It's Time To Study Again

"Aauuu, aah... waauuh..." The young man who didn't even have a chance to see his attacker or see what hit him harder, the explosions of whatever that was, or the way he was easily made a punching bag out of despite being a Conflagrate realm cultivator. All the young man could do as he barely felt his own body and was able to move it, feel it, and only think back to the times he studied mortals and noticed how their adrenaline worked. All he hoped, for now, was that he also got a huge sting of adrenaline from his body and could run away from there.

As for the disciples and believers in his care? They are all either dead since he was attacked, and nobody had come looking for him this entire while. Though the young man couldn't possibly tell that not even a minute had passed since he crashed for the second time, and against the ground, from the moment he first experienced the explosion of pure energy unbeknownst to him only.

So, it was either that or… they just didn’t want to help him in the first place. If so, why would he care about them then? Even Conflagrate realm cultivators could feel bothered by lower cultivators like this, he barely got the hint of that. And while he realized this, his bum against the ground and his back against something hard and uneven, uncomfortable to press his back against but was the only thing around - he saw a shadow figure moving towards him within the smoke of the rubble having flown off all around him on the second crash of his body.

“Come here if you dare!” The young man shouted, false bravado making Ciemnosc, that figure within the smoke in the night, shake his head while smelling that false bravado which couldn’t be any more obvious. But the young man continued, “If you’re here for me then come, I am not afraid. Come here cowards!”

“Ayayayshh~!” Suddenly, the figure spoke, and from it, Ciemnosc appeared with the young man’s eyes going really wide and wild with surprise, shock, incredulity and… admiration? But Ciemnosc ignored it all, not giving it even a tenth of attention, before saying after exclaiming annoyingly. “Why talk this much? Don’t you know how important it is to keep your strength in moments like these? I thought you were a diligent, studious person. Bad for you.”

“C- Cie…” Hearing the incredibly ‘pale’ voice, the insanely emotionless voice that had not even coldness in it, the young man believed for a few seconds that his eyes failed him at the last moment when he was about to die. But Ciemnosc was indeed still there! And he was even moving towards himself!

Immediately, the young man’s eyes opened wide and his left hand extended out defensively, a little bit up, and his right hand trying to make time by helping his body drag backwards. “Wa- wait Ciemnosc, I actually- actually, I am someone who believes in you! I admire you! I have read a lot about you, and I can’t believe I have somehow found you, I…”

“Oh, augh, shut up.” Ciemnosc rolled his eyes just as his right arm extended forwards and a little down, his palm opened up relaxedly and aimed at the dantian of the young man. A thin Mortal sword came out as if shooting through the air, but Ciemnosc’s right hand grabbed it well and it was like a docile teenager in their daddy’s warm embrace, well-behaved and simply too cute to be a bad girl.

“Wa wa wait!!” The young man shrilled out, his face paler than palest and his eyes losing all hope. He was surely having his worst nightmare. “I don’t wanna die! Not in your hands, Ciemnosc, pleas- AAAHK CIEM- … … …”

Phhshk! Phhshk, crreeshhk crreeshhk crreeshhk, crreeshhk…

Ciemnosc no longer said any other word to the not shutting up young man, not even an ‘I don’t care’, he was simply undisturbed and directly sent the young man off to meet hell or heaven. To meet his goddamn death.

The thin sword’s tip first entered right above the pelvis in the middle, shutting the young man up who didn’t know he could feel pain there still. But Ciemnosc also grabbed the handle over his right hand with his left one and ‘awkwardly’ pulled it out with his left shoulder lowering quite a lot. Then, the tip of the thin Mortal sword went into the young man’s body once more, this time a little closer to the sternum, in the middle but still lower than that.

The first penetration had shut the young man before he suddenly began to beg with extremely tearful eyes. But the second penetration occurred, and all that the young man saw… was terrible, terrifying, terrorizing, and ultimately coldness from those eyes. While seeing those eyes, the pain from having his stomach pride open by the thin sword’s tip, all the way up to his lower lip… seemed so much like nothing compared to those eyes.

Thud thud thud thud.

