11 years ago

The City of Alex- Miravulum Kingdom, Empire of Caelum

(The woods near the van Alexia estate.)

What actually happened that day... (Reference to the distorted memory Adonis had dreamt about in chapter 50.)

TUTUT TUTUT

"Kyaa!" Hearing the dreadful beating of the insect's wings, Oizys was instantly refuelled with energy, pushing himself to run even faster.

"Hm?" Noticing he was now the only one screaming, Oizys frowned deeply and turned his head to the right, searching for Lutz.

"Lutz?" Realizing Lutz was nowhere to be found, Oizys gasped.

Succeeding a few seconds of internal debate, Oizys turned his head backwards, not only to gauge how close the magic beast was but also to see if he could spot where he might have left Lutz.

Surprisingly, when he turned his head, his eyes didn't meet a large winged cricket or even his blonde close friend.

"Ah!" Instead, the boy's perspective was suddenly flipped upside down as he tripped over a log and was sent tumbling down a steep slope.

THUD THUD

As Oizys rolled down the ravine, he steadily received dozens of cuts and scratches.

SPLURT

CUT

BAM

sniff sniff "Lutz..." Finally reaching the end of his journey, the child couldn't help but sob.

"Ozzy!" Lutz looked down from the top of the ravine.

sniff sniff "L-lutz..." Oizys's nose produced a deep green bubble.

POP

"Are you okay?" Lutz's eyes began to water.

"Y-yes...Please get my papa!" Oizys covered his eyes with his hands and wept.

TUMBLE TUMBLE

"Papa!" OIzys snapped his head toward the deep slope, his large brown eyes suddenly brimming with hope.

"O-ouch." Landing on his bottom, Lutz rubbed his thigh uncomfortably.

"Why'd you come down? I told you to get Papa!" Oizys screamed.

"But then you'd be alone...Being alone isn't fun, you know." Lutz muttered.

"I guess you're rig-" Oizys smiled.

"GRRR." Interrupting the best friends' reunion was the vicious growling of a sickly Grey Wolf.

"Ozzy..." Lutz clung to the brown-haired boy.

"Lutz..." Oizys brought him even closer.

"I-is t-that..."

"Yes. I-it's a magic beast." A single tear rolled down Oizys's cheek.

"GRRR." The Grey Wolf approached the two children cautiously.

"Ozzy... Are we going to die?"

"I don't know." Oizys sobbed.

"But you always know!"

"We're probably going to die." Oizys admitted.

"I don't wanna die."

"Me too."

"GRRR." The magic beast was now not more than two meters away from the kids.

"If I die, I'm glad it's with you, Ozzy."

"Lutz?"

"I've never had a friend before. All the other kids never wanted to play with me... I was lonely." Lutz smiled warmly.

"GRRAR!" The Grey Wolf eagerly pounced at the children.

Middair, the magic beast was impaled by a large hand prompting a beautiful scarlet shower.

"Didn't your mother tell you to stay within the estate...Lutz?" A tall man characterized by his cascading golden mane casually flung the corpse of the magic beast to the side.

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"Yes, father." Despite being saved from the threat of the terrifying magic beast, Lutz's tiny heart beat faster than ever before.

"You must Oizys." Duke van Alexia's gaze shifted to the curly-haired boy next to his son.

"Scary... I mean yes, Duke." Oizys muttered.

"No need to be so formal, you're my son's friend. Call me Uncle Ludwig." Although the Duke's face was smiling, his cold cyan eyes were not.

"Sorry, Du-Uncle Ludwig." Oizys shivered

"Thank you, Father." Lutz fiddled with his fingers.

"We need to leave before your mother notices you're gone."

***

3 hours later.

Van Alexia Estate, main gate.

"Bye, Lutz!" Free from any scratches, cuts, scrapes or even scars, Oizys gipped his mother's hand warmly.

"Bye, Ozzy!" Standing beside Duke van Alexia, Lutz waved shyly.

"I hope he didn't cause too much trouble." Pan Hermes looked at the Duke.

"Trouble follows children their age." Duke van Alexia joked.

"More like they follow it." Pan snuck a deadly glare at her child.

'Tell me what you did later.' She mouthed.

-whistle- Acting oblivious, Oizys focused his attention on a beetle.

"Travel safely." The Duke smiled.

***

"You're weak." As soon as the mother-son pair left the gate, Ludwig looked at his son.

"Father?"

"How could you be scared of a mere unranked beast?"

"I'm sorry." Lutz's large eyes turned glassy.

"You are the heir to the van Alexia Dukedom, you possess the blood of an archangel, stop being weak."

"...'

"If this behaviour continues, you'll never see that heathen again."

"Bu-"

"Go to your room and study the fundamentals of the Alexian Arts." Ludwig commanded.

"Y-yes father."

***

Burning Bush Saga, end.

***

Dungeons and Damons Saga, begin.

