Fuck, my head.

Rolling over in bed, he took a swig of stale water left next to his bed and regretted drinking so much last night as he recalled his father having to carry him back home.

Apart from the hangover, he had really enjoyed the evening and spending time with others and couldn't help but smile.

Getting out of bed, he walked over to the balcony, opened the double doors and let some air in as he went to get washed and dressed.

Perhaps I need to spend more time relaxing.

It's nice to stop and smell the flowers occasionally.

Even with the hangover, his mind felt clearer and more at ease. This made him realise that taking time off is something that he should add to his routine from now on.

Tonight would be the start of his guard duty, and it was also the ancestral worship ceremony. He would miss it due to the duty, but that was fine with him.

Tonight, he would deal with the arrogant noble once and for all.

Walking downstairs, lured by the smell of cooked meat, he entered the living area and found his mother and sister already mid-meal.

"How is your head today?" Valeria said, smiling and passing him a freshly cooked plate of food.

It wasn't the bacon sandwich he was craving right now, but it wasn't far off as he jumped right in, mumbling through stuffed mouthfuls.

"A little sore... Not too bad."

"Where's father?" He asked between mouthfuls, noticing the absence of Marcus as it was just the three of them eating.

"He started early today. Told me to leave you in bed, but you woke up anyway." Valeria said, pushing an empty plate in front of her to the side.

"Yeah, I guess when you're up at the same time every day, it just happens." He replied with a shrug, downing a cup of fruit juice.

"Can we go for a walk today?" Nyx asked Valeria, stopping to eat and showing far more manners than he had.

"I can't today, but perhaps your big brother can accompany you?" Valeria said, turning towards him with a questioning gaze.

"Sure, sounds good to me. I could probably do with a little fresh air. Let me finish this and go and get my coat." He replied, continuing to wolf down his food.

"You're just as bad as your father."

"Yep, blame him. He's a bad influence." He said, giving her his best butter wouldn't melt grin as he stood, getting an eye roll from Valeria in response.

"Come on, snotty." He said, tousling his sister's hair as he passed.

"I'm not snotty. You are." She called after him with her childlike voice as she pushed his hand away, looking adorable with her little pouty face, causing him to smile.

It didn't take them long before they were outside, walking beside lush green fields. Everyone was out early today, making sure whatever needed to be done was getting done, ready in time for the evening off.

Swerving to the side, he avoided a group of small children who ran past as they pretended to be powerful cultivators. One shouted at him for a monster, so he used his Many Forms Mirage to conjure a mean-looking wolf that chased the group, nipping at them and causing them to laugh and scream.

A brave boy with a wooden spear ran forward and slew the mighty beast with a well-placed strike, much to the delight of the group that then carried on playing in a field nearby.

Using his skill as a training aid or a child's plaything wasn't anything new, as it was often a technique he had used to help his sister with either her training or just for fun.

"Perhaps I should become a children's entertainer." He mumbled to himself with a rueful smile.

"Brother would be a great one." Nyx helpfully expressed, having overheard him

"Thanks." He replied with a dry chuckle.

As he walked, he used his essence vision to inspect the flow surrounding people nearby, doing his best to work out their cultivation levels and using the trick the twins had taught him.

He looked around the valley he had called home for over the past decade and took it all in. Not much had changed from when he first arrived.

It was still a very picturesque location, and the beauty of it was only enhanced under the shining sun that caused his skin to warm gently.

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"Are you looking forward to the ceremony tonight?" He asked his sister as they rounded a corner.

"Yes, I like the food and seeing all the celebrations. It's really fun." Nyx replied, her large eyes lighting up a little at the thought.

"Yeah, the food is usually great, isn't it? You'll have to save me some." He said, but he wasn't thinking about food as his mind wandered to his dark plans for tonight.

"I will." She promised. The solemn look on her little face caused his heart to swell as he forgot about his plans.

He felt that if all humans were as innocent and open as children, the world might not be such a dark place.

The rest of their walk was spent either in silence or with them making simple conversation. There was nothing special about his morning, but Thanos couldn't remember many others where he felt as at peace and in tune with the world, even with the fading hangover.

Afterwards, he moved to his usual training spot. Instead of going through his many practices and routines, he decided to test the new skill he had found.

The first part needed for the Gravity Lashing skill was to form a spirit avatar, so he sat cross-legged in the middle of the garden, letting the duality of the warm sun and chilly mountain breeze calm his mind.

Following the instructions to create one, he pulled a large amount of spirit energy out of his soul aperture and gathered it nearby. Using his willpower, he formed a matrix of spirit energy that orbited around the black hole-like aperture.

Seeing that the matrix was stable, he used his willpower to reach into his soul aperture and pulled out a luminescent blue and purple blob that extended out from the hole.

This was a part of his true soul, and he stared for a moment in fascination at the shifting colours before gathering himself mentally for the next part. Drawing on his willpower, he focused it into a razor-sharp blade and brought it down before he could change his mind.

The pain was instant and severe, as it felt like his entire being had been sliced in half. As bad as it was, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as the intense feeling of nausea that rocked him.

