Chapter 12: Connection

“What are you doing?” Daragon asked. Relic in that instance turned around and could not say anything. Memories of his past fluttered back. A similar situation, however, nobody stopped him from dealing the finishing blow.

Fei took this opportunity to grab her brothers and run, not wishing to prolong the fight. John had serious and fatal wounds.

“Shit! Get them!” Brandon commanded but his men could barely move. Daragon walked over to Relic, who stood there aimlessly.

“Relic?” Daragon called, snapping Relic out of his paralysed state. “Were you going to kill him?”

Daragon was watching the fight the entire time. He didn’t dare to step in however, since he believed he’d just be holding Relic back like he did the first time. If Relic worried about having to protect him, they would be in the same situation.

“I wasn’t trying to. Sorry, he got the better of me. A kid like you shouldn’t have seen that.”

“He said something about your mother. Are you alright?” The roles had been reversed now.

“It’s nothing. Just leave it.”

Daragon paused for a moment. He pondered about asking further but was reminded that it was rude to pry into other people. The soldiers rose after a while and Brandon too.

“What were you doing? Why did you let them go?!” Brandon shouted at Relic.

“Hey, you asked me to leave. Don’t blame me.” Relic said dismissively. Brandon clicked his tongue.

Brandon glanced at Daragon and sucked up his anger, striding away. Daragon followed Brandon leaving Relic standing alone.

“Are you Relic, the assassin?” Kai shot a glare.

“Yeah, why?”

“I challenge you to a duel.” Kai drew a sword and pointed it to Relic’s neck. “And then I’ll arrest you.”

“Sir, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” One of the soldiers, Todd, stood up. “He’s already been acquitted of his crimes.”

“This is not a military arrest. This is personal.” Kai glared at Relic with intense eyes.

“Pretty sure that’s abuse of power dude. But you do you.” Relic yawned. “I probably killed someone you know, right?”

“Yeah. Then why do you show no remorse?”

“What’s the point of doing that when nothing will change? You won’t feel better if the murderer says sorry, will you?” Relic answered. “But I’m lazy.”

“So you’re trying to back out?”

“No.” Relic looked away before squatting down and grabbing Kai’s blade with his hand, crushing it. He then held onto Kai’s left wrist and flipped him over. Relic looked down on Kai who was on the ground. “It means I want it over with fast.”

Relic had learnt many martial arts over his years as an assassin in case he couldn’t use his sword or needed defence. His favourite being Aikido. A Self-Defense Martial Art. The move he used was a modified version of Kotegashi, a throwing wristlock.

“God damn it.” Kai punched the ground. He had been humiliated in front of all his soldiers after all. But what was most humiliating was that Kai was taken down by a Japanese Martial Arts. He was a Cultivator from China. Which basically meant a martial artist. The Chinese had pride in their martial arts being superior.

Relic left Kai alone, too frustrated to bother. After all, he had just gotten confirmation his son was alive. Now he had to find him.

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Brandon entered the tent and sat on the bed. He started rustling his hair while making a face of pure rage. Daragon had followed inside and had never seen Brandon so angry before. Until a memory suddenly passed by in his head of a similar scene. It felt like something had possessed him as he walked over to Brandon.

He gave Brandon a headpat.

Brandon’s entire body started to calm down as he looked up at Daragon. Daragon put his hand away and scanned it suspiciously. He had no idea what just took over him.

“Still the same old Daragon, huh?” Brandon said.

“I’m still confused about what you mean by that.” Daragon sat down. “But I came to ask you a question.”

“What is it?”

“When I was fighting against those guys, you shouted at them when they were trying to say Relic killed my parents. Is that true?”

The room was silent. Daragon gave Brandon a stern look while Brandon held his breath in trepidation. He didn’t want to lie. But he also didn’t want to hurt him. After weighing the odds, he decided to speak the truth.

“Yes.”

“How did you find out?” Daragon asked.

