Quite some time ago, there was a young, passionate man traveling for the sake of growing even stronger.

On a fateful day as the sun’s heat bordered unbearable, that very same youth was kowtowing in front of a lone figure.

“Please take me in as your disciple!” the youth cried, not daring to move his head from the ground.

He had foolishly challenged the man to a duel and found himself pinned down on the ground almost instantly.

The man who was the recipient of these words looked incredibly uncomfortable.

“Could you stand up? It’s kind of embarrassing... even without anyone around,” the man said while scratching his head. “Seriously, get up.”

In an instant, the youth stood up and bowed so his torso was perfectly parallel with the ground. “Apologies!”

“Stop that!”

The youth looked up, his eyes full of confusion. “Have I done something wrong?”

“Everything. You’ve done everything wrong.” His androgynous face twisted into a look of contempt. “People are going to think I have some kind of weird fetish... Ah, I hope there’s no one around to see.”

The youth activated the worldwide known killer, the puppy dog eyes. “Does this mean you’re unwilling to take me in as your disciple? Someone with power as great as yours... perhaps I am too lowly to receive your help.”

The other started to look even more uncomfortable. “Is it even allowed? Will I get yelled? I really don’t want that, their voices are so loud. Well, it shouldn’t be a problem, I’m bored anyway, so something like this might be entertaining. Oh! Won’t he have to call me Master, I’ve never been called that before,” he mused to himself, placing his fingers on his chin as he thought. “Hey, kid, what’s your name?”

“Yvick.”

“My name is Erebus, and from today on, refer to me as Master!”

“Y-yes, Master.” Yvick’s eyes filled with hope. “Does this mean that you’ll teach me?”

Erebus nodded his head. “Indeed.”

Yvick started to bow repeatedly, at such an alarming rate of speed that Erebus wondered if his brain would suffer damage.

“Stop that,” Erebus reprimanded. It was starting to make his head hurt.

Yvick obeyed.

The obvious eagerness in his eyes reminded Erebus of a faithful dog. All Yvick needed were dog ears and a tail, then the image would be complete.

“Fetch, boy,” Erebus couldn’t help himself and said such words.

Yvick scrunched his eyebrows. “Fetch what?”

“Nothing, nothing at all.”

A gust of wind passed through them.

Erebus clapped his hands together twice. “Let’s begin then, with your training.”

“Eh? Already?”

“Prepare yourself, you might die.”

“Wait, what?”

“I’m coming.”

Erebus began to walk towards Yvick slowly, making the latter doubt if Erebus was actually going to attack him. Yet, as Erebus came closer and closer, a flame of fear ignited in Yvick’s stomach. The aura that Erebus normally kept restrained began to leak out, the aura, though it was technically scentless, reeked of death and carnage.

“Ah!” Yvick let out an unseemly scream. “Don’t come any closer!”

Yvick wanted to turn and run, far, far away. But he knew, without a doubt in the world, Erebus would find him.

His legs were quivering and shaking, he felt like jelly. What was this? He never felt a fear quite like this in the entirety of his life, it drew out the animalistic crave for survival deep within Yvick.

A few more steps and Erebus would be close enough to reach out an arm and strangle Yvick.

If he had been in his right set of mind, he would’ve used the ultimate technique of the Hulad-Ruhi clan, which raised his defensive power exponentially, but he was far too scared to even think of that.

Yvick stood there helplessly as Death reached for him, a single hand aiming for Yvick’s face.

Erebus’ apathetic eyes meet with Yvick’s. “Bang,” Erebus said softly and flicked his finger.

His finger didn’t even touch Yvick’s forehead, but it sent the youth flying like a ragdoll, his body hit the dry ground and tumbled. When Erebus flicked his finger, a large sonic boom was made and where Yvick had been standing and behind the spot, a chunk of the earth was missing.

The impact had stirred up dirt and caused it to swirl around in the air lazily when the dusty clouds finally cleared, Erebus could be seen walking towards Yvick’s broken body.

