Imperial Year 4004,

2nd day of The Month Of The Holy God's Ascension.

Sweat poured down Nyameye’s forehead as he clutched the fingerless stump that was once his left hand. As he looked towards the man that had caused this, a multitude of questions ran through his mind.

'Who sent him and why...How many of them are there...Is Fionn okay...How did he do this…’

Nyameye was distracted by many thoughts which is why he was taken by surprise when he felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder. Crimson blood flowed freely through a small hole that had suddenly formed in his shoulder. Nyameye was unsure of how the man had caused it but he was sure that the man before was responsible for his new injury. The pain and shock from this second attack sent him into even more panic. Thoughts of what the best course of action to take circled through his mind as blood continued to flow from his partially destroyed shoulder. This was something that he hated about himself. As a child he was often easily distracted and stuck in his own little world which often led him to make very avoidable mistakes. Nyameye was well aware of that flaw within him and he had tried his best to remedy it. Due to this, he was now much more focused and less easily distracted. To the people that met him, Nyameye was a confident and composed young man but when he found himself suddenly thrust into situations like this one, he reverted to his true self, a little boy that could barely focus on what was in front of him.

“...When the bossman told me about you, I expected someone that could really get my blood pumping ...But this is such a disappointment.”

Boreas, the long-haired man before him, stopped smiling and a sour expression formed on his face. He was incredibly disappointed as he rarely ever got to let loose. The only reason he had even sought out and allied with Skinner in the first place was because he desired the excitement and ecstasy he could only obtain from mortal combat. And now after so long, he had now been presented with a pitiful excuse of a fighter. He clapped his hands together and stretched them out in front of him. He truly intended to put an end to this miserable fight.

With heavy breaths, Nyameye continued to hold onto his shoulder. While he continued to look upon the man, he could feel the cold touch of death slowly approaching him. It was at that moment that a memory from his childhood, a period of his life he tried to forget, flashed through his mind.

"You keep overthinking things Nyameye…”

A voice, pleasing to the air, echoed within his mind. The voice was imposing. It felt like he could not oppose any of its commands yet at the same time, Nyameye would never think of opposing its commands.

“You just have to keep a cool head and..."

'....Stay in the moment.'

The voice he had been hearing was his mother’s voice. She was long dead so all that he was hearing was the echo of a memory long forgotten. He had wondered why he did not remember it until now but quickly realized that it was his own fault. He had tried to bury every memory of his mother ever since her death as a way to move on with his life. Ironically enough, it was a memory of her that would allow him to live. The words she spoke led Nyameye towards a path of survival. He cleared his head of everything and focused on the fight right in front of him.

Though there was nothing at all in front of him, Nyameye hopped sideways. A mere moment after he did, he heard a loud pop sound and the ground behind him burst into a shower of dust and debris. Boreas was surprised but only for a moment as he realized that the upcoming battle would be an immensely enjoyable one.

"BWA HA HA HA! You can see it can't you!"

His attacks should have been impossible to detect but now Nyameye could clearly see the green orbs of ether circling around Boreas. This was all thanks to what the carrots he had eaten contained. Vitamin A, a food nutrient responsible for better eyesight within humans, commonly found in orange vegetables such as carrots. Vitamin A and food nutrients as a whole had gone unnoticed by the people of the world until their discovery by Dr. Adenine, a leader and pillar of the world’s scientific community. Due to this discovery, for a brief period of time there was a large increase in the growing and selling of carrots. This endeavor was led by old nobles that wished to improve their failing eyesight. Shortly after this, those same nobles grew angry at Dr. Adenine as they would soon discover that the nutrient did not act nearly as fast as they desired nor would it work as well as they intended it to. But for Nyameye, it did, for he possessed something that those nobles could only dream of possessing. A power that spat in the face of mother nature herself, a power that had made itself known to him from the very moment he had acquired it, ‘Warden Of Gluttony:The Preternatural Body’. After he acquired this power, his body became a vessel that stored nutrients in far greater numbers than a regular human and it also increased the effect of those nutrients on his body. By unleashing the vitamin A stored within his body, he became able to see the ether that comprised Boreas’ attacks.

‘He mentioned something about a bossman, didn’t he? So someone did send him. In that case, I have to be careful and hide my hand in case anybody else is watching….Which means no regeneration. I can’t afford to let them know about it….This is going to be a pain’

The fight continued. Nyameye dashed away from the man before him in the hopes of putting more distance between them. Once he was at a suitable distance, he picked up a nearby rock and flicked it towards Boreas. He had aimed it at Boreas’ leg in the hopes that it would slow him down a bit but that proved unsuccessful as another one of those green orbs slammed into the stone. Again, Nyameye heard a loud pop sound as the stone burst into dust.