(Two weeks after the Battle Royale. 8 AM) (Present)

Hero City- Robur Kingdom, Caelum Empire (A cave near the magic knight's academy.)

{How're you feeling?}

'The great devil God is concerned about a mere mortal?' Adonis, whose previous wounds were nowhere to be found smiled amusedly.

{That means you're okay, good. Time for training.}

"AHHHHH!! The pain." Adonis suddenly dropped to the floor, gripping his stomach in pain.

{Stop playing around mortal.} The Devil God said, unamused.

sigh 'Okay, then what's today's training?' Adonis stood up suddenly.

{You've achieved satisfactory mastery of the first stage of the supreme devil arts.}

'Satisfactory? I've been training for five years straight.' The naked youth complained.

{Stop interrupting me!}

'My bad.' The teenager pouted.

{So as of today, you're going to be learning the second stage.}

{The first stage of the Supreme Devil Arts technique is the offensive stage, the stage in which basic slashes and thrusts have been perfected; surpassing every limit associated with the crude actions.}

{Unlike the first stage's four techniques, the second stage only has one technique.}

'Sounds easy enough.'

{Kukuku, let's see.}

{Unfortunately, practising the technique requires you to be under attack. So currently you'll only be practising the Aura usage as well as learning the theory associated with the technique.}

'I'm listening.'

{Start by releasing the full extent of your Aura.}

DUMMM

Adonis's spirit suddenly bulged as he released the full extent of his Earthly Aura.

{Shrink your aura cloak while maintaining its power.}

"Argh..." Following his instructions, Adonis groaned and increased the density of the energy.

{Now, when facing an attack you're going to have to do all of this at the exact moment and the exact spot of the assault. If done too early, the damage done by the attack will double as well as extend to your spirit. If done too late, well you know what's going to happen. You'll still receive the attack anyway.}

{When performing the technique you'll have to cease the reinforcement on the rest of your body and weapon, leaving you momentarily vulnerable throughout your entire body but invincible in one spot.}

'Then what happens when I successfully pull it off? Will the attack simply be nullified?'

{Do you think I'd create such a weak technique? Oh please... When timed successfully, the attack will be reflected to the opponent.}

"That's..." Adonis's mouth gaped open.

{I know right? I'm amazing.}

Shrugging off his excitement, Adonis rolled his eyes.

"I'm going to be late for school."

{You've missed two weeks and you're worried about being late?}

***

(Two days after the Battle Royale. 10:23) (12 days before the present.)

Hero Magic Knights' Academy. (Amber Shine's dormitory.)

'There's still a damon in our year and I haven't made any progress in finding out who it is.' Seated on her neatly made bed, Amber frowned.

'The Elders dismissed the Wicked Aura burst during the outing as coming from the dark elves but I don't believe it one bit.'

'If there was a damon among them, we wouldn't have survived. Plus they were directly working under an Empire, and even on the off chance an empire was using damons as soldiers they would've never been so reckless.'

'So either the Academy's elders are carrying out the investigations behind the scenes or they're being incompetent.'

'On the small chance that it's the latter, I can't let this slide...'

Amber took out a pencil and scroll.

'There were ten of us there. Tarzy, Luna, me, Lutz, Cecil, Princess Jupiter, Vindicta, Aster, Vera and Veda.'

'I can already cross off Princess Jupiter, Lutz and me off from the list.'

'Tarzy is highly unlikely, because of his relationship with the imperial family... If he was one he would've been caught long ago.'

'Luna is an idiot so it's not her.'

'Maxwell Aster is a suspect, but I've investigated his background and his progress has always been consistent with no strange spikes. He is simply a hard-working prodigy from an unfortunate background.'

'Vera and Veda may be talented magic knights in their rights, but by class A standards they are merely average. put bluntly they are too average to be picked by a deity.'

'The two who stand out and are my prime suspects are Adonis Vindicta and Jerald Cecil.'

'Adonis Vindicta is a commoner with no notoriety whatsoever despite his talent being so overwhelming, he also has no family other than Hiram Vindicta who also appeared out of nowhere. He has the most red flags, but when I followed him the whole day he showed nothing suspicious... but it was just one day so it doesn't mean much. I need actual proof before I can apprehend him.

'Jerald Cecil is my number two suspect. Initially, I had brushed him off, but as time passed the more I realised that some things don't add up. When he sparred against Wendy Carter he easily defeated her meaning he is at least tier 10 high rank. But the strength he regularly shows is tier 10 mid-rank. '

'Another red flag is his family, although he is a noble he comes from a long line of knights. It seems as though his entire bloodline is hated by mana, not a single mage nor magic knight has emerged from his family. His entire family has a history of having a low mana depth yet miraculously he has one above average. If he was a damon, his mundane mana depth would've been elevated to the point where he was capable of becoming a magic knight. Which would make sense.'