Within a dark and cold void, a young man was drifting quietly.
His face was calm and at peace with eyes that even the void would call ice cold.
But despite the maddening darkness and empty coldness, the man wasn't alone... He never was.
It's here again huh?
Within the dark void, an impossibly gargantuan creature swims clumsily.
Despite the void's size, the young man could not ignore the creature for it had silver white scales that glimmers like the moon and teeth longer than any sword.
This creature was of legends, for he was in front of a dragon.
Peter was never a man who was easily scared.
Even when the division leader almost killed him just to show him a lesson, Peter was never afraid.
But there has been times where he became awestruck.
This moment is one of those times.
This majestic dragon had silver scales with a gargantuan body and wings that could blot out the sun.
It spoke but no words came out. Peter thought it to be mute but he knows it can speak but he can't hear it.
In truth, this magnificent creature is absolutely beautiful. The only time he saw something as magnificent as this was... Because of an amazing person.
"This is the second time we meet dragon. The first time was when I entered winter king form while fighting the division leader. Once I lost, I entered a coma then saw you... Now I see you again."
Peter speaks knowing that he can't listen to the dragon but it listens to him.
The dragon replies but still Peter cannot hear it.
Frowning, Peter speaks.
"I can't hear you. Your mouth moves but I hear no sound."
The dragon stops, confused but understanding.
The dragon suddenly closes its mouth, leaving a small opening.
Peter raises an eyebrow.
Then the dragon breathes ice and snow as cold air comes from its mouth.
Peter is suddenly surprised as he sees familiar letters.
Slowly the dragon creates words that Peter could roughly understand.
In very rough letters, Peter reads out loud.
"Greetings lord of Stygia."
Peter smiles.
"I am a lord but not of Stygia. My power is not as great as the legendary myth."
The dragon bares its teeth as it smiles.
Peter can't help but feel cautious of the sword like teeth.
Despite his strength, he feels that a single chomp would be enough to kill him even if you multiply his strength by a 100 times.
It seems to notice Peter's cautiousness as it suddenly closes its mouth again but only to open it and breath ice again.
"No, you are not the lord I know but you carry his scent and eyes. Your power is nothing compared to him but you have his mark... I wonder will you succeed him or will you die against his other successors."
Peter shakes his head.
This is crazy. This must be one of those coma induced dreams.
Breathing ice, the dragon speaks once more.
"This is not a dream."
"This is what a dream would say."
Peter despite the situation is still maintaining his calm.
The dragon seems amused by this attitude and snorts ice.
"Time to wake up."
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*beep*
*beep*
*beep*
Peter hears the sound of beeping as he opens his eyes.
Moving his eyes, he notices that he's expertly strapped onto a medical bed with machines keeping him alive.
He slowly rises up, carefully removing the machines strapped to him.
The machines start to blare but Peter's condition is stable enough so he doesn't bother to return.
Peter sighs, knowing that people are probably coming to get or check up on him.
Once out of the bed, Peter turns off the machine but it doesn't stop the people from going towards his room.
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*slam*
The door suddenly bursts open as an 8 foot tall giantess with a dangerously curvy body goes in.
Peter sees her and thinks if he should just leave but before he could decide what to do the giantess crashes onto him.
"PETER!"
Peter is easily lifted off the ground as the giant meta woman hugs him.
He tries to speak but is muffled by her body.
"He-Helen. Plea-Please put m- me down."
Eventually Helen calms down and sets the battered Peter down.
Peter looks behind her and sees the dozens of nurses and people that are supposed to handle him.
Helen smiles and looks at Peter.
"Peter you're awake."
Helen says this happily but also with some slight poison behind it.
"It means you can help me on all the paperwork you guys left me!"
Large stacks of paper suddenly appear behind Helen, all summoned from her storage ring.
Peter was surprised on how much paperwork was stacked up.
Despite his always calm demeanour, Peter was unbelieving.
This is because while in the void, Peter already calculated how much paperwork would be waiting for him and after taking a look at the stack of papers, this is at least 3 times his estimated value.
Peter isn't stupid so something must've happened.
"Wait... Us guys?"
Helen nods.
"You're not the only one who got knocked out of commission. After you entered a coma, Lucas followed shortly after getting badly beaten."
Peter was surprised.
This is the first time Lucas got so beaten up that he couldn't work.
"Did the division leader beat him?"
Helen shakes her head.
"No, it was Carlo Simmons, the heir to the Core Suits corporation."
Peter eyes suddenly go wide as he recalls all the files pertaining to Carlo Simmons.
He recalls the words.
Unfortunate.
Slowly weakening.
A fallen prodigy.
Peter would never call him a cripple but Lucas kept saying it when the three of them read the report.
"What happened?"
Helen shrugs "I'm not sure myself... Lucas didn't say anything. Not even to me."
Peter nods.
After momentarily thinking, he takes a look at the nurses and doctors waiting behind Helen.
"Helen please wait for me in our lounge, the doctors are waiting."
Helen turn around and chuckled a little. She forgot that Peter needed checking and she prevented the doctors from doing their job.
