Kyrion was positioned in an ally near the outside of the red-light district. This city did have an underbelly meant for tourists, it was just a lot closer to the bottom and hidden away quite well. Quite different from the training area he found.
Peddlers selling various products in stalls could be seen with stalls near alleyways, and shops that bought and sold stolen goods. And then there were the brothels and love hotels. He entered the red light district having shifted his face further as he was now Kyrion, disguised as Rion disguised as a small-time thug. His hair was short and blond with a black stripe that cut through the hair like a lightning bolt. The melanin in his skin fades completely, making him appear very pale. His, irises shrunken and his face shifted exponentially as a pair of sunglasses was put over his eyes.
As he moved through the district he let his presence reveal himself as an early practitioner to anyone with that sort of sensory ability and tinged it with wind mana. Right now he was Vick that was his name. He came up with it all by himself and not because he walked past a confused Viole earlier to test this disguise. She had indeed shot at him for trespassing in Cecil’s lab.
A bald brute of a man with a scar on his face approached the blond young man and smiled. “Do you want Power?”
“Power?” Vick asked in confusion
“Yes. This here is power. A drug capable of boosting spirit masters to a tier of power beyond your wildest imagination. Someone strong like you could become a monster. You could easily win that tournament. There aren’t any rules that go against using performance enhancement drugs. Alchamey is an accepted tool for combat after all.”
“How much is a vial?” Vick asked
“The first one is always free. From there it varies from day to day.”
“Is that so. I want more than one though… What are the side effects?”- Kyrion used his mana in his voice to obtain an honest answer, something he rarely did due to being unethical under normal conditions.
“Nothing major, a low chance for addiction, infecundity, mutations and death in rare cases of overdose. They go for two hundred gold a pop.” The bald man said knowingly.
“Is that so… Who do you work for?”
“Like I’d tell you. Now do you want a taste?” The man asked.
“I’ll hold onto it. Doubt I’ll need it soon. As I’ll be in the team fights. But I’ll be sure to come back if it works, for more.” Vick slid the vial into a pocket in his coat. His brown leather long coat concealed the item.
“I look forward to seeing you make use of it.” The man stated.
Vick smiled. “I’ll be sure to paint the ring red.”
“Glad to here it.” The man vanished into an alley.
Vick nodded. While adjusting the vial and shifting it into his domain so that he could get Karl to analyze it, and produce a recipe.
“All power corrrupts and absolute power corrupets absolutely.” Said a voice from the Alley.
Vick pondered cheating a casino out of its money as Gamodren taught him before realizing that this character was a thief and not a gambler. So his first action involved getting a lay of the land as he stealthfully left seeds all over the place as he waited for his quarry in the house of ill repute to leave.
Vick was not crazy enough to break into one of those and stop sneaking around. Some boys were curious about the thing. Vick was not one of them. Well, Vick probably would be someone who did that, he just wasn’t skilled enough to get away with it. Vick was good but Vick wasn’t that good.
Kyrion was the one who had gotten disillusioned a long time ago. After performing a series of magical enhancements during his short lifetime, he could without a doubt say that the physical form didn’t have much left to surprise him with.
As Vick stopped pondering why one would go to a den of disease and false affection he saw a hooded individual slip out of a specialty shop in a hurry. This person wasn’t stealthy in any way and seemed to be in quite a hurry. As though they were running away from someone. Whoever this person was hadn’t been in this field long. Running with a hood on drew attention in a sparse place like this. While people might not expose a rat in the sewers, they also wouldn’t go out of their way to defend one.
Vick was a master thief, and as the figure moved further away from him, he looked towards the way they came.
Vick moved like the wind and appeared in front of the thief as they were looking back towards the way they came.
The figure slammed into his leg and fell back. A small amount of white hair was revealed in the process.
“Oi! Watch where you're going!” Vick picked the small figure up by their collar and held them up. He enacted a mental pressure that caused the figure he was holding to panic and drop it.
Red and panicked eyes looked into him as Vick snatched the item away in mid-air, getting its weight and size as Karl let a bundle of the same weight clatter to the ground.
Said the figure kicked Vick in the stomach, retrieved the fallen parcel, and ran forward.
Vick reeled a bit as the kick had held some power, but not rough to leave a serious wound behind.
Vick sent a message to Karl. “So. What did I just steal?”
Karl replied through their link. “Telestrine. An exceptionally rare material that is said to come from the sky. It’s something that can become anything when mana is used to shape it. It takes enchantments many times as well as others.”
“Hmmm… Do you think that we can use these loops to duplicate this rare item?” Vick smiled as a rather smug-looking Midas left the establishment he had been frequenting. Moments later Vick noticed that Midas was being tailed by another hooded individual.