“I did some digging into your family.”

“Do you know if my brother knew?” He asked once more. Brandon gulped.

“Yeah. Your brother knew.”

“Then it’s fine.” Daragon sighed.

“What? How is it fine? Didn’t you say you wanted to experience having parents?”

“Well, I didn’t really know them.” Daragon answered truthfully. “It was mostly Draken that became depressed and upset. If he forgave Relic, then what right do I have to?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“So that’s it? Just because you didn’t know your parents?” Brandon was astonished by Daragon. “You grew up without parents, a real family.”

“That’s not necessarily true. I grew up with Aisha, Tom, Daniel and… Draken.” Daragon grew silent for a moment as he reminisced about his past with all of them, especially Draken. He tried to change the topic though. “My Seguri told me my memory was locked.”

“Locked? That would explain why you don’t know Thomas and why you’ve been acting differently. But how exactly were they locked?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to find out. But when I saw you in that state, something came rushing to me. Something I don’t remember doing.”

“Well, something like that did happen in the past.”

“What? Tell me about it. Maybe it might jog my memory.”

“It’s embarrassing but…” Daragon gave Brandon a pleading look. Brandon exhaled. “One time I got super pissed off because my grades dropped further and I wasn’t the perfect kid I portray myself as. Then you told me that everything was going to be fine and that I didn’t need to be perfect.”

“That has literally never happened before.” Daragon denied. “I would never be so cringe.”

“Well it did!” Brandon replied angrily.

“Maybe if I see Thomas I might remember him. Where do I find him?”

“Well, he enrolled to be a Knight. They rejected him so I don’t know what he’s doing now. Sorry.” Brandon explained apologetically.

“Yo. Daragon, we need to go.” Relic intruded into their tent. Brandon glared at Relic. “What?”

“Don’t ‘What?’ me! You let fugitives get away! You should know just how dangerous the worm cult is.” Brandon complained while Relic dug his ear, not caring one bit.

“Yeah yeah. Come on Daragon. I found leads on my Encil’s whereabouts.”

“Wait what? He’s alive? How? How do you know?” Brandon interrogated.

“I met an old friend. A fortune-teller who told me he was still out there.” Relic answered.

“And you trust the word of a fortune teller?” Brandon scoffed.

“Yeah. Now come on Daragon.”

“But I-”

“Daragon should stay here. He needs to get his memory back.” Brandon explained.

“Memory back? Wait a second. Did you by any chance visit a therapist named Pallium?”

“Pallium? I think that name rings a bell. Why?” Daragon asked.

“I know how to get your memory back. That guy has caused me trouble too.” Relic explained. “Now come on. We don’t got all day.”

Relic took out his sword and drew a circle in the air, opening up a portal.

“Wait Daragon, before you go, here.” Brandon reached into his pocket and brought out a circular device. “It’s been scripted with Mana.”

“Is this what they call a phone?”

“Yeah. It’s a military use one but I modified it a bit so you can play games.”

“Of course you did. You didn’t do anything else did you?”

“No… Maybe.”

“How would I charge it though? I can’t use mana, remember?”

“What? Doesn’t matter if you’re bad at mana transferring. It siphons mana from the person who touches this button to keep it charged.” Brandon shows a button below the circle phone.

“Alright. I’ll try calling you if I can wherever we’re going.” Daragon said as he walked through the portal with Relic. The portal closed immediately upon their entry.

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The pair found themselves in the middle of an alleyway. Outside was a bustling town square with lots of people walking. It was currently 3PM so most of them were students going home.

“Hold on a second.” Relic immediately chucked a small blue pill. The medicine was coined as ‘MP’. It condensed mana and traps it within a pill that dissolves in saliva. Afterwards, the mana is released inside the body which allows people to absorb mana faster than from their surroundings. Food works the same way but the concentration of mana in food was like comparing chicken to a protein shake.

“So where’s the therapist?” Daragon asked.