Going through seizures a little, the corpse’s arms and legs fell on the ground at last while the dust settled around them, and the smoke began to disappear. The young man’s head was already severed, and Ciemnosc kept it in one Covert Space Bag. While the rest of the body was still being stored little by little as if he wanted to take his time with his hand on each part of the young man’s body.

‘I wonder how it will feel to be the one and only to almost defeat Ciemnosc?’ Thought Ciemnosc himself, as he heard footsteps from behind and in front of him. As the dust settled down completely, the nervous and prepared believers and disciples walked a step closer and closer every few seconds until they saw a figure picking up some of his belongings from the ground.

Just as they were feeling like they found the wrong scenario, someone from their sides yelled, “Look out! AAAAH! Those are the remains of senior apprentice brother! My god, he is dead!”

Now, that was one way to make a fan girl wake up and grow up. But it wasn’t just the female voice’s owner who looked at Ciemnosc with both hatred while being scared with the rest of the group already getting to scan the murderer’s cultivation base.

“Huh?” - “... gaaaaaasp!” - “It’s Ci- Ci- Ci-... Ciemnosc!!” - “Ciemnosc, you monster! Senior apprentice brother always spoke well of you, even whe-” Voices went on and on. Ciemnosc rolled his eyes for the second time, but harder this time, and he waved his thin sword around, eliciting ‘smart’ shouts from the nearby dogs. “Look out! That’s-” - “He fucking has a fucking Mortal weapon! My god, everybody run!” - “Make a run for it! Don’t let him catch you!” - “He’s only at the Spiri-” - “Fuck! How is he this powerful now? He can kill Conflagrate…”

And the voices trailed off. Leaving Ciemnosc behind, who to them looked like a monster but later on when they were to sober up, they would then remember seeing his incredibly battered body without a shirt and bloody face, his arms with flesh arrow-shaped penetration and blood trickling down - they would remember it even more when considering who he killed and how.

Only then would they start having their minds working, and when they got back to their alliance if they even did, such news would be even easier for them to relay to anyone they saw. But still, in silence, as the others left and Ciemnosc quickly and expertly picked up the young man’s body, he thought. ‘What me chasing you? Don’t you know how many strong Creatures are out there? Letting you all go is already low enough of a chance for everyone to survive.’

After shaking his head disapprovingly, Ciemnosc looked around and saw that there were no more flesh or organs littered around. Ciemnosc nodded to himself while being glad that the young man was smart enough to use his Power Energy to flow at his maximum at all times possible since the first explosion went off - inside his body.

If it wasn’t because of that, the young man would have easily become a flying rug of skin perhaps, the explosion of pure energy could destroy anyone who either didn’t put his Power Energy at a maximum flow rate within their bodies at the very least, and that is so even for Obsidiafying realm cultivators; or those that did not have Ciemnosc’s body.

His bodily strength was just like that, not just pure, raw power, but also a durability that perfectly fit with his strength, letting him become so formidable he could very well punch himself as hard as he could and only damage himself somewhat.

Step step step step step step step step…

“...?” Stepping back towards the village’s center, where the large house was semi collapsed, Ciemnosc was weirded out as all the villagers were there as if waiting to see if something else happened. Arriving in front of them, Ciemnosc wasn’t shy to show his topless body and his ‘injuries’ while the old men, women, and other villagers looked at him as if he was a whole differently-looking human being.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

He didn’t bother with their rudeness. Ciemnosc himself was a villager once, eh. But as he looked around, the pretty young girl was also around, right there, her hands free. Before he could even lift his left eyebrow or tilt his head leftwards, Ciemnosc heard the young girl’s voice and saw her little, pretty right index finger point directly at his nose.

“You there! Get out of my village!” - “...” - “...” - “Get out of my village too, you punk!” - “Get out of my village!” - “Get away from our homes!” - “Leave us at peace! Ingrate!” - “Get out of my fecking village you twat!” - “Fuck off!” - “Leave us alone, you monsters! You monster!”

“...” Ciemnosc’s left eyebrow finally lifted, and his right eyebrow also twitched. Looking at these people suddenly shouting at him, Ciemnosc wasn’t even panicky, let alone unfazed despite the similarity of this to when he was ‘outcasted’ from his own village, and those memories did indeed resurface as the villagers went on about it.

