Ren was on the floor, looking directly at the man. Many memories of Ren's past started to resurface just at the sight of the Goliath in front of him. Ren was dumbstruck that this man was here—this devil incarnate—the reason for his village's destruction.

Just over a month ago, Ren's nightmares came true, and his village was destroyed by men in white robes with the man in front of him right now.

Ren had acted cowardly and ran away from his home the moment this man stepped in, only returning when the village had been completely set ablaze and it was already all over.

And now, in the present, the man he had desperately tried to escape was here, in the flesh, and there was no running.

"You're not going to choose, huh? Well, guess I'll choose for you," screamed the man.

Before using his left hand, which had been sharpened tremendously, to attack Ren in the chest, which caused Ren to bleed profusely before collapsing.

Mean while a lady wearing a blue dress can be seen riding a chariot with gold plating on its design being the only part of it that wasn't blue before arriving at the location of the moon temple or at least the former location of the moon temple.

He comes down from the chariot and is greeted by two men in blue armour who bow down.

"Good afternoon, Your Highness. We are completely thrilled you could make it." said one of the guards.

"Yes, yes, but I did not make this trip all the way from Kita just to receive compliments.

Tell me how the moon temple collapsed" asked the lady harshly.

"Ma, It was Lord Hiroki, who broke in and left the place in shambles."

"Since the moment Lord Hiroki came into the Northern Regions legally, I had soldiers watching him, and yet they all seem to have lost sight of him. I can only imagine that happening if there was a traitor, and seeing you two as the only survivors of Hiroki's wrath, you're right now the only suspects I can think of."

"No, my Queen, Hiroki is a powerful assassin; he could have easily tricked your men."

"You seem to have forgotten the Lord in his name."

The soldier then gets flustered and says,

"I'm sorry, it was a terrible mistake."

"Better, there is a hierarchy in this world for a reason, but seeing as you just witnessed thirty of your allies slaughtered, I'll let it slide."

The queen then walks off confidently in such a way that it feels like she is boasting herself to the entire world.

She walks into the chariot and thinks to herself.

Hiroki has left all association with the Thunder Guild and is now a Lord in the Eastern Circle, so why would he use his skills and why did he go into the temple? What was in it?

*********

Hiroki Saito can be seen rowing with a lot of effort until he catches sight of land, where the boat comes to a halt.

On arrival, Hiroki is greeted by a blue-haired, skinny guy with dark eyes; his name is Misuki.

Misuki, upon seeing Hiroki, said

"Great to see you made it, my lord."

Then Hiroki asked

"Did Vaughn send you?"

"Yes, my lord, now please come with me,

"answered Misuki

before showing him a series of hand signs to prove his allegiance. These hand signs were only known to members of the Thunder Guild.

Misuki then leads Hiroki through some thick bushes, stating that a new headquarters was recently built here in the west, as it's the last place anyone would come to locate the Thunder Guild.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Hiroki follows Misuki every step of the way when they arrive at a small village named Malthusia.

Malthusia was a decently sized town with essentials like a clean water supply and shelter, with all the houses made of wood and no real security except for the neighbourhood night watch, which was only active at night.

Now, within all the houses in Malthusia, Misuki leads Hiroki to one particular house, which Misuki is revealed to have a key to. After opening the door to the house, Hiroki noticed the absence of a floor with just a huge hole in the ground, but when he asked Misuki, he just jumped straight, but not before saying

"Just follow me, my lord."

Hiroki, though hesitant at first, dives into this hole and keeps on falling at immense speed till, as he is about to hit, the ground begins to float. Then Hiroki notices below him blue blocks with intriguing drawings on them, and then upon recognition of what they were, Hiroki smiles and says,

"Gravistones, ain't that something?"

Hiroki lands slowly into the HQ with Misuki and is welcomed by a dark-haired man in a black suit known as Vaughn, the head of the thunder guild and master of a killing technique known as venomous lightning.

