" 'Lost Wisdoms' are profound wisdoms from an ancient era that gave those who possessed them the great power to alter the law of nature we know at will. As a kid, we’ve probably heard myths about them a few times to describe the extraordinary phenomena that take place around the world. And I never once believed in those tales with no historical evidence, let alone many that were explained by modern science. Until one day, I had seen it for myself..."
Weiss describes what happened to him.
…5 years ago,
The Prism Group, the conglomerate that holds a monopoly on all of Themeise’s energy and underground businesses, led by vice president Weiss, is on the verge of its biggest coal-fired power plant destruction. Hundreds of their people’s dead bodies were all around the area. Their blood was draining from the stab wounds in their major arteries.
"This bastard has only one person. Kill it as a sacrifice to our passing away crews."
Weiss orders the army under his command to concentrate all fire on Undre, who walks out of the fiery energy reactor unscathed.
*RAT!* *TAT!* *TAT!* …
A hail of bullets from gunmen lay on Undre's skin filled with the black characters. Not a single shot could pierce through it and inflict a wound on him. Then everyone heard an indistinct murmur before they began to fall to the ground. Weiss and his army of snipers wriggled, bleeding from their eyes, noses, and mouths, and suffocating one by one. That day, Weiss was the only one who survived that nightmare.
"Spare me… Take.. whatever.. you want."
At that moment, the young Weiss realized the existence of Lost Wisdom and its users was on another whole level. The vice president of the great Prism in Themeise, lay on the floor begging for life from Undre, the rookie executive of Donkey, which at the time was just a no-name gang. Undre just gave him a single sentence of praise with a big smile.
"You’re qualified, Bweh hehehe..!"
The laughter Weiss had never heard before made him extremely horrified. It was as if he had heard the laughter of the demon in the human body. Undre then unfolded a bundle of old papers strung together by thin ropes and showed it to Weiss. A white aura forthwith flashed from the frontmost page. An enormous amount of information entered Weiss’s head until he felt like his head was about to explode.
"ArghhH!!"
Weiss fell down, tearing his hair out and screaming in pain for a moment. He then sensed the weird feeling of overflowing power. The visible white aura started to manifest around him, and he became innately aware of the ability he was capable of, the instant relocation towards the target he had set. But in the meantime, he felt like his sanity was about to be scattered at every single moment. That power made him narrowly escape from Donkey’s grip, and he was saved by the nearby city’s Airburst. Weiss fled to hide in northern Komveena. Every day he practiced, learned, and planned every possible way to make a comeback secretly while watching his family’s Prism group fall apart from the rise of Donkey spearheaded by Undre at the time…
Weiss talks about his past as he walks with Ravyn through a corridor lined with lab capsules and constantly glowing machines on the side.
"..During that time, me and Undre had many fights that ended in a draw. Until now, that I’m almost ready with my power that even a demon like him feared.."
Weiss showed off by emitting a white lightning aura before he continued.
"…If you help me reclaim Prism’s greatness from those dirty donkeys, I will make sure that you have the revenge you seek."
So far, Weiss stopped in front of a doorway and offered his hand to Ravyn.
… He had the power to the extent that he could teleport three people to a distant place in the blink of an eye. That would allow him to deal with anyone. Why would he require any help from me?...
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
After some thoughts on what Weiss just said, Ravyn felt something was off. But aside from explaining too much, nothing that Weiss told her contradicted the information Leila gave, and his body language showed nothing suspicious. Nevertheless, the offer was too tempting for the girl to reject.
"What’s the plan?"
Ravyn took Weiss’s hand and asked.
"As you can see, I can instantly warp to anywhere with my Lost Wisdom, ‘Projection’. But it requires a tremendous amount of energy.."
Weiss opened the door in front of them with a key card. That room's infrastructure was a laboratory in one of the research centers that matched the blueprint shown in Yu’s AB ring. With Weiss’s connections, this place that was supposed to have been closed for years was privately used for his secret experimentation. There were about 400 elite scientists and researchers and 100 of the finest surveillance guards roaming each shift, 24/7.
"My research team and I are developing things that will extend my teleportation capabilities. We’ve tested all creatures possible to create the massive energy supply that will have me moving around every corner of Themeise and uprooting the Donkey before they even know it. But none of our power sources is even close to Airtech’s elaborate Aiolia stimulation mechanism, theoretically. So would you please kindly let us have a couple tests with that gun of yours?"
