"Why am I so weak? Why do I always fail every trial?" a discouraged young voice heaved.

"Failure only enhances your desire for success. Being weak is not something to dread as it's a good incentive," a deep echoing voice of an old man consoled.

"But why are you wasting so much time on me? I have messed up again and again but still you do nothing but encourage me. You say I am the chosen one which is clearly not true."

The young voice revealed himself as an Exilirian wearing a light grey gi who resembled Hoshi in every way except the darker hair colour.

"There is a lot more in us than we give ourselves credit for. Someday, you will understand everything and there will be no question left for you to ask."

The old man had a white beard and was wearing grey robes. He had a faint orange aura around him and had glint in his ocean blue eyes. They were alone on a familiar planet around a rainbow lake.

Hoshi regained consciousness and found himself tied in front of a glistening large lake with bluish tinted water. He looked on his sides to notice an elite guard wielding spears on each one.

"(Where am I? What was that dream? It felt so real, like a memory)."

Hoshi chose to narrow his eyes and keep quiet while he devised a plan in his surprisingly calm mind.

Behind him, a large tent was set up, having the same banner as the palace with four elite guards wielding large halberds standing in front of it. The lake was surrounded by a fairly wide field enclosed between a ring of long rocky mountains.

There was a single frail voice muttering sentences difficult to perceive inside the tent. The voice was of a thin pale skinned old man wearing silky red Chinese imperial robes with copious amounts of gold embroidery. He had long silver hair running down the lateral sides of his face. His eyes were blackened and looked like they had no life in them.

"You have taken my blood for the bottomless pit of shin in return for awakening the true potential of my Ijõna koa. May you please grace me with the knowledge of when I should unleash it."

He was kneeling in front of a small table made up of bones, mainly ribs for the flat slab and four femurs as legs. There was a black chalice filled with murky blood and candles lit with blue flames placed on it. The man's wrist was cut open with a sharp blade as blood still flowed from it, wetting the man's dress from the bottom.

A deep echoed voice came from above and it shook the man's ears.

"His sight will be your call."

The man nodded and ripped his own sleeve to tourniquet his hand to minimise the heavy bleeding.

Hoshi outside was still planning his escape.

"(I have to use my first state in order to break these ropes and take down these two in a flash but that would cost too much energy and I will faint again. My second state that I used in the court will not work here as well. What about that technique father used to open the secret passage? Yes, that could work)."

Meanwhile outside the lake's entrance in the forest, the warriors' confidence began declining as their enemies' aura reached its maximum state with a prodigious difference in their muscle masses.

"How is this possible? Demons can't cross the river and they sure as hell don't look like the king's guard!" Hirishima bellowed.

"Calm down, it's only an assumption. Maybe there is some kind of trick here to throw us all off," Kieri suspected.

"Whatever it is, let's just hurry up and end this. I am growing tired and need a bath." Subaru cracked his knuckles.

"What's this trick Tamura? Why do they reek of aura similar to demons? Another shady magic item?" asked Erashi.

"Don't be absurd, all of this is real. If I weren't ordered to keep quiet I would even tell you our secret," Tamura juantily replied.

"Our? You mean the king's?" Erashi questioned.

"The king can suck my ass, I don't take orders from him," Tamura swiftly replied.

"What? Then who do you exactly work for?"

"It doesn't matter."

Tamura ordered his army to initiate their attack.

"Go now soldiers! Rip and tear until there is nothing left!"

"My warriors! Battle positions! I will handle Tamura while the rest of you go all out on those guards! They have no hesitancy in their eyes so you have full permission to kill!" ordered Erashi as he ran off towards Tamura with his longsword.

"I have never seen him this solemn before," Hirishima commented.

"We have other things to worry about, let's go brother!" yelled Subaru as both of them ran towards the attacking side.

"I wished this day would end without so much bloodshed, but somethings are inevitable aren't they?" Kieri asked Xiang.

"You talk like my… forget it, this world doesn't treat the pacifists so well," said Xiang as he ran behind the two elite warriors.

The guards charged at the warriors relentlessly and started to overpower them as many fell to their superhuman strength. They completely ignored the pain of sword slashing and arrows piercing through their skin while they kept on attacking their prey.