‘Interesting….He didn’t make any of those hand signs he did before…Do the orbs automatically protect him or are the hand signs just for show?’

Now it was Boreas’ turn to attack. He dashed towards Nyameye and gathered one orb in each hand. The orbs burst and the force from that explosion propelled him closer to Nyameye. Boreas then slammed his bare arm into Nyameye and knocked him into the ground a few feet away. Quickly, Nyameye stood up from the ground and dusted himself off even as he continued to bleed from his wounds.

“That’s a rather…..creative way of using those things.”

“Hehe, it’s a little track I picked up from all my years of fighting. Hah, that does bring back memories. But enough about me, you seem to be much more confident than before. Why is that?”

“It’s nothing much really, I was just reminded of what I have to do before I die, that’s all.”

“...I’m glad that you’re much more interesting than I initially thought. But enough talk, let our fists do the talking from now on.”

The two fighters both got ready to make their next move. Boreas formed a fist with his right hand and commanded the orbs to float around it. At the same time, Nyameye commanded the proteins circling through his body to strengthen every muscle within him. This simultaneous bodily strengthening aimed for a consistent and smaller power increase of his whole body rather than a larger and unwieldy power increase of one body part.

With his right hand outstretched, Boreas attacked. He rushed at Nyameye with the full intention of ripping through his heart but Nyameye stood there without moving an inch. Right before Boreas would have hit him, Nyameye flipped over him and placed his still intact right hand under Boreas’ chin. Boreas was lifted into the air and slammed into the ground as Nyameye landed back down. Small cracks formed across the ground and Boreas’ body shook. Moments later, Boreas stood up just to discover Nyameye missing.

‘Did the kid run away?...No, he doesn’t strike me as someone that would run away from a fight but then where is he? Did he turn invisible? Is that why he can see my orbs?’

Boreas’ questions were answered almost immediately as a shower of roof tiles hurtled towards him. He noticed them right as they were about to hit and the orbs surrounding him set out to protect their creator. Unfortunately for Boreas, the rain proved to be too much and as the orbs around him disappeared one by one, a singular tile hit him square in the face. This disoriented him for a bit and a few drops of blood fell from his nose. As he held his bloody nose, Boreas looked up at Nyameye on the roof of a building mere feet away from him.

‘That confirms it, the orbs aren’t automatic. They only moved to protect him once he saw the roof tiles and what’s more it seems he can only maintain about six orbs at a time. Fighting him head on is dangerous but if I can reduce the number of the orbs before I attack…’

Using his feet Nyameye continued to kick even more roof tiles at Boreas. However, Boreas was ready this time and he summoned six more green orbs to replace the lost ones. They flew and slammed into the tiles, creating a sizable dust cloud which obscured the vision of both fighters. Boreas wondered what Nyameye would do next as he prepared to summon even more of his orbs. He was unprepared as Nyameye lunged towards him from the top of the roof. Luckily he was able to summon one orb just in time. The force from it exploding sent Boreas flying from Nyameye as he crashed into the ground and formed a sizable crater. With Boreas knocked over, Nyameye took the chance to press his attack.

‘I won’t let him summon any more orbs!’

Right as soon as Boreas stood up, Nyameye delivered a devastating blow into his gut. It took everything he had to not vomit out all that he had eaten that day. Following that, Nyameye delivered an uppercut. As a continuation of his relentless onslaught, Nyameye slipped his foot behind Boreas’ neck and brought him crashing down into the ground. The impact from this attack made Boreas bounce back into the air. Nyameye wasn’t finished with Boreas just yet as he was well aware that this wasn’t a fight he could win easily while restraining his regenerative abilities. He kicked Boreas in the face and sent him flying high. Nyameye was sure he heard a crunching noise as he kicked Boreas in the face. He truly detested how ruthless he had to be with human opponents but he chose to ignore how uncomfortable he felt in this present moment. After all, this was a fight for survival..

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Nyameye jumped up high and followed Boreas up above. Once next to Boreas, he clasped his hands together and prepared to knock Boreas back down. He would have hit him but stopped suddenly as Boreas smiled.

“The north wind blows…laying waste to all that it touches…‘Anemoi’ .”

Once he spoke those words, Boreas’ eyes glowed green and many green orbs of ether, far more than what Nyameye thought was possible for Boreas, formed around his body.

‘That’s way too much!’