As Vick moved to approach the seed he had planted on Lin went off as a purple light shot up and marked the sky.
Turning on his heels, Vick vanished from sight and quickly began to fly off into the distance. He flew straight up and through the city passing through buildings like a ghost as he entered the space between.
“Where are the guards?” Vick asked himself.
Even with his speed and lack of obstacles he still arrived too late.
Lin was laying on the ground, dead. A wound through her heart marked it as a clear murder. Whoever she fought was much stronger as her signs of struggle were brief. Blood was still pooling through the wound. Whoever did this was fast as well given that he couldn’t sense hear anyone running away nor did he sense anyone nearby.
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Vick knelt and examined the area with an analytical gaze his mind focusing on this task. The weapon used appeared to be a gauntlet with talon-like protrusions on the knuckles. Examining the wound he recognized a familiar scent followed by an inky coloration in the impact point.
“Three minutes. Her core was shattered first.” Vick looked about and noticed for the first time that a distorted-looking corpse was frozen solid.
A black-haired man with pointed almost elf-like ears and two curved horns poking out of his head. They were wearing bright orange and white robes belonging to members of the disqualified Team Sunburst.
“Team Sunburst? No. There are no burns. This looks like claws or talon wounds from a large birdlike creature. The hand is bigger but it looks familiar." Kyrion remembered a clawed hand passing into his body, years back, the wound feeling vaguely similar to how this appeared now.
Vick let loose a single tear that evaporated moments after it left his body. Rage and wrath are being replaced by a cool serenity that could chill a star. His mind already going down to the few people who would have this ability and had been here.
“Edwin. You will die. Your masters will die. Anyone in between you and me will die for this.” Kyrion stated a fact and with that, a chain on his heart was formed as his oath was accepted. The sky began to fill with clouds
He didn’t return to his natural appearance, nor did he return to Rion. No Vick embraced a well of rage that knew no satisfaction. He became himself and that person was not one he recognized. His red hair was much darker than usual, his eyes a light green and almost white yet lifeless. His expression vacant
Kyrion took in a deep breath and turned toward a prone figure on a roof to his right. While holding Lin’s body he lept into the air and landed soundly as he came in contact with Lin’s bodyguard her face ashen and her body unmoving. She was dead as well, although there were no wounds anywhere on her body.
Kyrion checked her person for any weapons or tools that would be of use to him. Placing a container holding pellets into his domain before discovering a vial of eternal death that was unused.
“Cardiac arrest?” Kyrion placed a hand on her neck and let mana flow through her before her body vanished and a marble-like core landed in its place.
“No, she’s a spirit. Where is that damn Sigfreid when I need him?”
Looking around some more Kyrion let his mana sense go wild as he traced anyone with Lin’s residual mana still on them. There were two targets one was close and moving here while the other was rapidly moving away.
Setting Lin next to her spirit’s core Kyrion tried to use the power he gained from the goddess that could resurrect people and began to focus it. His mind was split between healing and vengeance his focus as a healer taking precedence as all his affinities flowed into the corpse repairing the physical damage by replacing what was lost but when it came to bringing back her soul the spell failed a chain around his heart tightening, and the spell going berserk as the chain snapped.
The frozen member of team Sunburst fell from the now melted block of ice as his horns failed off and his body became inert and something within him was exorcised.
“I’ve been cheated. That, two faced… No, no no focus. ” Kyrion now understood why his mother hated the goddess.
Kyrion jumped from the roof and landed soundly on the ground. “I will make this right? Your death won’t be in vain.”
Drawing his sword Kyrion took a chance and began moving at high speed towards the nearest approaching figure that happened to be headed in his way.
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Bill had felt a jolt in his soul as his charge was attacked. It was the fox's turn to keep watch but if things were this bad, chances are he wouldn’t have been strong enough to deal with it on his own. Not that anything could kill a realized Sigfried easily.
A blade shot forward and nearly took off his head as a chain passed by and went completely taut.
Siegfried made sure to step to the side and avoid the blow only for a flying knee to come into contact with his forehead causing his head to fall to the ground and bounce a bit as his mask was shattered.
“Damn. You aren’t Edwin. Sorry Mr.Sigfried but Lin’s been murdered and I'm currently trying to chase the murderer down.” Kyion triggered a ward on his blade handle and the blade shot back into place.
“Kyr, you said Lin is dead? Who?”
“Edwin, from the Republic’s team I suspect. You just happened to be in the way. When you see a guy with a hawk face then you’ve made it.”
Bill got to his feet despite the hit, he wasn’t injured much. “Where is he and tell me whats going on along the way?”