"What is going on? Even fatal blows aren't killing them!?"

"No matter where we attack they keep on fighting without faltering!"

"What do we do? Our numbers are dropping!"

The Warriors panicked.

"It's simple, you keep on fighting as well! We warriors aren't aware of the word defeat!"

"That's right, remember your purpose and fight to live the day to fulfil it!

Hirishima and Subaru joined the fight.

With their signature weapon type mastery, they managed to immobilise and slay a few guards in a flash. Hirishima used his dual longswords to dismember and zip through his opponent's fatal points with high precision and speed while Subaru used his steel arrows and perfect aim to mow down enemies, leaving corpses with massive holes behind, all while showing insane Mobility to dodge every attack.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Even though the two elite warriors boosted The Warriors' morale, the incessant rampage of the peculiar guards still overwhelmed them and resulted in a grisly butchering. Apparently, killing their prey didn't satisfy the demonic guards as they devoured the flesh of the fallen like fiends.

Kieri took full part in the battle and downed many guards with her incredible skills to handle every type of encounter. Despite that, her one apparent weakness held her back considerably. Her attacks were swift and on target, but weren't strong enough to exterminate many of the guards. Xiang was shocked to see such a violent turn of events as earlier, he was confident enough that this would have been an easy and effortless victory for The Warriors.

"(This can't be happening. The numbers of The Warriors are dropping fast and the guards are slaughtering and fiesting on them like a hungry pack of wolves! Should I run? No, I will get caught by them. Then what should I do?)" Xiang stood still, perplexed at the sight.

With an inflamed look on his face, Erashi kept charging without looking back and finally reached Tamura to clash his sword against his foe's katanas.

"That anger, it's beautiful!" Tamura grinned.

"I don't know what happened to you but I believe it's not my brother I am talking to right now. I will kill you and finally put him at rest!"

Erashi placed incredible might in his hands and pushed his sword through Tamura's blades.

"Look around you! So many are dying because of you and your persistence! You lead them to their deaths!" Tamura conversed.

"Damn it, what did you do? They really are behaving and killing like demons!" Erashi looked around and noticed a massacre of his soldiers despite the continuous efforts of the elites.

"Do you like the orchestra I just created? the sounds of screams and blood splattering, it turns me on!" Tamura kicked Erashi back and laughed.

"You heartless bastard! Unlike you, my warriors are dying for a noble cause, to create a better future for Pandara! Their deaths will be cherished forever. While you will be forgotten once I kill you!" Erashi determinedly yelled as he once again rushed at his opponent and began trading blows and clashes to engage in a fairly even battle.

"(Brother… Stop this now! Pruflas!)"

"(If I can do what father did back then, I can burn these ropes and be free to use my first state to sprint full speed out of here. Just remember, what he did back then)."

Hoshi took a quiet breath and reflected upon his father's actions on the day of calamity.

"(That's right, he concentrated a faint amount of aura throughout his body only to transfer it in his hands to create an orb of fire. This must be the third fundamental! Which allows you to transfer your aura into creation!)"

Hoshi concentrated his mind and channelled a faint bit of aura around his body without increasing his strength or speed. He then focused on transferring it towards his hands and legs to burn the ropes. The smell alerted the guards beside him but Hoshi was free before they made their move.

"(Now then, my first state)." Hoshi tried to channel more aura around his legs but failed as his hands were still emitting red flames.

Hoshi looked at his burning hands.

"(what the hell? Why isn't it stopping? Did I use up too much aura than needed?)"

"Hey you! Who said you can escape!?" An elite guard approached Hoshi and raised his halberd.

"And what trickery did you use on your hands? Are you a demon?" the second guard questioned.

"Don't compare me with those mindless monsters!"

Hoshi swayed his hands quickly and unintentionally the flames transferred into a ball of fire and combusted on one of the guards face. His face began burning as he screamed in pain.

"What? Hurry! Submerge it in the lake!" the second guard advised.

"Sorry!"

Hoshi took this distraction to his advantage and began running towards a cave his eyes rested upon. The four guards in front of the large tent took notice of him and before they could move, the old man walked out on his own.

