Isaiah
Isaiah paused for a second a hundred meters below the water, focusing on his Kinetic Senses skill as he held on tightly to the harpoon in his right hand. Then he moved, activating Dragon Drive and stabbing out with five Power Attacks in quick succession.
The giant eel-like creature trying to surround him was cut into six pieces and Isaiah felt quite a bit of primal energy flow into his body, pushing him up to level 12.
Again, however, the weapon he was using wasn’t strong enough to handle his new Law Larva of Fiery Destruction, so it fell apart in his hands.
Still, his goals for his training were met. He’d raised and then merged his new Laws, learning how to control the offensive power so it would only destroy what he wanted and not everything around him, even if it did almost always overwhelm his weapon. He’d brought his Storm Steps, Power Attack, Guardian, and Kinetic Senses skills all to 80% mastery or higher. And he’d mastered his only Epic grade skill, Dragon Drive.
He grabbed the eel creature’s head. Then, with a quick activation of his Law Larva of Storm Speed and his Storm Steps skill, he launched himself through the water and out into the open sky above the sea. Then he kept running through the air for an hour until he arrived at the island, roughly 56 kilometers from the shore, and landed in the village of natives.
He said hello to Grandma Wilma and took the Yamila Fruit she offered him, biting into the fist-sized purple source of deliciousness. Then he went to the workshop of Camden, the village’s blacksmith, and one of only five cultivators on the island, where he dropped the beast’s head.
“The harpoon not able to take your power either, Izzy?” Camden, a small middle-aged man with light skin, moved over to inspect the head, kneeling down next to it.
“No.” As usual, Isaiah felt a little embarrassed, even though he knew Camden didn’t really care. “Sorry for destroying your work again.”
“Bah.” Camden waved toward him in dismissal, still engrossed with looking at the eel creature’s fangs and not looking up. “It’s a smith’s job to make tools to help better the lives of the village. Any spear destroyed by you would have served its purpose in lessening the monsters in the area, and that’s as good a purpose as any.”
Camden looked up, an expression of mixed pride and regret in his eyes. “I’m just sorry I don’t have the skill to make you a weapon which can actually withstand your power.”
After failing to capture the sneaky lying woman, Isaiah hadn’t known what to do, so he’d just searched around in the sea for a bit. Only after about half an hour, and getting frustrated at not being able to find her, had he remembered he only had a little more than six hours to reclaim the Gale Clan’s Pillar of Conquest, but he hadn’t had the energy to get back in time and he’d broken down crying where he’d left Varick’s spear, now broken in two.
He’d then waited by the Pillar of Conquest, but a couple days later one of the Gale Clan scouts who’d left with the army came back and he learned at least part of what the lying woman had told him was true. The army had been destroyed almost down to a man and, as far as the scout knew, Ava and Aleron were dead as well.
Isaiah hadn’t taken that very well, growing rather angry and scaring the man away. Then he’d been alone and, after a bit, he’d decided on revenge. He’d gone hunting for the Amoranth Kingdom’s army, but he hadn’t been able to find them in time, and, when he did find the army, they’d already been destroyed, but by who he couldn’t tell, and there was no one left alive to tell him.
Directionless, he’d realized the best time to find any survivors would be when the inheritance opened, so he decided to just work to prepare himself for that event, heading back to the sea to fight the powerful ocean beasts and overcome his weakness in fighting in that environment.
He’d taken a spear from one of the corpses, but it didn’t last very long and he’d gotten overwhelmed by the sea monsters, fleeing through the air to an island relatively near the coast. There he’d been found by some of the local villagers and, even though he couldn’t speak the language and had coloring not of their world, they treated him kindly, giving him food and a hut to sleep in.
Without really realizing it, his life then entered a routine, going out to the sea to fight for as long as he could, then heading back to the island for sleep and food. He’d started to bring back monster corpses to help pay for his room and board and Camden, who at the time didn’t know him, made him a sword from a fang of one of the monsters, bringing him to tears.
From then on, he’d worked to learn the local language, a variant of the tongue used on the mainland, and, after a bit of broken speech and some hand gestures, Camden had started making him spears from the bodies of the beasts he brought.
“I have to go now.” Isaiah grabbed one of the replacement harpoons hanging from the wall of the workshop, one equivalent to the one he’d broken fighting the eel monster. “The inheritance is about to open up.”
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Camden stood up at that and, as Isaiah moved to leave, the man hugged him from behind. “Be safe, Izzy. And make sure you don’t get sacrificed.”
Isaiah had told the man about his life and about what the sneaky lying woman had said, and Camden hadn’t said much, but his expression had been the same as the woman’s. Now it seemed Camden agreed with her and thought the Gale Clan had raised him as a sacrifice to get rewards from the inheritance of the Shadow Thief, and Isaiah felt tears start to form in his eyes.
Camden only hugged him briefly, but Isaiah didn’t move for several seconds after the hug stopped. Then he started to leave the workshop and said, “I’ll make sure to stay safe.”
Before leaving the island, he headed to the opposite side of where the village was, to a cliff overlooking the ocean. And there he sat in front of the small cairn he’d made, inside of which were the remains of Varik’s spear.