“Behave.” Ciemnosc finally got enough, too many dogs barking and too many flies buzzing around for a shit. He spoke that one single word with his darkest eyes, of bottomless pool-like darkness, seemingly trembling by whatever the fuck as he gazed at the villagers.

From his Covert Space bag a t-shirt and a jacket, both black colored with a humble stylish design, popped into his right hand out of nowhere, while he placed his forearm over his right shoulder. Then, he began walking towards the west, though he left a single set of words of notice for these villagers; still.

“For the better and for the good sake of your village, move away from here and establish another village in some place more peaceful and away from the direct paths that lead to the east.” Ciemnosc then just continued walking, leaving the villagers behind without a care.

Step step step-...

“You little, scummy punk! How dare you step on my village!!” A bold, old man with no hair and a long, uncared for white beard came rushing at Ciemnosc with a broomstick without the broom itself. He was rushing to the boy’s back with the intention of attacking, but stopped as he got too close and in attacking range. The old man added, however, “Apologize to me, to us! Kneel right now and we might forg-”

Swish- phhshk-!

The old man didn’t even know when darkness became all of what his whole being could witness, but the rest of the villagers at least managed to see the boy extend his right arm. And while his right elbow was still bent, his left hand seemed to want to slap his own right wrist away. But to the disbelief of the villagers, Ciemnosc’s left palm pushed a thin sword’s handle that had suddenly popped out of nowhere; and towards his right wrist at that.

With an ever so simple swift set of motions, little too, Ciemnosc’s hands made as if acrobatics in the air in front of his chest. His right hand easily grabbed the handle after his index and middle finger smoothly traced the thin sword’s slightly glowy blade’s flatness. And when the handle was grabbed at full, a powerful but very small gust of air went out, with the epicenter of it being right at the moment and place where Ciemnosc grabbed the thin sword’s handle.

The handle was grabbed and the whole sword was pushed. The image that followed right after was the only thing that the villagers could take notice of, as they suddenly saw a thin sword’s blade led by its tip penetrating through the old man’s neck from the back and aiming slightly downwards.

On the other hand, the old man now was limply hanging in the air with his feet and knees no longer having any life nor function, like a ragdoll that wasn’t even properly well made, but also with his neck somehow not being broken off at once by a Mortal grade weapon’s blade.

Ciemnosc was so careful as he penetrated the old man’s neck with his sword to leave the flatness supporting the skull and rest of the neck while moving not a mere nanometer sideways, as that alone would be enough for a Mortal graded edged weapon to easily cut the entire neck of an ordinary person; even despite the obviously strong and resistant muscles there.

… swiishp, thud.

“I said to behave,” Ciemnosc left those words in the villagers’ ears and faces, slapping them and getting drilled into their brains, leaving their mark just there. While they were crazy preoccupied with seeing their village head getting killed just like that, let alone being humiliated and not making the villagers feel better about themselves, Ciemnosc’s back disappeared within their fearful eyes.

Now it was the time that they were getting sobered up and understood why nobody dares to insult or offend these cultivators, for even if they show ‘weakness’, which should’ve been instead taken for goodwill, Ciemnosc actually acted as such just because his actions involved other people whom he didn’t even know of but still…

While Ciemnosc entered his commanding vehicle, the villagers went to tear up back into their homes, the rollercoaster they boarded was too much for their weak and useless hearts, and all they could do for a good while was to feel that heaviness in their hearts; that of true helplessness.

***

A couple of days later, near the Rocaloi Academy’s entrance, in the dawn of yet another day where not many really expected the confirmation of so many high-end targets being taken down by a single person - one that was even supposed to be some kind of godly child.

The tales of Ciemnosc in the east and how he is supposed to be strong enough to even kill those a whole realm above him were spread these days like never before, it was even so for the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect ex-disciples who had already turned into the students they longed to have become in the first place and not just some disposable trash for a major organization.

Even though those were people that Ciemnosc knew nothing of, they did of Ciemnosc, as they had seen him before with the intranet, his fights, his kills, and his moments with the deceased pearls, treasures, and geniuses of the sect…

Trckrr trckrr trckrr trckrr trckrr… Pshift~.

