Rev makes it back to his room. He uses the time alone to practice his source control like he has many times before. “Push and pull, push and pull” Eins words run through Rev’s head. The first night Rev wasn’t anything special. Rev had dreams of him in the blizzard and Ein calling out to him.

-Day 1 of the mountain palace.

-6 days until second encounter.

Rev was woken up the next day to the sound of a bell ringing and footsteps that echoed through the palace that followed after. Rev got up and opened the door and saw many others on their way out. He followed after them through the halls and out into the courtyard. A tall older looking cyclops took the stand.

“LINE UP” he called out.

Rev stood his ground in the middle of the line as the others lined up beside him. Rev looked left, then right. Observing the different amounts of source in the other students. “Nothing special…” Rev thought, then he turned his attention to the cyclops in front of him. He stood proud and confident.

“Hello there, child. Ive been informed that you are my newest student. Rev, I believed your name to be. Mine is Bron. It’s nice to meet you.” Bron says sticking his hand out.

Rev shoots his hand. The feeling felt familiar with the texture of his hand and the strength behind it. Rev took a look into him further, seeing the source that lined with in him.

“You have a lot of source in you,” Rev tells Bron.

Bron got closer and took a knee. "How did you figure that out?” Bron asks.

“I can see it…I can see it in everything,” Rev says.

“Is that so…” Bron says, moving source around his body.

“It's in your left hand…now your right foot,” Rev calls out the movements of the source.

Bron smiles “You weren’t kidding.” Bron stands back up.

“Alright, enough introduction. Let's give Rev a proper welcome by running our morning drill.” Bron says.

The other students sign and looked close off. Rev looks around in confusion.

“What's the problem?” Rev asks.

Shane walks up to Rev “The problem is this crazy old man tries to kill us every morning and all we can do is try to survive.” Shane tells Rev.

“SHANE back in line,” Bron calls out.

“Sorry sir!” Shane responds, getting back in line.

Bron smile “Alright Rev, how about you be the target for this game? It’s up to the others to protect the target while I try to get my hands on them. Do you understand?” Bron tells Rev.

“Yes, I've played this game before with Ein. He called it tag” Rev says.

The students go quiet. “You’ve played this game with Ein…I was told you know him. Nothing about you being trained by him. I think ill determine what the truth is with the game you say,” Bron tells Rev.

“You really were trained by Ein,” the cyclops asks beside Rev.

“Yes, in the jungle,” Rev responds.

“I could only pray for such an honor.” The cyclops says.

Rev looks confused and Shane steps in. “Don’t mind him…Bane is a combat specialist,” Shane tells Rev.

“Is that so…Then what do you do?” Rev asks.

Shane smiles. “Am fast, let’s leave it at that,” Shane says.

Rev doesn’t look convinced.

“Enough talking, it's time. Prepare yourself, Rev, is the target. If I tag him, the game is over and if all the defenders tag me at the same time, I lose,” Bron announces.

The others students get in front of Rev. Bron's smile and dashes at them. They try to stop him. Shane gets behind him and Bane tries to stop him head on. They clash into each other. Rev looks at them, confused. The other cyclops and human talks to Rev.

“I’m sorry about this. Bron can get carried away. Am Pine by the way.” Pine says.

“Yeah, Bron is kinda scary sometimes, but he just wants to prepare us for a real fight. Am Shane’s brother shun,” Shun tells Rev.

Bron gets low and throws Bane over his head right into Shane. Pine and Shun is the only thing standing in the way now. Bron fakes a dash to the right and instead heads left to a newly made opening. He reaches his hand out to Rev. He is unfazed by it all.

“Your to slow…” Rev says.

In a blink of an eye, Rev dashes through Brons' legs and turns around to cast a stone wall all around Bron to trap him in. By the time everyone realized what just happened, Rev is already in the air. People start forming a small crowd looking out windows to the courtyard below.

“He trapped Bron in a stone cube,” whispers start circulating.

Bron bashes the wall down, then looks around for Rev.

“Am up here” Rev calls out.

Bron smile “You're a trickster I see. You won’t get so luck next time.” Bron says.

Rev sees Bron is only buying time to charge up a wind blast to dash at him. Rev quickly reacts by dashing around the air, creating stone panels as he goes coating them in source. Bron tries to keep up with Revs movements while the other students have seemed to completely lost him expect Shane. Rev dashes down and starts creating pillars to dash off of.

“Are you gonna take the giant or not” Rev calls out.