Nyameye’s eyes grew wide as he continued to bear witness to Boreas’ attack. A loud rumbling, like thunder, could be heard as the orbs all burst at once and dragged both Nyameye and Boreas into their bombardment. Nyameye and Boreas were sent back onto the ground with their bodies riddled with wounds. Boreas was in much better shape from the blast as he had some resistance to his own power which left him with only minor cuts and tiny holes in his body. His injuries were so minor that he was able to stand up to view Nyameye’s body after just a few seconds. Looking down onto Nyameye, Boreas saw that his body was injured beyond any form of repair. His nose had been torn off and it was possible to see through the many holes and cuts all across his body and clothes. After seeing how utterly destroyed Nyameye’s body was, Boreas believed him to be dead. It was a rather logical thought to have but ‘The Preternatural Body’ spits in the face of that logic. Nyameye opened his eyes, prompting Boreas to hop back a bit as he slowly rose from the ground. He looked at his injured body and sighed.

‘I can’t even beat this guy without regenerating…I’m glad I have this power but it’s apparent that finding Beelzebub in my current state is going to be extremely difficult if not impossible.’

Boreas observed as the wounds on Nyameye’s body slowly closed up and as fingers grew from the stumps on his left hand.

'His body's healing, it's probably some sort of healing spell but it doesn't seem to be from any of the eight elements…'

He could have pressed the attack while Nyameye was busy recovering but Boreas just watched him fully heal himself. Nyameye wasn’t sure why Boreas was letting him do this so he decided to ask the man himself.

“Why are you just letting me do this?”

Boreas laughed at Nyameye’s question as he believed the answer to be fairly obvious.

“I’m having fun and I want to enjoy this fight for longer.”

Puzzled, Nyameye stared at the man for a few moments before asking another question.

“...You actually enjoy fighting?”

“But of course…Don’t tell me you don’t?!”

Boreas was surprised at how someone with strength like Nyameye could hate fighting. After all it was his belief that to seek strength is to desire battle. Why else would anyone want power?

“I don’t particularly care for fighting. I completely understand and empathize with fighting for survival but fighting for pleasure…that’s barbaric.”

As he spoke, Nyameye thought back to the octopus he had encountered before reaching Osukese and the wolf he was currently searching for. In both cases, he had considered killing the two beings and in the case of the octopus, he did kill it. As someone that had been forced as a child to watch the deaths of countless people, every living thing Nyameye fought, be they man or beast, wore on his soul. He always tried his best to find the path with the least bloodshed which is why he was ready to give his everything to save the wolf the previous night but as much as he tried to avoid it, there were times when fighting was the only possible way forward.

“Fighting is an expression of the soul…”

Nyameye’s thoughts were interrupted by Boreas’ next words. The delivery of his speech was noticeably less joyful and his face was visibly angry.

“To fight is to clash your will and strength against your opponent’s and most importantly, it is in the midst of combat that a person reveals their true self. You should know this by now, after all that’s what the power you wield is for.”

Nyameye couldn’t help but notice that Boreas’ ideals and beliefs of fighting were spoken much more fluently and coherently than anything else he had spoken before. He could tell how truly passionate Boreas was as well as how much he believed in the words he spoke. It moved him a bit but that was all.

“I hear what you’re saying…but it doesn’t make a lick of sense to me.”

Boreas quickly realized that nothing he was saying would get through to Nyameye. As a result, he decided to switch his approach. He would teach Nyameye the joy of combat not with words but with his fists.

“...Nothing for it I guess. Before I kill you, I’ll make sure that the value of combat is imprinted on your soul.”

In the two minutes it had taken for them to converse, Nyameye had now recovered to the state he was in before they had begun fighting. Now that his opponent was fully healed, Boreas went onto the offensive. He cloaked his body in green orbs of ether and blindly charged ahead. Once he was close enough, he unleashed a jab with explosive force. Although his left hand was destroyed in the process, Nyameye was able to divert Boreas’ left fist away from him. And as a counterattack, Nyameye jabbed his right elbow directly into Boreas’ face. After this attack, Nyameye heard a loud pop and a hole formed in his elbow. The two fighters were fighting rather recklessly which was very unlike them as they both preferred to be more tactical in their fights. The reason for this recklessness was due to their individual abilities protecting them as well as their own desires. Boreas desired to teach Nyameye the joy of fighting and Nyameye desired to understand Boreas.

Nyameye’s regeneration had already kicked in and this allowed him to deliver a blow aimed at Boreas’ head with his left fist. Before the blow could land, Boreas blocked it by colliding his own fist with Nyameye’s. The orbs surrounding his arm exploded and this ripped through both Nyameye’s arm and shirt sleeve. Even with the damage from this exchange, Nyameye did not relent. He continued to unleash a barrage of jabs and haymakers towards Boreas and Boreas responded in kind.

