer.

Hiro concluded that his only choice was to take Kumabo back to the site of the encounter and see if its mother would look for him. The chances are slim that the mother would actually come back for its supposedly dead cub, but there’s always a chance. Hiro took the rope-harness and tied it around Kumabo and started going back to the bloody site.

Along the way there, Kumabo was constantly losing track and straggling. Hiro who wasn’t fully recovered from using the ‘Heill’ spell would often had to stop and prevent the cub from wandering away. Constantly worrying about his surroundings while also looking after the rowdy cub, put a strong drain in Hiro’s already low energy reserves. By the time they both arrived at the spot of the attack, Hiro was sweating from the effort, while the cup was happily oblivious to the current situation it was in.

“Look…” Hiro said as he loosened the harness, “Do you know where Mama Bear went?” He pointed to her tracks.

Taking notice of his intentions, Kumabo began to sniff the track. However, just at that moment Hiro felt a small droplet on his nose.

‘Crap… This ain’t good.’ Looking up at the sky, Hiro had just noticed that it was all greyed out. Signs of rain.

Looking back at Kumabo, who was slowly tracing the trail with its snout to the ground, Hiro felt bad. The rain was going to wash away the scent and possibly the tracks if it rains hard enough. Plus, it will make traveling in search of Kumabo’s mother harder, due to visibility, not to mention the dangers of wet ground. Arrows can’t fly correctly in rain, without that, Hiro cannot protect himself, much less Kumabo.

Hiro dismally turned to the cub, “I’m sorry Kumabo… We’ll have to search for your Mama after the rain lets up…”

As if it understood Hiro’s tone, the bear cub lets out a small whine before returning back to Hiro. Together they both slowly returned back to camp.

Once back at camp, they both took shelter from the pouring rain. Although Hiro’s small wooden shelter wasn’t that large, it had barely enough space for himself and the cub to lay down, although it was a bit cramped.

Without much do to on account of the rain, Hiro once more began to practice meditation. The cub, who had a long and painful day, began to doze off and pretty soon soft snoring could be heard. Smiling to himself, Hiro closed his eyes.

He soon found himself floating in his consciousness, however this time it wasn’t all pitch black. Confused at the sight of the small animal in front of him, Hiro called out for Tenga.

“Tenga!” He yelled.

Soon a strange feeling overwhelmed him and when he opened his eyes, the middle-aged blue-robed sage appeared beside him.

“Interesting…” Tenga began to mutter to himself before noticing Hiro’s stare, “Ah yes, is there anything you need?”

After a few moments Hiro had finally realized what felt so strange. It was the first time Tenga had appeared within his consciousness. Not holding back his curiosity, Hiro asked Tenga, “Now that I think about it, the last time we saw each other was when I entered the soulstone.”

Nodding, Tenga replied, “Correct, this is also the same. Except this time I’m making contact with you.” Tenga hesitated before continuing, “I have to warn you though, when we’re like this, I’ll be able to see and understand your deepest and darkest secrets if I wish.”

Stunned by Tenga’s statement, Hiro just continued to stare until Tenga continued.

“If possible you should never let anyone, even those you can trust with your life enter this realm.” Tenga warned, “Although if they are able to enter this realm, there’s more important issues that are present.” Tenga began to ramble on, talking to himself half the time.

Not understanding the situation Hiro asked, “What do you mean? Why shouldn’t I allow them to enter this?” He waved his hand into the pitch black world.

Calming down, Tenga began to explain, “This space is what you may call your last sanctuary. If someone were to breach and enter this place, they would have full control over you. They won’t just know everything you know, but will be able to control you to some extent, rendering you helpless.”

Shivers began to run down Hiro’s spine as Tenga continued his explanation.

“Hiro listen up.” Tenga’s tone became even more serious, “The reason why I said that someone entering this realm is less important than others is because of this: Only those who have dabbled in the forbidden arts or have achieved enlightenment are able to enter the minds of others. Much more importantly, only those who have achieved a form such as mine…” He pointed to his physical body, “Are those who you should fear.”

“So what about those who don’t have a form?” Hiro wondered.

“Those are just different forms of mental attacks to distract you. It’s the ones who can manipulate themselves that you should fear, only those confident in their mental prowess with resort to using mental attacks to disarm their opponents. Do you still remember what I said about mental strength?” Tenga asked.

“Yes. The stronger your mental ability is, the stronger your spells are.” Hiro answered almost immediately.

“Correct. Only the strongest would attempt a mental attack, so instead of worrying about the mental attack, you will also have to deal with their spell-casting.” Tenga cautioned.