Hiroki and Vaughn engaged in small talk for a bit before Vaughn went into business by saying

"Alright, tell me what you found."

Hiroki then proceeds to show Vaugh the shadow stone, and the amount of aura released by the stone captivates Vaughn, so he takes the stone for Hiroki, passes it to a scientist, and tells Misuki he is no longer needed before asking Hiroki to join him for a walk, to which Hiroki agrees.

***************

Ren was lying on the floor in an area filled with darkness itself. The entire area was quiet and calming in such a way that Ren thought of just closing his eyes and falling to slumber.

Ren's eyes were about to shut when he heard a familiar voice speak.

"Get up"

The voice had a commanding tone, but not in a ruthless or forceful way, but rather in a manner that was compelling but as polite as could be.

The voice kept on insisting on Ren getting up and keeping going. The voice was loud, ruined the calmness of the area, and irritated Ren so much that he got up hastily and screamed at the voice to shut up.

But as he screamed at this voice, he saw a familiar face. Within the darkness, there was a person looking directly at Ren. This person was

Kun Kageyama, Ren's father

Ren was dumbstruck, not knowing what's going on. Was he dreaming? Was he imagining it? or had he joined his father in the heavens?

All he knew for sure was that he was staring at someone who was either his father or was pretending to be.

With a loud scream, Ren asked

"What do you want?"

"I wanted to check up on my boy," replied Kun.

"My dad is dead, and you are not him."

"You are wrong. I am your father, and though I am dead, I still reside in your heart," said Kun while pointing towards Ren's heart.

Kun continued saying

"You keep running from this man out of fear, and yet you keep hoping to turn back time to save us. (brief pause) Pitiful. You have the chance to not only face your fear but avenge our deaths, and all you do is run away. Why not stand your ground and show this oversized hippopotamus just who is boss?"

Ren looked at Kun in astonishment, and listening to the words of his father inspired him, so he thought to himself.

[I have been running away for the past three months, and it does not seem to work. It's clear that going in the opposite direction is futile, so I'm going to take on this guy head-on.]

All of a sudden, the darkness was evacuated, and Ren was back in the wooden home, facing the man directly. Ren was able to pull out the man's claw of a hand from his chest and scream.

"I've decided that I'm not running anymore. All I want to do now is watch you suffer, and I will never run from anything ever again."

Ren's eyes started to glow with a bright mixture of red and orange, and his veins became more visible as he marched his left foot on the floor before dashing towards the large man and successfully landing a blow and bruising the man's jawline.

The man was in a total state of shock, but sadly for him, without any warning, Ren was coming in for another punch with his mouth wide open, screaming with insane levels of anger the words "die."

But just before Ren landed the punch, all the negative emotions Ren was feeling were completely rinsed off, and he no longer saw the man from his nightmares but instead just saw Earn.

"What happened?" asks Ren.

"The effects of the poison wore off," replied Earn.

Ren, looking confused, was about to ask further questions when Earn cut him off by saying

"I know I know why did I poison you. Well,well you see, I infected you with a particular curse that makes you relive your worst moments and see your biggest fears."

"So it was all in my imagination, "asked Ren.

"Most of it, but you did punch me, and I did stab you."

"But why?"

"As a test."

"A test for what?"

"Whether or not you could be an assassin"

"What"

"Listen, I am an assassin, and see, we assassins get our strength from malice, our desire to have someone dead, and you see, anyone who has been through a great deal of suffering can tap into this power, and when I first saw you, it was clear you had been through a lot, but the question was, had you been through enough, and so I took a cursed fruit and added it to your meal?"

"I'm sorry, what's a cursed fruit?" asked Ren.

"A fruit that sprouts from the ground in locations that contain a decent concentration of malice and a great deal of grief, the one I used, I found during a mission I had in a village called Aledia just about three weeks ago."

[Aledia, but that's my hometown, and three weeks ago was the time I had run away. Was he there during the attack, and if he was there on a mission, was he among the white-robed attackers?]