Before leaving Luck asked one last question that surprised everyone sitting at the table, Kamira was very afraid to see what events would follow but thankfully it was chaotic like she thought it would have been

"Why do you need to know that kid?"

James asked as he crossed his legs

"She appeared to be a mana user and also know you, so I want you to tell me what business you had with her and our island"

Luck said with a calm yet aggressive voice

"Hope... Hope was a good girl, strong, reliable, and independent, she was everything anyone wanted to be, her power was unmatched even by the strongest of the strongest but she didn't specialize in fighting but even if she didn't she still could win pretty much anyone in this room with just her physical power and technique, and when we first found her it was like he found a gold mine, something so valuable that we mustn't lose, but things didn't work out for us"

James said with a happy voice, he sounded almost like he was proud, proud like a father in the graduation of his kids

"So she worked for you?"

Luck asked confused, James smiled when he heard him

"No way she would work for us! Didn't you hear me? She was one of the most powerful people in history, she didn't care about us and we couldn't do anything about it, we could simply ask her for favors in exchange for whatever she needed"

James said

"Could you specify something she might have asked?"

Luck asked, James, took his time to think

"Mostly security to the residents of the island and most specifically you and your friends, and one major thing she asked was for someone to sacrifice in order to seal the volcano, oh right you don't know this do you?"

"Know what?"

"Your island is basically a secured country destroying worthy bomb, from ancient times your island was made from a mana volcano that erupted underwater, this volcano emitted a large amount of mana so it attracted many high-ranking self-made mana zones, that's why this island always wanted a protector, when you were born there wasn't a defender there so many evil companies and individuals started exploiting the island's mana, but everything when Hope bloomed everything changed, she was able to clear all of the randomly occurred mana zones and defeat all of the evil guys, nobody knows how Hope got this powerful but everybody quickly feared her, that's why I was expecting Destiny to show the same kind of power like her but I was proved wrong, but I had one last hope, and this hope was YOU"

James said as he pointed his index finger at Luck

"Alright, that's all I wanted to know so I will take my leave"

Luck said as he started walking away

"You were my last hope Luck because you are the son of Lucifer, the one guy I could never defeat no matter how hard I tried"

when James said that Luck suddenly stopped walking

"Even though your father wasn't a divine or had a huge mana pool but he was still undefeatable, but you, you are different than him, you have his genes but you are also a divine, having this amount of potential is scary for him and everyone else in the world"

James said while he stood up, Luck looked tired

"There you go again with being on top of the world bullshit! You are supposed to defend this world right? Then why do you try to conquer it?"

Luck asked as he turned around so he can face James

"Captain James doesn't have to answer anything to you! Now take your leave so we can move on with our job"

James's right hand said, Luck then turned around and left the room, and after a small look around he was once again reunited with his friends

"What's happened in there? You spent double the time we did!"

Destiny said, she was sitting on a couch with Caroline

"Well he wanted to talk to me about my divine abilities, he seemed interested in my clone ability"

Luck lied, he didn't have a reason to reveal his questions to them and he didn't need one, he didn't want to make Destiny or Floga invested in Hope's past

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"So what do we do now? We don't have training or anything, plus we still haven't said anything to Kamira about this weird gut Luck and I fought"

Floga said as he was leaning on a venting machine

'Did we always have a vending machine here?'

Luck wondered, he completely ignored Floga's question

"Well, there is not much to be done! I will report this problem myself later so we can all go and relax somewhere"

Caroline said with a smile

"That's a good idea! I saw a nice place while we were at Palermo, so how about going there?"

Destiny asked with a careful voice

"Well, have fun because I will not be coming!"

Luck said as he left the mana zone, Floga shortly joined him on his walk

"I feel like spending time with the girls so how about I join you?"

Floga asked Luck as he lighted up a cigarette

"Do whatever you want, I don't plan on just lazing around here"

Luck said as he walked in the opposite direction from Palermo

"Where are we going?"

Floga asked after following Luck for quite a long time

"To train of course"

Luck said as he continued to walk

"Where are you supposed to train and with who? "

Floga asked, Luck seemed a bit hesitant to answer

'He will find out either way so it's better for me to tell him'

"We are going to see Daniel"

Luck said, Floga had a very explosive reaction after hearing that

"Daniel? This son of a bitch that tried to kill us?"

"Yeah this guy, are you going to snitch on me?"