Weiss looked at First Kiss, the pistol with an old rose color in Ravyn’s hand. Ravyn also looked at her gun with disbelieving eyes before starting to get a little strange that the man in front of her seemed to know more about this gun than her.
"Seems like being a fan of mine is just an excuse, huh?"
"I am not making this up. The reason I follow that TV show every week is because of you. Too bad that talent wouldn’t be shown to the public any further. And I’m just lucky that the former Airtech engineer I kidnapped was more useful than I thought."
Weiss responded so emotionlessly that she didn’t even have to detect lies.
"Whatever, but I doubt this old model Airtech will be powerful enough to meet your expectations."
Ravyn saw that First Kiss’s firepower was far inferior to what the Airburst and AB Trainees used, and it had sentimental value to her that she didn’t want anyone to mess with.
"It’s the exact opposite. Airburst’s Airtech has an out-of-this-world functional basis that uses the recoil force from the prior shot and the heat generated in the gun to continually produce air ammunition regardless of model. But later models set an ammo cooldown period to strengthen each shot and a self-destruct system if detected for usage as a power source. What’s in your hand is the ideal generator to speed up my charging faster for months."
…He’s saying that Pim always kept this dangerous thing to herself? There seems to be a misunderstanding here...
Ravyn couldn’t believe Weiss. But because he promised that the gun wouldn’t be damaged in the slightest and that she would monitor every step of it, Ravyn allowed them to give it a try. After some preparation and value calibration, the purple-haired girl grabs the First Kiss and inserts it into a special battery built to support the Airtech generators. It actually works. The massive amounts of electricity are generated and stored in a central energy storage facility. Ravyn’s cooperation in recharging and consulting citywide search strategies and effective attack patterns learned from working for Airburst helped advance the Weiss’s plan progression by more than 70% in just over two days. Kanji, who refused to participate in the plan, was forced by Ravyn to.
"Today, I refused to be a lackey to the bad guys that imprisoned Yu!"
"There were dozens of professional armed guards here all the time. Even Olivia the Lacerator, whom you are afraid of, is no match for Weiss in terms of speed, and he was able to crush the AB ring that could withstand a ten-wheeler's weight. You stood no chance against the one that could come get you at anytime, no matter where he is right now. Let's not do anything that people around us are gonna regret. Okay?"
Thinking of his younger siblings, Kanji had no choice but to join the plan.
It’s been four days since Ravyn and Kanji lost contact with the outside world in this research center. And due to Weiss’s teleportation, the two disappearances leave no trace for AB to follow. Ravyn interrogates and tortures Donkey’s men captured by Weiss to extract their plot and whereabouts one after another. Day by day, Ravyn began to treat these people harsher to vent her anger at learning what they did. Some people have 'Cyclinesis' and recover rapidly, but it doesn’t mean that they feel no pain.
"Uargh!!..."
The sound of torture emanated from the temporary interrogation room and echoed throughout that floor for several hours every day until little Kanji couldn’t stand it. He decided to sneak away from Ravyn to the front of Yu’s prison cell.
"Kanji? What are you doing here, big bro?"
Yu in the cell called her colleague. Kanji turned around and saw a beautiful brunette who was now trapped in a thick glass cage. Her limbs were strewn with burns from electric shock cuffs that even a stranger would find harrowing to look at.
"I can’t believe that kind-hearted Ravyn would be blinded by a grudge and join that wicked man. She doesn’t even care how you are doing. My canteen angel doesn't exist anymore." *sob* *sob*
Kanji cried, sympathized with Yu, and was disappointed in Ravyn.
"You shouldn’t be here. The changing guards from another shift are on their way. Go and hide in sector G. It is the least crowded one right now, Kanji."
Yu told her friend worriedly. But with this thick cage, Kanji couldn’t hear it, so Yu slowly approached the glass cell to point him out. Even so, the movement speed that was slightly faster than required caused the shackles to electric shock Yu with every step she took.
*zap!* *zap!*
Her expression said it hurt, but she had to do something before anyone could see Kanji.
"I can't take this anymore. Don't worry, I will get you out of here, Yu!"
Kanji, with a handful of the screw pieces he secretly stole from other rooms, swung at the special safety glass cage that trapped Yu, in spite of Yu's shouting at him to stop. Before the boy’s fist smashed into the glass, his arm was grabbed.
"You really want to die, don't you?"
Ravyn, holding Kanji’s arm as the static spark was vaguely forming between the screws in his hand and the glass wall, spoke with Weiss following closely.