“HAHAHAHAHA!” Teetee’s mad laughter echoed as he slashed his dagger madly at Alim.
Alim easily dodged the wild swings. Everything that Teetee had learned seemed to be gone. He appeared to have reverted to before he went through any training. Why?
“Brother! HAHAHAHA! BROTHER!” Teetee screamed as he stabbed the dagger into his chest, “See, Brother, does this not look fun! Let me show you!”
“What did they do to him?”Alim thought as he watched a green mote of light float out of Teetee’s open wound.
Teetee jumped toward Alim again, madly swinging his dagger, but the mad swings were getting more and more precise.
“What is happening?” Alim couldn’t help but scream, his eyes so focused on the man in front of him that he could not see the distant Gran smiling at the men near him.
“This experiment seems to be going well,” Gran spoke with a broad smile.
“Indeed, we did not expect for there to be someone here to test the experiment on. It was a lucky break and should help with furthering the experiment.” The man with greying icy-blue hair next to him said.
“It seems the man is playing with it, though?” Asked the man with short brown hair and a mad smile.
“You have nothing to worry about, Irmin. It is simply in its learning phase. Just give it some time, and the roles will be reversed.” The man said
“Is it like some kind of child, Vanir?” Gran asked after hearing the man’s statement.
“You should consider it to be. Even though we used living materials, there was a regression considering the materials were quite damaged once we received them.” Vanir said with a smile as he looked at the Erlminins.
“We did our best not to damage the subject, but the assassin was quite talented,” Ager sighed.
“Indeed, we were lucky that our original target only managed to kill our guard and not us. Although the irony of a Shadow Race killing their own kind for a mission is quite silly if you ask me. What a useless racial pride they have.” Irmin snickered with a grin.
Alim stared silently as he blocked the arc of every dagger swing, “Why are you here, Teetee?” He thought to himself, “I saw your Life Light Pillar! How can you be here like this?”
Alim looked at the mad swinging beast before him. he knew that the Teetee that had grown with him was gone, but hope was still there that his old friend might be hidden deep in the wild beast before him. But what could he do?
He was constantly battling himself on exactly that decision, that choice. He knew that he could not ask the questions in his mind as it was already suspicious that he could do the things he could as a ‘normal’ Seedling. He could not even imagine what would happen next if they could connect the two madmen battling in the center of the battlefield together. If only he could pull Teetee off the battlefield, out of this open air, and ask him what was happening.
He could feel the piercing eyes around him waiting for him to make a mistake. Lucky for him, he had not used any of his essence arts, only his improved physique, so playing it off as a one-star with no essence arts was his only out, but the suspicions arising from this would not lower no matter what he did now.
Alim needed to be seen as necessary to get close to Gran when he returned. This was the plan that Alim had made in the last few days and was his best course of action, but with this development, he did not know if his decision was the wisest. Alim wanted to slowly show his power as he had in the training sessions, but when an opportunity like this battle showed itself, he took full advantage, thinking it was the best option. Only now did he realize that his impulsive decision was a trap, but not for him, and like the fool he was he threw himself into a trap prepared for someone else like a martyr jumping onto a blade.
“YOU SAID THAT MY BROTHER WAS STILL IN THE CAPITAL!” The scream of a man with a similar appearance to Gran bellowed in a fit of rage at those around him.
“I am sorry, my Lord,” a figure that kneeled before the man groveled, “The information was directly from the Shadow Race that your father employed just for this occasion, so we trusted the information, but it seems that we were wrong to trust an outside race.”
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The Prince glared coldly at the man, “I trusted your organization to help me ascend to the throne! My Father even helped cover your tracks so that you could assist us against Gran and whoever his backers are!”
The Prince began to throw everything he could at the figure before him. “PARAGON! WHAT A USELESS THING YOU ARE! WHAT A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY! YOUR STUPID ORGANIZATION OWES US AN EXPLANATION!” The Prince screamed.
The figure glanced up, showing a white mask with no holes, only a black teardrop in the direct center, “I apologize, my Lord. We shall do better, but I think it best to retreat now.”
The Prince’s troops could be seen running from the battlefield. Gran’s troops began to scream at their hard-fought victory over the surprise attack.
Alim deftly swung his dagger, sending Teetee’s head flying through the air, but the mad swings never stopped. Alim clicked his tongue; he had barely missed the Life Seed at the back of the base of the neck. He easily dodged around the swings until he was directly behind Teetee, stabbing his dagger into the slightly exposed Life Seed, shattering it.
“Why did I have to do this a second time?” Alim questioned himself but could not show any emotions because, as far as anyone else was concerned, two madmen had just fought, and one had killed the other. No one knew the relationship between these two men, none except for Alim himself, and he wanted to keep it this way.
Alim was pulled out of his thoughts by the sounds of clapping, “What an excellent performance. If I had known I had someone like yourself, I would have never revealed my little toy today.”
“I apologize, my lord,” Alim said, kneeling, but his mind lay elsewhere, stuck in the thought of killing his friend for a second time.
“It is fine. I have heard about you from my people. They say you are quite fit for leadership, but now I see that battle is also part of your repertoire.” Gran said with a sly smile.
“It was never my intention to hide anything…”
“It is fine from what I have seen from this clumsy battle. You must have just recently become a one-star. I assume it's only a few months, but less than a year. So, I understand wanting to hone your skills before you show them.” Gran said, pulling Alim from his kneel
“The Lord is wise,” Alim shyly responded, keeping up his subordinate act and trying his best not to stab this man who called his friend a toy.
“It would be such a waste of talent to have you in the position that you are in, so I will be putting you directly with me and my new friends here,” Gran said, pointing to the Erlminins and the Feyrishians.
“From what I am told, you already have a connection with this young one from the Vanir family, and you are also close to Irmin. It will make explaining everything and getting your assistance much easier.”
“Whatever the lord may task me with, I shall accomplish,” Alim said with determination. A determination to stop whatever it was that these people were planning.
“I love a loyal follower,” Gran smiled as he spoke, “Let us move to a quieter location so I can tell you about your new duties.”
Alim followed the group silently with gritted teeth. He knew that these people were the ones who did something to Teetee, but he had no clue what they had done. Now, he was about to either discover what had happened or die; either way, he was too involved to leave now.
The group walked for a while before arriving at Gran’s office. Gran told the escorts that had led them to wait outside of the room as he needed to talk about personal matters with the people following.
The elder Vanir was the first to speak as soon as the door was closed, “You will train with the experiment and help it gain knowledge of combat.”
“As curt as always,” Gran’s mouth twitched as he spoke, “Yes, we need your assistance with the experiment that we are doing, and the test subject you just met was one of the first successes that we have had.”
“There's no need to provide any further information to him. He's simply a useless Seedling,” Stated the elder Vanir as if what he said was common knowledge.
“I can provide no assistance if I do not know what I am supposed to know,” Alim said with a dead tone.
The elder Vanir slightly smirked after hearing Alim’s remark, “You are right. What is your name, child.”
Hearing the elder Vanir ask for Alim’s name, the others in the room almost jumped out of their skins.
“What you don…”
“Silence, Seedling. I need not any input from you.” The elder Vanir glared at Irmin.
“Strev, sir,” Alim said
“Strev… I will tell you everything you need to know about this experiment; everyone else may leave.” The elder Vanir said, his eyes locked on the man before him as if he was looking at a fun new toy to play with.
The rest shuffled out with shocked faces, but the young Vanir could not hide his smile that slowly stretched across his face.
“This Shadow Race seems much more talented than I had first assumed. He may be useful later, so I need to keep him alive as long as possible.” The young Vanir thought to himself.