The students snap out of the trances and redirect their focus to Bron. They try to corner him from all angles as Rev creates more pillars to create a closed off space. Rev then pulls Shane aside and takes him to the air. Rev continues to dash through the air and plans out his attack. Bron is dealing with the other students on the ground as they attempt to tag him. Bane and Shane get back up and go at Bron head on. While Pine is charging up a water attack and Shun crests a rope of vines using a nature art on that Rev had never seen before. Bran holds Bron and Shane, takes the vine rope created by Shun and quickly runs it around Bane and Bron to trap them together. Pine finishes it off by shooting a water orb at Brons feet and then freezing it to anchor him to the ground. “Maybe they aren't so useless,” Rev thought. They all went to tag him and Rev came down from the sky. Bron waits for them to get close. He coats the inside of the vine rope of his side and rips it a part when they get close. Pushing Bane off of him and into Shun and Shane. Bron then makes a mad dash to Rev. He reaches out, but Rev simply traps his arm like Ein had done to him.

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“Still too slow” Rev tells Bron

“I admit it. There lies no doubt in my heart. Ein trained you well. Having that said am not done testing you yet,” Bron says looking up at Rev and smiling.

Bron breaks out of the trap and lunges an attack at Rev. Rev weaves out of the way and through the following attacks. The other student watch and get them self reorganized. Bane gets behind. Bron isn’t having that and creates a stone dome around him and Rev.

“Seems you're our of luck kid,” Bron tells Rev.

Rev pays no attention to his words as he coats the piece behind up and sends it flying out. He makes a quick escape.

“The kid knows how to coat…non of my students have that level of source control.” Bron says with a hardly laugh to follow.

He decks out of the whole Rev created and is immediately jumped by the other students with time to react.

“Tag!” the students all yell in unison.

Rev walks over and pokes at Bron. “Tag you loose,” Rev says with a grin that soon leaves his face.

Bron lowers his guard. "Well done. You have stopped me for the first time. I won’t go so easy on you tomorrow,” he says with a laugh.

The other students are happy, but also scared of what’s in store for them.

“Alright, clear the courtyard and line up,” Bron says.

They take any rumble or debris off of the courtyard and pile it up. Then get back in line. The people that had gathered around to watch quickly respond, but the story of what Rev had done only begins to spread across the palace.

“Alright, we will continue our training. Let’s take 3 laps around the palace and when we get back, we will focus on source control.”

The students signed and started their run with Bron behind them, yelling at them to push forward. Shane took the front of the packed, but was quickly matched by Rev that tan beside him. Shane looked over, surprised to see someone beside him.

“Usually, none of the others can keep up.” Shane tells Rev.

“Ein made me run a lot in the jungle. We would run all day sometimes.” Rev says.

“Run all day… that’s impressive.” Shane says.

“run all day at this speed…that’s insane. How much stamina does this kid have? I saw him dashing around constantly like it was no big deal early.” Shane thinks to himself. They finish their first lap the which Rev mostly follows Shane’s lead as he did not know the path himself. After that the next lap Rev increased his pace and the lap after that he was confident and blitz through it all around the palace and back to the expiry yard. Shane makes it shortly after Rev. “He’s speed isn’t what’s scary, it’s his consistency. He doesn’t even look tired after that,” Shane thinks as he catches his breath. After some time, the other make it back. They all catch their breaths as Bron comes in right behind them.

“well done now. Par up for source control training. Rev, you will be my partner.” Bron says.

The students sit in front of each other and start pull. Rev watches in confusion at their unrefined techniques.

“There techniques are lacking,” Rev tells Bron.

“can you really see it that clearly Rev? The source that lies with in all the living?.” Bron ask still unconvinced.

“Yes, I can see it all. It’s brightest inside you. I can tell you hold back a lot….Ein held back a lot, too.” Rev says, his voice becoming droopy.

“You claim to have known and trained with him. You even wear his band around your neck. I know it to be greedy to ask for more, but Ein is worth going the full distance. Your source control shows me how refined it is.” Bron request.

They look at each other and begin they match up their source and behind to push and pull. Their source quickly takes up the courtyard, leaving the other to stop their training. They can only image what’s going on between Rev and Bron.

“I can feel the surrounding source. Is this really them, just the both of them training?” Pine asks.

“It wouldn’t surprise me. I wasn’t sure before, but it’s clear now Rev wasn’t joking when he said he was trained by Ein. His speed strength and most of all his source control have been brutally refined to a level we just aren’t at yet,” Shane says.

Rev looks at the openings and sees them as the obvious baits that they are. Instead, he creates an opening and a bait of his own. Bron takes the bait and Rev cycles his Source around him quickly and takes it from him. Bron smiles, but doesn’t stop he start pressuring Rev head on moving is source to drill right through Revs.

“You don’t have enough to do that,” Rev tells Bron.