“Why would I… Why do you?” Kyrion approached the man quickly as their distance shattered.
“Yes Kyr, I am ind…” Bill was cut off as a fist connecting with his jaw sent him flying thousands of feet into the air and towards his target.
“No time for this old man!” Kyrion then lept into the air and began to fly towards the fight. The guard shouldn’t die as he was sure to use a lot of healing mana in that blow. That along with the fact that Kyrion didn’t have time to let his target get away. He wondered why the man’s face seemed somewhat familiar as he didn’t have time to get a good look however he didn’t take too much time and his target was swift.
While mid-air Bill was wondering where he went wrong as he turned his head and noticed he was flying into a figure flying away on a large bird. “Oh… Oh no.”
Bill shifted and withdrew a large two-handed blade colored with bronze scales going down from the blade and into the handle.
“Dragon’s Ascent!” Bill spun his body and kicked off the air as he sliced through the large bird like a scythe through wheat.
“What! Was that?” Edwin turned as he began to fall, scowling as a large figure got the jump on him.
“Devils Descent!” Kyrion let his heel powered by all of the power he was allowed to muster hit Edwin in the head. Had he not been limited due to Imala’s deal, the fight would have been over, as Edwin seemed to be a recent expert with no control or proper technique.
Kyrion had been intending to go for an immediate kill and was unpleasantly surprised when he hadn’t felt brains on his boot.
Experts however weren’t immune to physics, when it involve Imala’s surface, and the kick powered by the enraged Kyrion sent him falling to the ground like a meteor.
“Oi! Siggy! Can you…” Kyrion looked at Bill for the first time in the light of the moon. “Dad? How did you get up here?”
“... Can I what Kyr?”
Kyrion sent mana into his brain to trigger an overclocked mental state to process all of this information. “Right. Well, you would’t happen to be able to kill an expert would you?”
“Yes I can and have done so. I am not one however.”
“Thats not completely true is it?” Kyrion grabbed his father by the arm.
“I’m not an expert in spirit mastery. But I am at that tier of power. It has made progression difficult.”
“Perfect. I can’t kill or cheat to expert-level attacks due to an oath. I can however be a pain the the butt. Hold on!” Kyrion spun around rapidly and threw his father towards the falling meteor that was Edwin before kicking off the air and giving chase.
Edwin’s body rapidly gained in heat as his head passed into the ground and his head was shaken. The reinforced mana around his body that protects an expert from most damage was greatly impacted and he couldn’t think as the world around him spun.
Bill landed moments later and swung his blade into the upside-down young man. The blade crashed into his stomach but did little to no damage but did uproot the buried expert.
Edwin quickly rolled to the side as a falling Kyrion crashed right next to him creating a crater as he barely missed. Letting loose a torrent of flames he melted the earth underground and sent an eruption of lava that sent shards of sharp rock and molten earth all over the expert.
Edwin winced as he was damaged through his protection due to the indirect nature of that attack.
“You! How do you have fire!” Edwin said as he ran towards Kyrion only for his body to sink into the earth as he stepped into slag and began to rapidly sink.
Bill approached the trapped expert and leveled his sword at their head.
“Get back! Master! Fox! Mi…” Edwin began to panic as he found himself unable to get far out of the ground.
“Eat Ascalon.” The large blade grew a draconic maw a bit down into Edwin separating his torso from his legs as the blade swallowed them before spitting out the head of a small yellow-winged creature that had strange proportions.
The sword then transformed into an old hoe, going fully inert as it was satisfied with the meal.
“Oh. That confirms it. But I wanted him alive a little longer for questioning.” Kyrion sighed his rage still not dying down enough.
“You aren’t going to ask about my sword?” Bill asked.
“You’ll tell me when you want to be truthful. I’ve had enough deceit for the day.” Kyrion stated. “I thought mom was bad but you have a sword that eats people.”
“Well. It eats dragons preferably.”
“I see… Do you hate dragons?” Kyrion asked bluntly.
“If I see an evil dragon, I kill it. Simple as that.” Bill said bluntly.
Ceres’ secret was now one he had to hide from his father.
“Your friend doesn’t…”
“No time for this. We need to find Milo or whoever is leading this assault.”
Moments later a scream could be heard as something within Edwin’s body as a yellow mouth began to howl.
Kyrion sent out a wave of fire enhanced by the magic he obtained from the goddess and watched as the yellow creature turned into ash while the remainder of the corpse fell limp.
“The Republic is the group supplying demons. And they are really from the Beast-Blood Empire. I bet they have something to do with these loops. I’ll be right back.”
“THis is too much, too quickly.”
“Yeah and time won’t stop for us to think.” Kyrion moved to reenter the city with the world went white again.