The past few days had been spent in absolute bliss. Although the realm itself was preparing for war and Arson’s father was readying himself to take on the royal court of Ascension, a realm he was the de facto leader of, Arson couldn’t help but enjoy himself.
He’d won the tournament of scions, and all who would have died in the end were now alive due to his becoming the disciple of Carter Omni. This would normally have bothered him, as he felt his allegiance to anyone who wasn’t Almarine or his mother, and now Troy was unacceptable, yet Arson felt being connected to the man known as the father of crime suited him. He’d never had a love for the rules, but he had a feeling that learning how to work within the laws, all while being aware of the elegance that could be observed within the confines of crime craft, was also important.
So now that he faced a trial for his actions against his fellow Cultivators during the tournament of scions, Arson could only imagine what he would be forced to sacrifice in the near future. Honestly hoping that since none had died in the end, that he would simply have to pay a fine and would potentially be able to move on with his life. Yet he sensed the possibility of that in the end was minuscule.
The Oligarchs of his realm had reputations to uphold, and wouldn’t miss an opportunity to force Arson to work in the realm's benefit in any way shape or form.
Even still the weight of all the hurdles he knew were to come had been set aside easily. With Troy by his side until the young woman would be forced to return to Adroit Academy, Arson’s smile hadn’t left his face. He’d missed her in ways that he hadn’t even understood until the moment he’d seen her dying in his arms, only for his entire world to feel complete once more in the moment she’d been healed and smiled up at him.
The same smile that he worried he wouldn’t be able to live without once she returned to school. Now knowing that he too could join her in the true Adroit Academy, Arson maintained a steady heart at what he felt he must do in the interim. He would prepare his friends and family, as the timer for him to return to Endless still ticked down perpetually in the corner of his Overlay.
He felt selfish for spending all of his free time with Troy, up until Graveyard had come to collect him that day, but pushed his worries aside, knowing that he would get no other opportunities to spend time with his love, as she too was working within the confines of a set time limit given to her by the Adroit Academy administration, as Troy too was now a highly ranked student and expected to uplift the reputation of the school of Cultivation respected across many realms.
Arson stood in the lobby of the courthouse surrounded by his friends and family. Shackled once more, he knew he could free himself from the mana draining instruments commonly used by Graveyard that covered his forearms, but decided not to, because he wouldn’t be rewarded by showing the authorities a lack of respect for the rules and restrictions they were currently placing on him.
Troy didn’t seem to mind the restrictive cuffs and had positioned herself between the shackles, pressing herself up against him with her own arms wrapped around him. The young couple whispered to one another, kissing lovingly between each admission, neither caring about the audience around them, which included his mother.
“Geez, will you two get a room?” said Xani with a roll of her eyes. And the two glanced in her direction. Where Troy would have once been rather angered by the comment, the young woman shrugged and looked around momentarily, noticing a nearby janitorial closet, before she lifted Arson’s arms from around herself.
Without pause she took him by the hands and began to pull him toward the closet, and many eyes went wide as Troy turned around to face the surprised Arson. The young man had no intention of stopping her, even as she pulled him closer, kissing him deeply as she opened the door to the closet with a slapped hand against the wall tablet. A surge of light mana later and the door slid open, and Arson’s sisters gasped as she pulled the young man into what she thought to be the closet, only to step into a portal that had been unknowingly summoned by Jade.
The two emerged right back next to his mother who rolled her eyes, spinning Troy to face her. Jade pointed at Troy, and then toward a nearby bench that a few of Arson’s friends sat on. Then toward Arson, before she pointed at the door that led into the courtroom.
“Although it would be lovely, neither one of you are ready for children…." Troy frowned before she rolled her eyes and went to sit, and Arson shrugged with a smile before he went to stand in front of the courtroom door.
The small interaction caused more laughter than was necessary, as all of their friends and Arson’s siblings seemed to feel the spectacle had been outright hilarious, laughing uncontrollably, until Arson glanced at the group.
A pressure like the depths of the ocean rolled over the group, everyone looking in his direction as they felt suffocated by Arson’s presence washing over them, the only two there unaffected by the sensation that was his mana, Jade and Troy, who merely shook her head, while his mother didn’t even look in his direction, completely unbothered.
“Bro, come on, calm down, that was funny. Chill with the Presence... please,” said Auto.
“No wonder he rolled through all the young scions like a tropical storm. I wouldn’t have fought him either if I had to face that,” said Autumn, truly bothered by the level of killing intent that was intermingled throughout Arson’s aura.