She nods and retrieves all the papers.
"Don't slack off once you come back."
Peter smiles.
"When have I ever slacked off."
Peter waves Helen off as he awaits his diagnosis.
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"And don't forget to reset your inner energy or it might fluctuate once more. Also your eyes have gone brighter. It doesn't seem to function any less so it might just be an effect of your superpower."
Peter nods while dressing up, wearing his long coat.
"Do not use your superpower's manifestation again, your body is not yet capable of handling it. Thankfully you woke up earlier than expected."
Peter nods, genuinely surprised that he wasn't out of commission for a month. It's been only 2 or 3 weeks since he killed those two lord ranks.
When he first used the manifestation, it took him a month to recover.
Peter recalls the two lords he killed. He didn't destroy their bodies so he could bring them back home.
Peter also took some of their green liquid. He gave a lot to the organization but kept a few vials for himself.
His own cells scream at him when he holds them though.
Once dressed, Peter gives his doctor a thankful nod and goes to leave.
While walking through their underground facility, Peter suddenly notices a used room.
He didn't see anyone but he heard it.
A scream so much in pain it felt like it was happening to him.
"Lucas..."
Peter didn't care for Lucas and in fact, he hates him but he was still a part of their three man team. If Lucas died or became a burden, he would be relegated to lower positions.
Once relegated to a lower position, someone will have to replace him.
While Peter absolutely hated Lucas, he knew Lucas enough that he wouldn't backstab him in the middle of a mission.
So he preferred the arrogant idiot alive.
Peter enters the room where he hears the screaming and noticed that there is an inner room where Lucas was located while the room he entered is a place where you can watch.
"Surprising isn't it?"
Peter heard the voice of a familiar person.
Turning around, he sees a young woman that eearily looked like Lucas.
It was his sister.
Peter saw her watching him get tortured by a machine in front of a large tv screen.
Peter didn't react and joined her on the seats.
"Carlo Simmons did this?"
The sister nodded.
"How?"
Peter maintained his cold demeanour and asks.
"According to Lucas' report, Carlo used a core suit."
Peter nods waiting for her to continue.
"But the core suit was unlike anything any core suit ever created. All core suits give varying massive boosts to their owners but their abilities are supposed to be limited to how much tech and energy is put into them."
Lucas' sister suddenly frowns.
"But according to Lucas' report, the suit constantly used a large amount of weapons and kept changing."
Peter was interested because while he doesn't use a core suit, he could request for a standard mark IV suit that didn't have weapons but would raise his strength from starter lord to low lord rank.
The only problem was that he'd have to pay for the maintenance and energy cores himself and if he wanted to improve its offensive power, he'd need to install weapons that would cost thousands of credits which he could just use to buy evobeast cores to feed his energy pool.
I need to strengthen my body, so I can use my manifestation easier.
Peter recalls the dragon's words and his current power. The more he grows stronger, the more his superpower's raw ability improves but with enough training, Peter is planning on making more precise improvements to the ability.
The sister then raised a small machine in her hand. It was a metal cube.
The machine started to dismantle itself one by one, revealing small but important parts, then slowly transformed into another working metal object.
The sister used it to give her a small self moving back massager.
Peter ignored it.
"Peter, you are aware of my brother's hatred to machines. So you can imagine his pain after losing to someone like Carlo."
Peter nods.
"And he absolutely hates people like you."
Peter doesn't react.
In Lucas' family, everyone except him has talent with machines.
Similar to the Simmons, Lucas' family were a bunch of tech geniuses.
Especially his sister, who can manipulate technology as a superpower.
Lucas on other hand had no talent when it came to tech.
But Peter knew why Lucas hated him.
Still, Peter ignored it because he had his own goals and Lucas wasn't someone of importance.
He watched Lucas' arms get restructured from the ground up as his veins and energy vessels get ripped out and fixed.
It was painful and Peter knew that it would take a while, so he bid Lucas' sister a goodbye and left.
Once outside, the lord of ice walked towards his office.
Inside his familiar office, Peter heard Helen typing and handling paper.
"Oh, you're here. Did you check up on Lucas?"
Peter nodded and went to his desk.
Members of the organization are usually outside during missions but in rare occasions when they're not busy, they do paperwork related to research and information gathering.
Once seated, Peter looks at Helen.
"Helen, can I have the report about Lucas?"
Helen went to Peter's side and handed him a medium sized file. Since the mission was quickly handed to Lucas, there wasn't much information filed.
Opening it, Peter started reading the file.
"So they sent a promising agent but got devoured by an artificial evobeast?"
Helen replies affirmative.
Peter frowns, reading about the Gate to the Future.
He was the one supposed to deal with organizations like this but due to his situation, a company managed to slip through the cracks.
Still frowning, Peter continues to read the report.
The report detailed the damage and scale of their fight. The scale was considered to be on a starter lord rank fight so the damage was massive but still manageable.
Peter didn't find anything different or impressive to note, not until he reached the notes and extra information.
He saw a familiar name which shocked even his ice cold expression.
Elizabeth Rielle
"What?"