“Did you die?” Erebus asked as he squatted down next to the bloody figure. His body was bent at multiple different angles that didn’t seem healthy at all. There was even bone sticking out in some places.

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Yvick let out a pained moan that signaled he was still alive, which was a miracle of its own. Well, he was probably going to die soon.

“You did well. I put nearly all my power into that, if you were any weaker, you probably would have been obliterated.”

Erebus, who always had to restrain his power to be able to even touch a person, it was refreshing being able to use that much without killing somebody.

No, no, no, Yvick thought as his conscious began to fade, I’m definitely going to die if someone doesn’t heal me.

“Ah, I don’t know healing magic,” Erebus lamented. He never had to rely on such a thing. “I only know a little bit, uh-oh, what am I going to do!” He jumped up and balled his hands in his free-flowing hair. Suddenly, as if he had an epiphany, he smacked a fist onto his palm. “I’ll call Ayirn! Don’t think of dying until she comes, resurrection is something we haven’t tried before.”

Without any hesitation, Erebus contacted Ayirn, who upon hearing someone was about to die, said she’d be there within a minute.

“Don’t die! Don’t die!” Erebus cheered on Yvick as if he was at a sport’s game. “I believe in you! Good luck.”

Who was the one who put me in this state! Yvick screeched mentally.

True to her word, a figure came flying down from the sky. Dressed in white, billowing robes and resembling an angel, Ayirn rushed to Yvick’s side.

She healed his wounds in record-breaking time. With her healing abilities and Erebus’ strength, Yvick questioned what exactly they were. Wait, no, it might be better if he didn’t know.

“What happened?” Ayirn snapped at Erebus the moment Yvick’s life was brought back from entering red territory.

“He said he wanted to be my disciple, so I wanted to see how strong he was.” Erebus pouted like a child.

She frowned deeply. “Is that even allowed?”

“Keep it a secret?” Erebus winked.

Ayirn glanced at Erebus, then at the fully-healed Yvick who seemed to be refusing to stand up.

She didn’t trust Erebus at all to not end up killing the poor child.

Ayirn’s eyes stared intently at Erebus’ face, which seemed to completely amused by the situation.

Absolutely zero trust.

“Fine,” Ayirn sighed. “Just call me if he ends up in another situation like this.”

Erebus nodded his head, then saluted dramatically. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

Ayirn’s face twitched.

Her fellow dragon waved goodbye to her suddenly, and picked Yvick up by his left ankle.

Then proceeded to drag him away.

Yvick looked as if he was pleading for Ayirn’s help. She turned a blind eye, she hadn’t seen anything. She definitely hadn’t seen anything.

“Then, let’s start training for real!” Erebus cried out happily.

So what was that! A test run? My near-death experience was just a test run? Yvick kept those thoughts to himself as he was pitifully dragged.

Erebus’ exciting training regime began! The Yvick many years in the future would call it Erebus’ best attempts to cause his death instead.

Saying things like:

“Yvick, that thing looks strong, doesn’t it? Go fight it.”

Or:

“Yvick, I heard there’s some ancient creature with immense power. Go fight it.”

Or:

“Yvick, there’s a clan of demons over there. Go fight them.”

Or:

“Yvick, I’m bored, let’s spar.”

Even:

“Yvick, what? You’re tired? Wimp! You’ve only gone a week without sleep. You see that beast over there? Go fight it.”

And let’s not forget:

“Yvick, why aren’t you moving? Oh no! Did you really die this time? Shit, I better call Ayirn.”

Thinking back on it now made the demon shiver with fear. In that time, he gained a great amount of power, and his title of Demon Emperor, but he also lost a bit of his sanity.

Every time Erebus uttered Yvick’s name, a part of him of him would cry out, “No! Please, don’t make me do anything else!”

It was definitely more than a small part of his sanity. It was a deep mental scar.

Even the sweet and lovely Ayirn began to lose it after receiving calls from Erebus nearly every couple of days to come bring Yvick back from the brink of death.