“Seriously, son, you're making a scene…” Arson stopped, not looking back to see the pedestrians that had scattered, in addition to many Cultivators who’d drawn their weapons in alarm, preparing for combat. Arson had barely even pushed out his aura’s Presence, so snickered as his closed Eye Dominion showed men and women hiding after running toward nearby corridors to escape.
“Apologies…”
His friends and family continued to chat and Arson tuned everything around him out, preparing himself for the worst, while hoping for the best. Carter had stated that he wouldn’t get the heaviest of punishments, but how the Ancient knew that to be true, Arson could only guess.
Finally his name was called, and he looked back toward his family. Looking everyone there in the eye.
Khalif nodded in his direction. While Auto smiled at him. Xani gave him a pair of rude gestures that made him laugh and roll his eyes, before she too nodded toward him.
Autumn ran up to him and gave him a quick hug and whispered in his ear, wishing him luck. While Aura gave him a thumbs up. Alexander gave him a lazy salute that Arson returned with an equal amount of casual grace. Micro waved from Khalif’s lap, and Arson was glad to see the pair becoming so close.
Ash scowled at him, but oddly enough still walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek which shocked Arson. Axis and Lane gave twin bows before giggling, which Arson had to force himself not to roll his eyes at. Jasmine glanced up from her tablet and told him not to say anything stupid, immediately returning to her work, Rob jabbed her with an elbow as he and Brianna gave her twin glares.
“What...? He’s gonna be fine, not like he killed anyone… well you know what I mean!”
Finally his mother walked toward him and placed a hand on his cheek, looking him in the eyes. He felt the weight of the realm land on his shoulder under her stare, but as she smiled up at him, he knew that he would truly be okay. He looked at everyone gathered once more and spoke once more before he stepped toward the courtroom door.
“I’ll be back…”
…
Leader sat within the courtroom beside Nex Vladimir, and Achilles Malice who stood off to the side of the large desk meant for the Oligarchs. She would be presiding over the case of the young Carter Gestalt, the Cultivator who’d won the tournament of scions, and was honestly excited to see what was so impressive about the young man.
As the leader of the Cultivation Guild in Maelstrom, she’d seen many powerful Cultivators win the tournament, but not with as explosive of an impact on the realms. Carter Gestalt was now someone seen as public enemy number one, while simultaneously being seen as a young idol to be lifted up.
She’d been shown the video of the tournament by Nex Vladimir the Oligarch of information, uncaring about the tournament, completely until the man beside her had cared to share. The man next to her sat behind a pile of books so tall, that he couldn’t even see Carter enter the room, nor did he care enough to look up from the book he held.
Leader knowing how singleminded the man was, only cared to watch with the understanding that Nex shared information with his fellow Oligarchs, when they held incredible levels of importance, and or were vital to them as individuals.
She felt the young man’s eyes on her even before she looked up at him, noticing how he took in her features, breaking down her every detail in a flash. She wore a business suit with her long blond hair up in a tight bun, her regal collar made from SunStone Obsidian uncovered and shining within the light that came down from the suns above in the roofless room.
She watched him glance over to see the only person sitting in the stadium seating within the large area, catching the nearly imperceptible widening of his eyes when he saw Carter Omni in attendance. Then he kept his eyes closed longer than a normal blink, and Leader felt that Arson’s awareness somehow swept over the entire room. Even Nex glanced up in that moment, also able to see Carter with his own senses through the massive pile of books.
Carter opened his eyes, and Nex returned to reading seemingly unbothered by the young man who was obviously looking at him, but in the next moment everything changed in a mere instant. It was when Achilles Malice lifted his head, and he and Carter’s eyes met that Leader knew something was wrong.
Achilles Malice was one of few people that she herself never wanted to cross blows with, as the once prince of the Sky Kingdoms. The man was the child of a god, and could kill nearly anyone underneath the heavens.
So why the silver haired man’s aura flooded the room at the sight of Carter had Leader confused. She took in Achilles, standing there shirtless as always, chains wrapped around his hands all the way up to his shoulders, wearing nothing but an incredibly expensive pair of pants, a belt, and an even more exquisite pair of shoes. Then the man disappeared in a flash, dropping the simple black metal brand he held in his hand, even before Leader could speak a single word.
…
Arson hadn’t even made it to the stand and was being attacked. A man moving faster than his eyes could track, cleared the distance between where the Oligarchs were positioned, and where Arson stood on the stairs.
An uncountable number of runic inscribed chains came toward Arson and his heart skipped a beat, as his mind and soul warned him of his impending death. Yet even as Arson stood frozen, every chain froze an inch from his body, as did the man positioned only a few yards away from him.
