Currently Solstice was running through the mountain range and directly behind him was a path of destruction. Every demonic beast had evacuated the mountain range due to one thing, Telarion.
Yes, he was chasing his son through the mountain to train him so he could skip a few steps.
The main thing he wanted to teach his son right now. If faced with a stronger opponent, use your surroundings.
A big wake up call for Telarion was the fact that he was basically completely overpowered during the massacre and that’s something that just didn’t sit right with him.
He was on top of the power rankings basically for Aevis, and yet the first guy to come through a portal proceeded to throw him around like a child. It pissed him off.
He didn’t really want to teach his son anything about a great sword for two reasons. The main reason was he had Victor with him now so there was no better trainer, all Telarion had to do was at least show Solstice how to use it, why? Because of Victor's broken ability. The eye gave him photographic reflexes basically. The only issue is that the first level of his eye only allowed him to do stuff his body could handle, and it gave no help with understanding, at the first few levels at least. But for now, that was okay, the hard part, Telarion decided to elect Victor to do it. Which he definitely knew about.
While Telarion was casually strolling through the mountain at a jog, Solstice was sweating profusely from the amount of killing intent he could feel behind him.
Finally, Solstice found a spot where he could use the terrain to his advantage. It was a ravine with plenty of trees around a lake. He was hoping by hiding in a tree and using the weight of his great sword he could break his father's guard, having the added effect of his father's footwork being slower could help him out speed him. Of course, this was only possible with his father limiting his strength, immensely.
Finally, after a few minutes Telarion casually strolled into the area of ambush. Solstice jumped down and swung his great sword as hard as he could. It did nothing, his father parried the attack with his long sword and hit his arm with the butt of his handle, making Solstice drop it.
“Rule number one of fighting with weapons, don’t drop the damn weapon idiot.” Telarion casually said while waiting for Solstice to pick it up.
Immediately after he grabbed the weapon he began to swing wildly at his father. There was one thing his father had always drilled into him when growing up, there’s no shame in fighting dirty if your lives on the line, all the matters is winning.
Telarion for the most part was parrying Solstice while throwing a few swings here and there to give Solstice a chance to learn something. Sure, enough as the fight went on, Solstice was noticeably getting better with his sword, throwing in feints in hope of landing a blow on him. As Solstice cleaved down, Telarion began to get ready to parry it but what Solstice did next was out of his expectations.
Solstice dropped the sword mid swing, forcing Telarion to do something about it. Then he imbued the little mana he had inside himself into his face and swung, straight for Telarions family jewels.
When Telarion saw this, he frowned, “Fucking Victor.” Is all he said before he dodged backwards that was so fast it looked like he teleported.
When Solstice saw this, he began to smile, towards the beginning of the actual fight, Victor had given him the idea of this. He hadn’t been taught anything regarding mana yet since he was in the process of it. So, he had hoped that he could understand augmenting, and within a few minutes of fighting his father, he understood and did what he was told perfectly, the only part of the plan Victor didn’t like was the fact Telarion went against his word and released his restraint to dodge the blow.
“Do you have a rough understanding of that eye of yours now?” Asked Telarion, inwardly he was incredibly jealous of the eye, I mean mimicking practically any fighting style was incredibly valuable and borderline cheat-like, but he wouldn’t let Solstice know that.
“Yeah, I just need some more experience, I feel like this training doesn’t really help me much.” Shrugged Solstice.
“Do you always think your opponent is going to play by the rules too? Do you think he’s only going to parry you while waiting for you to attack? You don’t know how the hell the world works. I don’t want to be harsh, but you clearly have been sheltered way too much these past years. I think it’s about time we fix that.” Said Telarion, he had finally realized how soft his son was, he never had the near-death experiences of the real world. He didn’t have to climb his way out of poverty and being powerless to stuff. He needed to learn despair. The younger he learned that lesson, the better.
“After we finish this bit of training, we’re going on a little journey before the ceremony.” Said Telarion before he grabbed Solstice and proceeded to spin him.
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“Make it back home before nighttime, or no food tonight.” And with that he tossed Solstice across the mountain range, where all the demonic beasts ran away to.
While all this happened, Ariel was discussing some important matters with Darius and her sister.
“Did you manage to figure out the technology yet from the invaders?” One thing that truly worried Ariel was when the invaders would come in full force. They had technology that far surpassed theirs. They had shields built into their armor which could take multiple incredibly powerful attacks, weapons that resembled muskets, but shot incredibly fast and had way more power. These were only a few things they had even figured out what they did, the rest was a complete mystery.