"I didn't think you would come to me yourself. Seems like you might last longer than I initially expected," the old man uttered in a weak voice.

"Who are you? You look like you are about to succumb right now," spoke Hoshi.

"Don't you dare talk to our King like that!" an elite guard yelled.

"King!? You mean this weak old man is your king?" Hoshi exclaimed.

"How dare you! He has been sacrificing his blood for the betterment of Pandara!" another guard roared.

"Stand back, it's time for my ascension," the old man ordered the guards.

"What is he talking about?"

"Who cares what he means? Just do as he says."

The guards mumbled before they took some steps back.

"And your trial begins now, Exilirian."

The old man's bones started cracking and his skin twisting. Substantial amounts of black hair grew throughout his body as his muscles hypertrophied to a great extent. His height multiplied as his Anterior rib cage began protruding out. His exposed skull changed into one resembling an ox with no eyes in its orbits, yet a purple glow radiated from them. Finally, additional skeleton including a pair of sharp horns, a fully developed coccyx forming a bony tail and sharp claws springing out of his distal phalanges.

"What in the shit is that? Is that our king?"

"He? Transformed into a demon?"

"We should leave. No amount of money is worth this!"

The elite guards were astonished.

"Halt right there, word can't go out about me yet. If any of you move a muscle I will tear apart your legs," the demon threatened with a deep and menacing voice.

"What the hell? It's like that demon that destroyed my house that could also talk!" Hoshi recalled.

"That wasn't me child but I am sure it would've been pretty," the demon joked.

"You asshole! How dare you!" Hoshi rushed at the demon but was knocked back by the back of it's hand.

"Huh? You were supposed to be equal to Xander's son. But you are as weak as anyone else," the demon stated.

"What are you? Why did you attack our home!? What did we ever do to your kind!?" inquired Hoshi.

"My name is Honghui Zaruki. I am the king of Pandara, now reborn as a powerful elite demon! All this power. It's everything I ever wanted! All for a small cost of testing your strength," Honghui disclosed.

"Testing my strength? But why? Who gave you that order?"

"I wasn't told you are the type of brat that bombard people with so many questions. Show me the power of an Exilirian, the battle hardened race of Haroshuma, and I might tell you more."

"Battle hardened? You are not making any sense! We are..."

The demon lunged at Hoshi before he could finish his sentence and began swinging his claws furiously at him.

Hoshi attempted to dodge every attack and just managed to be successful as he still took shallow to deep slashes despite his efforts. His clothes ripped more each time he dodged to expose bleeding wounds on his body. Eventually, the pain and tiredness made him hit by a straight slash which threw him back as blood gushed out of his chest. Once he hit the ground, spouts of his blood began staining it.

"It hurts so bad… why? Why did you do this to me?" Hoshi bawled.

"Get up! You have more fight left in you, I can tell. After I am done with you I will slaughter all those warriors."

"No you will not! Even though it hurts and my body has become so heavy, I will not let your kind kill anymore! I have seen enough deaths already!"

Hoshi struggled up and entered his first state to instantly close the distance between him and Honghui. He then amplified his aura to launch a punch in his second state, targeting the demon's skull. Just before the attack connected, his large foe raised his hand to completely nullify the attack even though it had the same power as when he hit Tamura. The demon grabbed Hoshi's hand and began hitting his torso with his tail. His victim's ribs began cracking with each hit as he yelled in agony. Even the guards took pity on Hoshi as they trembled in fear of the merciless demon.

Honghui finished by throwing Hoshi back once again only to jump on his legs, crushing them.

"This can't be it! I was promised a good fight! You are so weak! Come on! Show me something worth my time!" Honghui kept stomping on Hoshi's legs.

"(Stop… so much pain… it will kill me.. I don't want to die…. Because it would mean…. All those who sacrificed their life for me… died for nothing. It would mean that my father's, Arien's, my fellow Exilirians' deaths and suffering were all meaningless! That's why I can't die! Not before I kill the demons that took my past life from me. But how? How do I survive now? There is no one here to help me)." Hoshi's loud screams became quieter by the second as he was losing his last bit of life force.

End of chapter fourteen.