“Stop Achilles, this boy is one of mine, you don’t have my permission to harm him,” said Carter. Arson heard the man, but dared not look away from the silver haired monster in front of him, a pair of roiling red eyes barely visible beneath the incredibly long hair.
“I will kill any who dare tread on the domain of Arkanous. I swore to him there would never be another!”
“I understand how you feel child, but if you continue this I will have to stop you permanently. Now stop before you make me do something I regret…”
“I’ve never met this Arkanous, I don’t know what I could have done to offend you,” Arson questioned innocently, truly unaware of what he’d done wrong.
“You were born, spawn. I will end you before you can mark the realms with your corruption. I will never let you change his law!”
Arson was absolutely confused, knowing nothing about what this Achilles was referring to, unable to think straight as the chains around him remained positioned to strike, every link seemingly carrying more power than was held in his entire body.
He felt that even daring to take a breath would be an insult to this man. The hatred in the eyes held before him unlike anything he’d ever experienced in his life prior.
“I’m sorry boy, it doesn’t matter what you say, he will not see reason,” Carter said, and in the next moment the chains around Arson’s body were retracted and flowed backward, wrapping themselves around the man named Achilles, apparently under the control of Carter from what Arson could tell.
“I don’t have time for this. May we begin the trial? I must be going soon,” said Carter, and Arson watched as the now bound Achilles was lifted bodily out of the area completely by an unseen force.
Arson finally looked around once more, and saw the smiling Carter looking in his direction. The man walked toward him carrying what seemed to be a brand, and Arson knew the cloaked man didn’t have good intentions, and wondered if the people around him felt the same about him when he smiled from beneath the folds of his own hood, hidden in the shadows as Carter now was.
“We may,” said the blonde before Arson.
“Child of Maelstrom, you have been charged with crimes against the system, and the laws of Cultivation,” continued the blonde woman, and Arson sighed. He had so many objections to what he was being faced with, but knew that since he wasn’t even allowed the customary legal council, that anything he could put forth in his defense would more than likely fall on deaf ears.
Just smile and nod like a good little boy Arson, they won’t accept anything else…
“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Arson looked away from the blonde and then toward Carter, who slowly shook his head, looking back to the judge before he too shook his head in response.
“Then without any further objections, I deem you a full fledged Career Criminal, from henceforth you will be branded with the mark of your elk, and forced to pay a portion of everything you are to this society,” finished the blonde.
It was then that Carter approached with the brand, positioning himself between the Oligarchs, and Arson, and in a flash the brand in his hand was swapped. Instead of the black brand that the man had just been holding, the instrument was no longer made from simple metals with a heated end, it was instead a Diamond brand with a peerless quality, the symbol at the end identical to his families crest.
Carter winked at Arson and jabbed the brand down on the opposing hand from his seal, and Arson’s vision went white. All he could feel in that moment, was his body hit the floor as pain incomparable to anything he’d ever felt before rushed through his entire body as he fell unconscious.
When Arson woke up, Carter stood over him, now holding the black brand he’d held originally. The Ancient pointed toward the hand he’d stabbed, making Arson look at his palm.
There glimmered a identical symbol to his family crest, only it glimmered like diamonds before it disappeared. Arson opened his mouth to ask what was happening, only for Carter to kick him before he could, which made him look up at the Ancient who held up a silencing finger to his lips, before he pointed at the hand with his seal, and gestured his thumb behind himself, still blocking his every action from the Oligarchs.
“He’s marked,” said Carter, turning to face the Oligarchs, pointing toward his family crest on the palm opposing the hand he’d actually branded with the simple black metal brand he’d held originally still in his hand.
Arson’s brow furrowed, and a notification popped up in his vision as the blond Oligarch spoke.
“I expect to see better things from you in the future, young man. You should come and visit my Guild, as we are the best place for promising young talents such as yourself to stay out of trouble,” said the woman, and Arson nodded not truly paying attention as he read the notification.
*Secret guild tab unlocked: Welcome to the Criminals of Eternity
Features unlocked:
CrimeCraft Profession.
CrimeCraft Contract System.
CrimeCraft Reputation Shop.
CrimeCraft Roster & Contact Tab.
CrimeCraft Training & Development System.
CrimeCraft Skills & Abilities Overlay.
CrimeCraft Honor Code Compendium.
Welcome to the Club, may you wield the power of the unseen with righteous intentions…*
Arson was both confused and finding himself shamefully exhilarated by the notification, only able to give a halfhearted response as he knew his life would never be the same.
“I will do my best, Your Honor…”