Bron pushes toward and Rev pulls him in at this course and wipes, spreads his source around them and collapses it from all sides around Brons' source. Bron shows no concern, but he knows his bluff has failed. Rev sees that he’s trying to retreats and pull his source back to him, letting Bron go free.

“You let me go there, didn’t you?” Bron asks.

“Ein told me to never take all the sources out of the living.” Rev tells Bron.

Bron signs, “am sorry I ever doubted you Rev in your claims or abilities. You have proven me wrong. Am glad Ein could spread his teachings to one last person before he passed.” Bron says.

He stands up and gives Rev a hug. Rev's eyes had long run out of tears to shed. There only remains a void in his heart. Rev pushes back against Bron.

“get off me you weirdo,” Rev tells Bron.

“Did Bron just hug him? I’ve never seen him this openly caring.” Shun says.

“Training will be cut short for today. Take this day to rest and remember you have Rev to thank for this,” Bron tells the students.

“Wait, really, class is over!” Shane says.

They walk over to Rev and pay him on the head

“Good job,” they tell him.

Rev pouts at their head patting and rushes past to the dining hall.

“he still has energy to run like that,” shun asks Shane.

“Am done being surprised by his abilities. It’s nothing more than a sign that we still have much to improve on.” Shane says.

“Does anyone know how old he is? He is an elf. What if he’s really old and just short?” Bane asks.

Bron steps up. "He is a child, no doubt. He is far too immature to be an adult of any kid. His strength and entertaining are plentiful but he is waste full with it. He is holding back when he so desperately wants to go all out.” Bron says.

“He’s holding back!?” Pine asks.

“Yes, his source is plentiful as he is an elf, but that is not what he having trouble holding back. There is pain in his heart. He must have been very close to Ein. It’s obvious that his death still hurts him, as it does all that knew the man Ein was. The pressure to perform must be heavily on Rev’s back. Do your best to don’t ask him too much about what happened. I know all of you are curious, but Rev is still a child. Give him time and pray for his recovery.” Bron tells the students.

The student nod in agreement and rushes over to the dining hall. They walk yo get in line and they see Rev sitting alone eating his food. Once they get their food, they try to sit next to him, but Rev is already gone by that time. Rev heads to his room where Paul is waiting.

“Hello Rev, am sorry to interrupt you. I would just like to ask you some questions.” Paul says.

Rev looks around and at Paul. "Ok,” he responds.

He follows him into his own room. Rev goes and sits on his bed.

“Rev am truly sorry about what happened to Ein. That must have been very hard for you. Having that said, I want yo clear up your story that you told me about his death one more time if that’s ok with you.”

“It’s fine” Rev tiredly says.

Rev take a breath and start once more “We went to Morton to meet Judas and the second day there a big dragon attack us. He was covered in shiny black skin. We tried to beat him but…” Rev can’t tell them that Ein’s death was his fault.

“It ok Rev, no need to go further. I would like to ask, did you ever hear the dragon's name or anything else it might have said? I would love to ask Judas my self but Communication in’s block in the palace, unfortunately.” Paul tells Rev.

Rev thinks for a moment on that has played through his mind many times sense. “Yes, the dragon's name was Ash and…he kept ask for someone called…Loka. Ein seemed to know who he was and didn’t seem to like him very much. That’s all I know…” Rev tells Paul.

Paul’s leg begins to shake up and down, tapping against the ground. Rev looks up at him.

“Is something wrong? Do you not like Lo-“

“PLEASE…please stop saying his name, child…” Paul exclaims.

Rev moves closer, standing up and waking to Paul. “Ein called Loka a monster. Is that really true? Is he the one that claimed to be god-“

“Rev please. That name should not cross the lips of someone so young.” Paul says.

“I just want to know who he is. Ein wouldn’t tell me. He just kept saying how he’s a monster. Is that why the dragon wanted him? Can you just tell me can you respond please? I just want someone or respond to me. Why doesn’t anyone tell me anything!” Rev eyes have ignited.

“Rev it’s not that simple-“

Paul tries to tell Rev.

“No, it is. You could just tell me anything, a yes or a no. I ask and I ask and I ask, but I am met by SILENCED! Why won’t anyone tell me anything? Who is Loka? Are you scared of him?” Rev asks, getting close to Paul and looking into his eyes.

Paul is frozen in place, caught in Rev’s heated gaze. His eyes burn bright and Paul can’t seem to look aways.

“….The twin gods tell me to have no room for fear in my heart…but…I am terrified. That man, that monster, he puts my faith into question. He was given a gift greater than we have ever seen, and he uses it for evil. He is all that is wrong with this world. He is the source of that which is evil. Hear me loud, for I tell the truth to you Rev. Loka is no god of mine.” Paul tells Rev.