Luck stopped and asked Floga, Floga was a bit indecisive

"Why would you want to meet him? And how did you even agree to meet in the middle of nowhere?"

Floga asked as they both continued to walk on the side of the road

"Before he left he told me to meet him in a forest located in Palermo and we both agreed to some terms for this to happen, and the reason I want to meet him is because everyone is hiding something from me, Caroline didn't tell me anything and when I asked Kamira and James about Hope they didn't say a word either so I'm tired of asking everyone about answers, I will go find out myself even if it means putting my life in danger"

Luck said in an angry tone, Floga was understanding of Luck's situation but still didn't feel right about this

"Are you that stupid? He probably wants to take advantage of you or maybe even kidnap you"

Floga said as he lighted up another cigarette

"He said he couldn't harm me but this doesn't apply to you so he will probably kill you if he sees you again"

Luck said to warn Floga but he didn't listen

"He can try but he can't, I will probably awaken a secret power of mine and beat the living shit out of this motherfucker"

Floga said with a serious face, Luck laughed, it was a genuine laugh

"It's been a while hearing you laugh like that, I kind of missed your annoying stupid laugh"

Floga said as he looked away from Luck, Luck gave a thought to what Floga said

'Now that he mentioned it, I have noticed that I have stopped laughing, maybe things with Caroline have become more complicated than I thought'

Luck wondered as he kept on walking

After minutes of walking Luck and Floga turned to the forest and went to a specialized area, it looked like a woodcutter's warehouse, well it used to be a warehouse but now it's all empty, only the cut pieces of wood remained

Daniel was sitting on a tree's cut trunk and was penitently waiting for Luck

"Oh, Lucky boy ya arrived! But if I remember correctly I didn't tell ya to bring ya, fella"

Daniel said as he got up

"He isn't here to fight, he simply followed me, he promised not to say anything to UMP so everything is alright"

Luck said in order to calm Daniel

"Well, whatever? We can talk business with ya friend around can't we?"

Daniel asked Luck, he nodded

"Ya may wonder why I called ya out here, first of all, I promised to answer some of ya questions but second and most importantly was to test ya, I'm talking about this divine power of "yours", most specifically ya SMZs"

Daniel said as he started approaching the two boys

"I still haven't managed to develop a mana zone but things are starting to look better with each passing day"

Luck said, he seemed unfazed by Daniel's presence, Daniel then stood just a step away from them and asked

"How about ya defender? Do ya know how to make a SMZ?"

"I have something ready but it's not completed yet, why do you ask?"

"Nothing ya care for! So are ya going to show him how ya did it or stand there like an idiot?"

Daniel said as he started at Floga, Luck then spoke up

"He won't do anything before you tell me about Hope"

Daniel look confused at first but quickly remembered

"Oh Hope! She was an amazing fighter, master tried multiple times to recruit her but she refused every time, we even tried to use force to get her to join us but she managed to win again and again so we never got her to join us, the reason she was stronger than us was because she was not only a divine but also was suspected to have ties with the mana spirit, everybody was surprised when we heard that Hope died, was it suicide or something, kind of stupid to die like tha..."

Suddenly a mana-enhanced punch stuck Daniel in the face launching him meters behind

"Oh my! Son's boss doesn't look so pleased about what I said"

Daniel said with a smile on his face

"Luck what are you doing we can't wi..."

Floga said with panic in his voice but after seeing Luck's face he was speechless, it was like he was looking at a beast

"Take that back before I murder you!"

Luck said as he manically smiled

"I would like to see ya try"

Daniel said as he got ready to engage in combat

"That's enough!"

Caroline said, she was with Destiny

"What are you two doing here?"

Floga asked them

"We noticed that no mana samples were heading to the city so I used a mana-detecting skill and then I found you hidden tracks that guided us here"

Caroline said, Luck looked furious

"Who told you to come here? This fight is mine"

"Ya heard him, ladies, so give us some privacy..."

Daniel said as he merged his hands together

"Don't!"

Caroline yelled as she launched herself at Daniel

"...Specialized Mana Zone: Turtle's shell"

Daniel said, Daniel and Luck were transported to Daniel's SMZ, it looked like they were inside a big bowl that was incredibly hard, Daniel had changed too, his whole body was covered in a turtle shell-like armor, the armor resembled medieval armor set that juggernauts would use

"Are you ready to face the real me?"

Daniel said with a smooth voice

"Whatever fucker! Show me what you can do!"

Luck said as he created iron fists...