The pair’s fists continually collided and as they did, their fists ripped through the air. For a few moments it seemed that they were in a deadlock but that all changed as Nyameye delivered a devastating right hook into Boreas’ face. The wind shook as he finally landed a direct blow on Bores. At the same time, Boreas also landed a hit on Nyameye. There was not as much strength in his attack as Nyameye but that was what the orbs were for. After Boreas’ fist landed on Nyameye’s face, the skin covering it ripped off and revealed the flesh and bone beneath it.

After their attacks connected, the pair stood still for a few moments as their thoughts and feelings, without the need or use of words, were transmitted to each other. It was something Nyameye had never felt before, this wordless communication, only possible between two warriors fighting with all that they had.

‘Hey, kid, are you beginning to understand?’

‘I’m sorry…but I still don’t get it.’

Nyameye was sure that this was something Boreas greatly valued but he felt nothing as they exchanged blows. To him combat was nothing more than a means to an end. With the understanding of the pointless nature of their battle, Nyameye saw fit to put an end to it. Quickly, he withdrew his fist and spun around to deliver a kick towards Boreas’ head. The kick missed as Boreas’ exploding orbs sent him flying away and Nyameye’s kick slammed into the brick road.

With quite a distance between them, Boreas commanded the green orbs surrounding him to move out in front of him. Fully aware of what Boreas would attempt to do, Nyameye prepared to counter. He raised his arms in front of him and readied the bones in his body.

‘Anemoi, Wind Orb Volley.’

‘Phalange Bullet Salvo.’

For the next few moments, the orbs clashed with the bones Nyameye continued to launch from his hands. The collision of bones and wind created a smokescreen that blinded the two combatants. Boreas stopped his attack and patiently waited until he could see Nyameye before launching another attack. This would prove to be a mistake, for in the chaos of their battle, Boreas had forgotten just how good Nyameye’s eyesight was. A wooden crate hurtled towards Boreas from the smokescreen before him.

Boreas raced along the road and was able to dodge the crate as it flew by him but Nyameye appeared next to him as he did so. Nyameye tried to kick him but Boreas caught his attack and spun him around, causing Nyameye to fall onto the ground. Before Boreas’ next attack could hit him, Nyameye quickly flipped backwards. For his next attack, Nyameye shot two more bones towards Boreas. Boreas easily crushed them but this allowed Nyameye to close in for an attack. A sharp pain erupted across Boreas’ right arm as Nyameye struck it with his own fist. For some reason, this attack felt far more painful than Nyameye’s previous attacks. He looked down and saw that on Nyameye’s fist was a thick covering of bone. It served as armor from Boreas’ attacks and a lethal enhancement for Nyameye’s attacks.

With his right arm no longer usable, Boreas had to take drastic measures. He headbutted Nyameye and as he did so, he surrounded his head with the wind orbs. They exploded and ripped across the two combatants' faces. Boreas had received less damage than Nyameye from this exchange but his face and body were in terrible shape. With Nyameye’s regeneration as a factor in this battle, it was clear who would win. That fact didn’t stop Boreas though. He prepared to attack again but was prevented from doing so as Nyameye punched him in the gut for the second time of this battle. Boreas fell to his knees and clutched his stomach.

It was clear to the both of them that this was the end of their fight.

“..Was…I able to help you understand the joy of fighting?”

“Not one bit.”

“...That’s a shame, for I foresee countless fights in your future. I hope…that you at least learn to enjoy them….so that the path you will walk will not be too painful.”

With those final words, Boreas collapsed onto the ground from the sheer exhaustion of their battle.

As Nyameye looked down upon Boreas’ unconscious body, he reflected on everything that had transpired in their fight.

“...Gaining pleasure from combat…so stupid.”

‘The long-haired man is right, you know.’

‘For your path to atonement will be hard and long.’

‘Might as well enjoy it you pitiful fool.’

‘Pitiful fool..’

‘Pitiful fool..’

‘Pitiful fool..’

‘Pitiful fool..’

‘Pitiful fool..’

‘Pitiful fool..’

Countless voices within Nyameye awakened and began to mock him but he ignored them for he knew that they would eventually go back to sleep again. Nyameye turned away from Boreas and prepared to make his way back to Fionn for there was a possibility that she could have also been attacked.

He had scarcely made it a few feet from Boreas when a human figure wearing a mask across their face appeared before him. He prepared himself for another battle as many figures similar to the one before him appeared out of thin air. That was the last thing he saw as the world turned black.

Chapter 6: The Preternatural Body