“Therapist? No no. We’re finding my son first. Your memory problem is later.”

“What? Bullcrud!” Daragon swore in anger.

“Language.” Relic mocked.

“Can’t you just portal to your son?”

“That’s not how my ability works. I can only go somewhere I know the co-ordinates of. Just imagining the place won’t work since places can change easily.”

“If that’s the case, what about the Earth’s rotation or position? Don’t you need to account for that too? And also the Galaxy’s. And the Universe’s. And the-”

“Daragon, my Seguri does the rest. I would explain the rest but it’ll be far too long.” Relic cut him off.

“You’re so bald.”

“That is so random.”

“If the fortune teller gave you the location, then why didn’t you just portal there immediately and get him?”

“She only gave me a rough location. She can’t give exact locations.”

“That sounds lame.”

“You’re lame. Now keep it down. I’m going to try and sense them.”

Daragon took out his phone to satiate his boredom. He tried sending a text to Brandon but it didn’t go through. The phone sent an electrical signal using mana. But because it came from an independent source, other such phones made by people could also have the same electrical signal. If those were to cross paths, it would render the phone null which is why few people actually use phones since it might not be useful at all.

“Damn it.” Daragon continued mashing his keypad while walking from the alley to get better reception. He turned to a game instead. A Soviet Union Game, Chetyre which meant four in Russian. It was a game where you were given a random shape made of four blocks and set them in a grid. (Tetris).

Daragon heard the sound of something hitting the floor. He turned to see a tanned skin girl with brown hair. She had a student uniform on. She had dropped her bag. She glanced at Daragon intensely. Her eyes opened up wide as she ran to him.

“Daragon!” She hugged him.

“What? Who are you? How do you know me?”

“Did you already forget me? It’s me, Nayla.” Nayla smiled at him. Daragon took a step back.

https://i.imgur.com/sLaibAW.png

‘Nayla? What does she want? She clearly hated me. That witch that caused me so much-’ His brain started to playback memories he didn’t remember being a part of. ‘Hold on. Could my memory of her also be locked? That would explain why she’s talking to me.’

“Daragon? What’s wrong?”

“Nayla. Why are you here?”

“I live here? You’re the one that helped me move. You said you’d visit me sometime but you didn’t.”

“What? Since when did I-” More memories came back to him. His head started spinning as the pain became more and more unbearable.

“Are you alright Daragon? Do you need water or something? Anything?” Nayla asked worriedly, reaching her bag for her water bottle.

“Get away from me!” He slapped the bottle out of her hand. His hatred for her superseded the memories he was slowly unravelling. He groaned and held his head as he knelt down.

“Hey Daragon, I couldn’t- Oh shit.” Relic went over to Daragon to try and help him. He ‘helped’ Daragon by knocking him out. “Whew. Now he’s not in pain.”

“What the hell did you do to him?!” Nayla exclaimed as onlookers started taking notice. Nayla pointed a finger gun at him. “[Fire Spell: Delayed Fireball]!”

“Yo what the hell. I didn’t do anything!” Relic tried to convince her while Daragon’s unconscious body laid beside his leg. “Damn it.”

“Fire!” She yelled. Relic grabbed Daragon and jumped away from rooftop to rooftop.

“Ma’am! It’s illegal to use spells in a public area without a licence. And even worse is to use a combative spell.” An officer arrived to reprimand Nayla.

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Relic sat down on a rooftop. He didn’t want to portal somewhere again as he had no clue where his son was now.

‘That girl did look familiar though.’ Relic thought to himself as he stared at Daragon. ‘I wonder what that kid is doing now though’

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“Vox!” Daragon yelled.

“You know I’m always here right. It’s not like I got anywhere else to go.”

“You know about my memory being locked right?”

“Yeah.”

“Are any memories I have of Nayla locked?”

“No. None of them are locked.”

“What?”

“They’re overwritten.”