“How would I do that?” Hiro gulped, unsure of who and what he might encounter in the future.

“We’ll have to start training to defend against mental attacks.” Tenga concluded and without waiting for a response from Hiro, “First of all, the ways of preventing the assaulter from entering this realm are quite simple.”

Hiro quickly began to pay attention to the lecture.

“First, if possible, create as much distance from the assaulter as possible. The closer you physically are to them, the stronger their mental strength will be. Second, just like casting a spell, your own mental strength will be used in the defense of your consciousness.”

“So you mean to say…” Hiro expected an answer.

“That by concentrating on only one thing, you will be able to block out the assaulter.” Tenga finished.

“So if I think of let’s say the soulstone and picture only that, that will be the only thing the assaulter will see?”

“Correct.” Tenga confirmed.

“Isn’t that quite easy?” He laughed it off.

“Oh but if only it were that simple.” Tenga starkly replied, “Saying and doing are two very different things… Why don’t we start the training then?” After a brief pause, Tenga had decided showing Hiro would be faster than trying to tell him.

“Sure.” Hiro answered confidently. He was a bit confident in his ability to concentrate, so he thought that he would be able to ward off any mental attacks.

Tenga’s body disappeared from Hiro’s consciousness and from outside, Hiro heard, [Are you ready?]

“Yea!” Hiro yelled out and began picturing the soft dim glow of the blue soulstone. He focused entirely on the smooth texture of the marble-like orb. He could vividly see the stone on the palms of his hands, under the moonlight sky. At night, he would often take out the orb from his void inventory and gaze upon its alien appearance, thus he was confident he would dissuade any assaulters. However, things turned out differently.

As if a wave had come crashing down on Hiro, Hiro’s mental self seemed to have been crushed under a torrent of pressure. His vivid image of the soulstone collapsed and melted away from his very eyes. The blue orb, floated up from his palms and slowly began to enlarge. Soon the once small orb had grown to the size of horse. The soft glow from the orb was gone and in its place was a vacuum, it seemed to suck in and trap all light.

The expression on Hiro’s face was that of horror, He had forgotten that this was merely a test. It felt so real, as if Hiro was actually there and the orb was drawing Hiro into itself. He couldn’t do anything, it was as if his body had turned to stone. Soon his face was right in front of the giant blue sphere, when suddenly an open appeared from inside. The next sight nearly caused Hiro to faint. He wanted to faint, he wanted to close his eyes and turn away, but something was preventing that from happening.

In front of him was the terrifying figure he had only seen once before. The size of a well-built man, with elongated arms and legs and no neck, where its face should be only three black empty holes. Its breath, reeking of rotting flesh, reached Hiro’s nose making him gag. Hiro wanted to cry out, he wanted to scream, but he couldn’t. Hiro wanted to escape, even if it meant killing himself, just as he was about to force himself to bite of his tongue the Doppler’s face began to change.

Slowly at first, it began to contort. The once three black holes began to move around on its face and form the eyes and the mouth. A nose began to protrude from its white face, while its body started shrinking. The Doppler grew out a neck and the pitch-black skin began to lighten, turning into a shade of pink. Hair began to grow on the head of the Doppler. However this wasn’t what Hiro noticed though, his face was frozen in horror. The face that the Doppler had taken was one that Hiro still had nightmares about.

It was the face of the first person he killed.

“AHHHHHH!!!!” Finally able to let out his voice, Hiro began to hyperventilate. He stared into her cold lifeless eyes as blood began to gush out of a hole in her neck. The blood sprayed all over Hiro as she slowly began to smile, a wicked smile full of resentment and pain.

Finally as if his mind couldn’t take it anymore, Hiro fainted.

Noticing that the poor boy had fainted, Tenga stopped the attack. Reappearing once more in his normal form.

“This is just a taste of what a mental attack really is.” He said to the now blacked out Hiro, “This is a lesson that must be learned.”

Tenga wanted Hiro to experience what it was like when someone is able to breach his defenses. Being able to learn everything about the individual that they have breached was a very powerful thing. By just applying some pressure, Tenga was able to stroll pass Hiro’s defenses and see Hiro’s deepest and darkest fears. By taking control of Hiro’s senses, Tenga was able to recreate those fears and bring them out.

After thinking about it, he might’ve gone too far.

“I’m sorry… But this is something you have to learn…” Tenga placed his palm over the mental body of the boy and muttered, “Hèill Du Hügr.”

Soon a soft light emitted from his palm and the pained expression Hiro had disappeared and was replaced by a contented smile. Satisfied with his work, Tenga disappeared from Hiro's consciousness and let the exhausted boy rest.