He just sat there for about an hour. Then he stood, headed back to the village to get a large pack of dried food, and strode into the sky. He headed to the inheritance site, getting there a couple days before it was to open, and then he sat in the entrance, waiting for others to arrive.
The first to come was a large group, several hundred individuals at least, and they seemed like natives given the language they were speaking. Then more natives came, and more, until there were several thousand of them.
Mixed in were several people with obvious signs of bloodlines not found on Hira, a few members of the Flare Clan, even less members of the Gale Clan, and some people from the Quill and Vol Clans as well, along with a few elves.
The Gale Clan members, on seeing him, almost all came over and sat with him, saying how good it was to see him alive, but he found it hard to focus as, at that point, he saw Ava. She was walking with a man who was either a relatively odd looking native or a resident of the Amoranth Kingdom, his medium brown skin somewhat reddish, his nose slightly larger than usual for the Kingdom of Night, and his brown eyes seeming to analyze everyone in the area with a glance.
Then, when Ava saw Isaiah, she grabbed the hand of her companion and brought the man over. “Isaiah, glad to see you are still alive.” Ava was frowning slightly as she said the words, seemingly unhappy, but the man beside her was different, looking extremely relieved.
Ava’s companion held out two slightly bent fingers toward Isaiah, the Amoranth Kingdom’s version of a handshake, and Isaiah, somewhat confused, did the same, allowing the man to give him a light tug of greeting. “I’m Prince Tomin of the Amoranth Kingdom,” the man began. Then, seeing Isaiah start to grow angry, he quickly continued. “This planet was recommended to me by your brother, who is dating my older sister.
“I’m on your side and the original plan was to use the chance of conquering this world to take you away from the Gale Clan and bring you to your brother.
“That obviously didn’t work out due to the witch, but I’d still like to be allies if possible.” Prince Tomin summoned a reddish crystalline orb into his hand and passed it to Isaiah. “That’s a bloodline crystal made by your brother. There is a message inside for you.”
Isaiah took the crystal and used his qi to cut the tip of his right index finger. Then he placed his finger on the crystal and it was as if Raven was in front of him.
“Hey little brother.” He could see Raven sitting behind a desk in what was very obviously not the Gale Clan, the opulence in the room not something which could even be found in the clan master’s lodgings. Raven also looked a little different than the last time he’d seen him, the black streaks in his greenish blond hair a little wider and his eyes slightly red, more wolf-like, his power seeming to have grown—but the oddest thing was Raven’s smile. He’d never seen Raven smile like that, pride emanating from the man, and it looked good.
“If you’re seeing this, it means Prince Tomin is in a bad enough state that he needs your help.” Raven’s smile faded and he looked serious. “Given your level of genius, I’m assuming you’ve advanced quite a bit while on that little world, but you still need to be careful. I’ve joined the Amoranth Kingdom, having met Tomin’s older sister while out adventuring, and we’re in love, but that doesn’t mean my position is secure.
“You might have learned this already, but the Gale Clan raised you with the intention to sacrifice your life in the inheritance on that world. The Shadow Thief was killed by your paternal grandfather, the War Dragon King, and everything we know about the woman makes it seem likely she’d want to take whatever little revenge she could by having you killed.
“By all accounts, the woman stole something the War Dragon King, one of the most powerful B ranks in the universe, required to help him advance, angering him enough to lower his status by personally killing a C rank, so everyone in the know wants her inheritance and most of them will do whatever it takes to get it.
“My recommendation to you is to not enter the inheritance at all, but there might be some artifacts or materials inside which only you can make use of, so it would probably be a good idea to work with Tomin.
“My guess is he wants to sacrifice you as well, but, if he’s showing you this, it means he’s desperate enough to risk you knowing that. And if, like I expect, you are stronger than him, that gives you leverage.
“If you can stay alive long enough for that inheritance to collapse and then make it to the Amoranth Kingdom, I should be able to protect you with my influence and the Amoranth Kingdom will try their best to raise you, maybe even attempt to send you in as an apprentice to a B rank force.
Raven smiled again, but this time there was some sadness behind it. “Good luck brother, and I’m so sorry I couldn’t do more for you when you were little.”
Raven reached forward, as if to end the message, but then he seemed to consider something and he didn’t. “Finally, if you can find it in your heart and if it isn’t too much trouble, I would much appreciate it if you could keep Aleron and Ava alive. They’ve been raised by that evil father of mine, who killed our mother for petty, petty reasons, but they’re still my blood.”
Raven then reached forward and the message was over.
“So, did Raven warn you about the whole sacrifice thing, or is he as bad as the rest of the Gale Clan? I’ve been dying to know.”
Isaiah turned around at the sound of the voice and saw a pretty young woman he didn’t recognize, but the fact he could only see her and couldn’t sense her with Kinetic Senses made it obvious who she was, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to find her main body among the crowd.
Prince Tomin and Ava, he noticed, were also looking around wildly, so the sneaky woman was probably the witch Prince Tomin had mentioned, and, as he thought about it, it seemed she hadn’t lied much at all.