“I haven’t tried honestly. Ever since I came across the runes of the bodies of some of them, I’ve been sucked into that. I never knew symbols could imbue these kinds of effects onto one’s body.
Some of the bodies they had managed to recover or catch, had weird writings on them that funneled some sorts of powers into who it was grafted on. One man they fought had incredibly fast speed, even under the effect of Shael’s power, gravity. One had superhuman strength, beyond even augmentation on him. To even kill a single soldier, it took entire squads of powerhouses. This goes to show the power of the runes.
“If I can figure out these runes more, we could seriously bolster our power, before the seal weakens on the stargate and dimension.” Said Darius, he was incredibly perplexed but greatly interested in how runes worked.
“Do you mind if at some point I drag Solstice to my workshop to study runes? Maybe a set of younger eyes can help uncover some stuff.”
“Fine, but only after the ceremony. I need him at his beast to put the rest of those “talents” from other kingdoms to shame.” Ariel said while having a dangerous look on her face. She was incredibly excited for two occasions. The ceremony coming up to show off his affinities, which she had another plan for. The second occasion was when the tournament for Aevis Academy was going to take place.
Aevis Academy was a school that was created right after the massacre. In hopes of countering the invasion to come, the world finally united for the first time to create an academy. Hopefully by nurturing the younger generation with all these resources and teachers, some incredible people could emerge.
“Did you make that potion I asked you for?” Asked Ariel with a very greedy look on her face.
“Yeah, I do, it pissed my son off but eh, a debt is a debt, he can get over it.” Darius said while handing over a potion that had a gray tint to it.
“I know you had to pull a lot of strings to get this but thank you. With this your debt is clear, you don’t need to do anything else with Solstice if it’s going to affect your reverse engineering. The world is more important than my son, which pains me to say.” Said Ariel with a hesitant look on her face. She loved nobody in this world more than her son, but the lives of the many outweigh the lives of the few. Being a primordial gave a different outlook on life.
“I’m taking him as an apprentice of my own free will, plus I’m getting too damn old for this shit Ariel, we’re going to need a new Darius, and I think your son is going to be it. I mean Victor could’ve done this also, but that man was just too damn lazy. Geez, just thinking about it is pissing me off.”
“All that’s left is to get Bela on board, I know what I’m doing will be frowned upon by other races, but I couldn’t care less. If the world falls, I want my son to make it out alive.”
“Well with the tools you’re giving him, if he doesn’t, I’d be surprised.” Said Darius shrugging, he had done his part so whatever happened to the world just happened. He was old enough not to care anymore.
Before anyone else could say anything, Shael came into the room with an ashen face.
“Apparently one of the invaders escaped…. And it was the other leader...”
“WHAT!? How did that happen! It’s way too soon!” Screamed Ariel.
“I think one of the wardens let him escape, but I have no evidence.” Said Shael with a distraught expression. This was possibly one of the worst things that could’ve happened right now. The world for the most part was still recovering so it wasn’t ready for a man of that caliber to be set free.
“Send an alert to the leaders of each nation, we have to find him immediately.” Ariel said this whole opening a portal to only she knew where.
“Well, it looks like lazy time is over. I’ll be in my workshop not dealing with this shit.” Said Darius as he casually strode off to his workshop underneath the cabin.
——— One day after the invader escaped, in a castle situated in hell.
“Welcome to my humble abode, I hope it’s to your liking sir… actually I’m pretty sure nobody actually knows your name, would you mind blessing me with the knowledge? Seeing as how we’re going to be accomplices for a short while? I’ll go first, my name is Cinder.” Said a demon with a playful smile on his face.
This demon has short red hair, pure black eyes, two horns that were pure white about a foot long each, and a very toned body standing at around 7 feet tall. He had a heavy set of armor that was pure black with a golden trim, and the main identifying feature about it was the emblem on it. It was a golden rose, which was the emblem for a Duke house. The duke house this man was the head of the Rose family, and arguably the strongest house of the four that served under the king of hell.
“To you? My name is Alpha 2, that’s all you need to know.” Said the man who had escaped. He was a foot shorter than Cinder and had almost no muscle on him. He had blonde hair with hazel eyes, the man wasn’t really known too much for his strength, but the reason he was number two was his intelligence. If he had not gotten captured as soon as he stepped foot into Aevis, the fight that Alpha 1 was in would’ve gone in the opposite direction. Alpha 2 was strong just nowhere near as strong as his counterpart.
“Marvelous, I believe I have some great plans that would interest you.” Said Cinder with a delightful smile on his face.
“Doubt it, but let’s take a look.” Said Alpha 2.
So began the plan and partnership that would bring about horrific events in years to come.