At this moment, Ciemnosc had stopped with his commanding vehicle right before where he could barely see the array’s self-concealed standing on. After waiting for a few seconds, Ciemnosc then saw a gap open up from the array, large enough for 3 commanding vehicles of his to go through in all volume. Ciemnosc drove into it and went from witnessing a dawn rising from his back to a clearly lit academy where the blue and golden all around made it great to wake up even early in the morning or to start their next day from that early on.

Though the students and the academy’s staff weren’t ordinary people, looking at these colors had obvious improvements in their mood, affecting their psyche well and whatnot. Though when Ciemnosc entered it, all he saw was his dark mind, his Covert Space bag didn’t have 3 Conflagrate realm bodies but only 1 remaining instead, that one belonging to the most high-profile assassination target in his possession.

Ciemnosc drove through the academy for a while before arriving at the Mission Request & Acquisition building, where a lot of people were already waiting. It was more than obvious that Ciemnosc wouldn’t be unnoticed with his huge commanding vehicle, which was the only one in the entire academy in terms of vehicles. From another point of view, the academy at least had a lot of Creatures being reared within the precinct though.

Only the pelicans, Cloudless Eagles, and some swans were known to be flying mounts in the 4 ‘major’ organizations. While they did have Creatures to act as mounts to move through the land, those were just some ‘okay special’ horses that were Creatures of at most the Spiritual Ligament realm but at least faster than even Phrenic realm 1st stage cultivators… without using their Power Energy to enhance and protect their bodies.

Tutu, thud. Step step step, step step step.

“Cici!” Tini was among the crowd as her face could clearly be seen sweating, and not a little. She yelled out towards Ciemnosc as the boy was actually wearing some glasses, and after yelling at him, she realized that. Smiling at the cute little image of the handsome, mighty charming boy, she walked through the crowd who treated her like a- no, the queen in the move, and ‘together’, they moved towards the building’s entrance.

“Howdy?!” After walking over for a few seconds, Ciemnosc arrived right before the entrance. While Tini herself had managed to suddenly rush at him and jumped quite widely above everyone’s heads. Yet, nobody dared to look up, even if she wore shorts and a long-sleeved shirt with a yellow little hoodie even for her short body… and age. Not at the thighs, not at the delicate arms, armpits nor at her neck, and much less at her not so small growing body at her chest.

Tap tap.

Landing on the floor right before the doors leading to the main hall of the Mission Request & Acquisition building, which were wide open and only closed during a certain few hours for maintenance at random hours of the day. Tini stood before Ciemnosc, who was about to move his left hand to take his dark glasses off.

But Tini beat him to it, her right hand rudely grabbing the left lens and taking it off him, putting it on herself instead as her small nose made the glasses fall down until a bit of the lower half division of her eyes was even visible.

“These are nice. Where did you get them? The academy only sells them in hot seasons, and it’s veeeery snowy, as you can tell.” Tini asked, her eyes looking at the left lens, then at the right lens, then over and over again. Ah, she looked so…

“I stole them from one of these,” Ciemnosc said while raising his right hand, which was holding a bag made of hay, and with another 2 bags of such hanging from his wrist and forearm.

“Err, I see,” Tini said, only giving the heads in each bag a glance before returning her eyes to his face. Ciemnosc felt her unusually powerful Spirit Sense easily scan through them. She really had to be something in the academy, it seemed. Her Spirit Sense was on par with Valeria’s if she wasn’t a battle lusted… her.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it.” Tini respectfully said, patting her own head for some reason before stepping aside and adding just as he was going to step forth. “Sir Ciemnosc, if you want thee back after you are given your rewards, come out and bring me to our workshop! Hehe…”

Tini stuck her tongue out in the end, closing her eyes tightly, almost making a cross appear on them. Before Ciemnosc could take the second stop after being ‘stopped’ by her, he heard her hushedly say, “I’ll be waiting for you here.”

… Step…

Instead of continuing to step forth, Ciemnosc twisted his upper body backwards. And while giving Tini a look, his lips moved as his darkest eyes were on hers as she held them up to her nose and covered her own obscure blue eyes and as her strands of black hair danced within her curly blonde magnificent hair.

“Okay.”

…