Fighting through the pain and the feeling of extreme sickness, he gritted his teeth, causing the dense blade of willpower to shift into a bubble that surrounded the cut-off section. Dragging it towards the nearby matrix.

Forcing it inside, he watched as the matrix seemed to power up and activate, pulling a faint stream of spirit power from the nearby aperture, the feeling of sickness vanishing as a connection formed.

The matrix shifted and changed, forming a mirror image of himself sitting in the lotus position, eyes closed.

He knew this meant the spirit avatar was formed correctly and would now withdraw passive spirit power from the nearby aperture to support itself. The process had taken many hours, but he was glad it succeeded.

Should his spirit power run out for too long, the avatar would collapse and fail, but that was generally an extreme circumstance. It would also cost him a small amount of spirit power each day to maintain, shrinking his reserves ever so slightly.

For the first avatar, it wasn't as bad. For every other one he created, the cost would increase exponentially, so he wouldn't be able to form these perpetually without consideration of that fact.

Leaving the internal world of his body, he stood up in the garden and looked up into the air in thought.

Could I use this avatar for my other skill?

Connecting with the spirit avatar, he attempted to use it to fire a dagger out of his hand but couldn't help but laugh at the result whilst berating himself for being stupid.

The conjured dagger expanded to life instantly from the palm of his hand, but like all his formed mirages, it acted like a regular item on creation. This caused the created dagger to hit the ground with a thud.

Right, I usually throw the knife. Why would creating a mirage this way be any different?

Performing a second experiment, he conjured a stream of daggers and went through a throwing routine whilst directing the avatar to create a stream of giant wasps to attack any of the nearby targets.

As he moved around, throwing and stabbing the wooden figures, a steady stream of insects popped out from his uncovered skin before darting away to attack the surrounding wooden enemies.

He smiled at the results, seeing that mirages were being created without any thought or input from him, allowing him to direct all his attention to landing melee blows.

This would increase his combat effectiveness once he got the hang of it, so even if he couldn't get the rest of the skill working, this ability alone would be worth the effort.

Moving on to the ethereal chains, he messed around with the skill but failed to get it to work. No matter what he did, the skill wouldn't seem to activate. He even tried to cast it manually, but that didn't produce any results either.

As he was scratching his head, about to give up, Marcus walked around the corner, and a lightbulb floating above his head moment struck him as he activated the skill again.

A spectral chain shot out of his body and rocketed over to his father, causing Marcus to stop dead in his tracks as the chain latched on to him. Almost instantly, a lance of darkness struck up from his father's shadow, severing the chain and causing a spiritual backlash that dropped him to the floor in pain.

"What in the night was that?" Marcus said, appearing at his side in a flash and ensuring he was okay.

"Just testing a skill, didn't realise you would break it." He replied, sitting up and rubbing his head with a grimace.

"Ah. You need to warn me next time. Most people in my realm have passive defences." Marcus admonished him as he held a hand and helped him to his feet.

"Thanks, at least it worked." He said, brushing the dirt and grass from him, making a note to practise recovering from having his skill broken. He knew the backlash was worse due to his father being so much stronger than he was.

Perhaps I can test it on someone closer in strength to me?

His father just stared at him momentarily before shaking his head.

"I would advise against using that skill again today. Let the damage from the backlash settle. Come on, let's get some food before you head over to the sentry point." Marcus said, putting his arm around him and helping him back to the house.

***

Heading to the sentry positions, he checked his weapons, ensuring they were all there. On his way, he spotted the back of a familiar figure and narrowed his eyes at Tantalus.

As if sensing the gaze burning holes in the back of his head, the young noble turned, causing their eyes to meet. A desire to run over and sink a dagger into the neck of the boy built as sparks flew between them, but this time, he didn't force it down and only controlled it with a one-word promise.

Soon.

Turning away from the youth, he climbed the cliff overwatch position and replaced a tall, scruffy-looking guard called Barrus.

"You're here? Good. I've been waiting all day to go and stuff my face." Barrus said, slapping him on the back and jumping off the cliff and down into the forest before sprinting back to the village without so much as a wave.

He slid into the hidden vantage point, turned to Erris, the taciturn legionnaire who was the second man on duty and exchanged nods as he left.

Watching the sun fall towards the horizon above a nearby mountain, he saw two men leave the forest below and knew that all the positions had now swapped over.

Now, it was just a waiting game as the shimmering lights that heralded in the dark began as he rolled a familiar-looking coin in between his fingers, staring out into the clear night sky as he recalled the previous evening's conversation regarding the guilds.

It turned out that the guild wasn't just a collection of crafting and trading stores but also had other departments, like the Mercenary Guild, which performed various protective duties or trained people for coin or the Information Guild, which traded knowledge and secrets. After some subtle directing and obfuscation, Thanos managed to find the information he was looking for and realised the group the man had offered him to join was the Assassins Guild. There wasn't much known about the group other than the obvious work the name implied.

The lights and the sky faded, and he put the coin away as he directed his gaze towards where he knew the second sentry location was with a dark look in his eyes.