Chapter 6
Hell.
That’s what Ren had gone through for the last couple of months since he had woken up from passing out from exhaustion accumulated during his test. He had endured all kinds of training: sword practice, hand-to-hand combat, learning about the history of all realms, and struggling with magic, where his progress was almost non-existent.
Every day, he trained with a katana, its lightness and ease of use suiting him. But during sword practice, he was tossed around like a doll by Ms. Lee. In hand-to-hand combat, he faced the same fate, minus the swords.
Learning about the realms was slightly better, but not by much since she poured new information into him, almost frying his brain. Magic was where he struggled the most; he couldn’t feel his demonic mana, almost like it never existed. But he knew he had mana since he had "apparently" used it during the Den-Sai test.
***
Clang-Clang-Thud.
He was currently getting his ass handed to him by Ms. Lee, his entire body covered in ugly bruises and scars.
Scary. If he had to describe Ms. Lee in one word, that would be it. She was unrelenting and powerful, comparable only to the Demon King.
‘Goddamn it, she really is a fucking demon.’
“Here, drink this,” she said, throwing him a glass vial containing a crystal-clear liquid. He immediately recognized it and gulped it down until it was empty.
He already felt the pain of bruises and scars slowly beginning to fade, the healing process gradually easing the ache that had pulsed through his entire body.
It was a healing potion, specially brewed for Ren by the royal physician. The physician knew the kind of hell he would be going through and brewed them to help the young boy.
“Ren, stop dilly-dallying and get ready for your history lesson.” She hissed this while glaring at him with impatience.
Sighing inwardly, praying for a break from this hellish torture, he made his way to the room where she would drill random useless facts into his head until his ears felt like falling off.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
***
“Ren, tell me everything you know about the Angels and the Demons.”
“Well, Angels are blessed with Heiligs akin to our Arkana's while they’re imbued with immense amounts of mana. Demons' mana levels fluctuate depending on the individual demon.”
He continued, “We had been at war for many centuries with the Angels, but we made a peace treaty with them recently. Not much has changed between us; we still have immense animosity towards them.”
Staring at Wang Lee, ready to be reprimanded for his lack of knowledge, he was surprised when she complimented him.
“Good, you got the basics down. Glad to know you aren’t completely brain-dead.”
‘This woman! Can’t she ever not diss me?!’
Impervious to Ren’s thoughts, she told him to pay close attention to what she was about to say.
“Pay attention, Ren. There are more realms than just the three we know of. There’s evidence suggesting an infinite number of realms. This theory was proposed by Hugh Everett III, a renowned demon scholar.”
‘An infinite amount of realms?’
Ren’s mind raced with possibilities.
“Now, Ren, how does this information change the future for us?” Ms. Lee’s eyes bored into his, expecting a thoughtful answer.
Ren thought for a long time before answering her question, “Well… if there are an infinite number of realms, then there may be more beings in existence than we know of right now. What’s to stop these unknown beings from trying to kill us all?”
“Exactly! That’s why, after this theory came out, angels and demons have been in disarray, and the pointless war stopped to save resources. We'll stop here for today. Go back to your room and rest, tomorrow will be brutal for you."
***
Ren was walking through the eerie and desolate castle, rubbing his arms to warm up.
‘Would it kill them to invest in some heating?’
Inwardly cursing for the chilly castle and non-existent heating, a chamber that wasn’t there before appeared, startling Ren. He knew he should just head back to his room, but his curiosity got the best of him.
‘No one will know I was even there!’
Hesitantly, he took a step forward, the chill seeping through his thin shoes. The door creaked open with a haunting groan, revealing an ancient, dimly lit room filled with forgotten relics. Shadows danced eerily on the walls as Ren ventured inside, his heart pounding with a mix of fear and excitement.
A glint of silver light hit his eye, blinding him for an instant. As his vision cleared, he realized it was a mirror with an obsidian frame adorned with intricate designs.
These patterns, eerie and mesmerizing, reminded him of something. Thinking long and hard about when he had seen these detailed engravings, it hit him. They were the tattoo-like symbols on his body that appeared after that horrid nightmare.
‘How strange… what’s this mirror got to do wi–’
Suddenly, his thoughts were violently interrupted. The mirror, which had just been reflecting his bewildered face, now showed nothing but an abyss of pure darkness. The change was so surprising that he stumbled back, nearly losing his balance.
The room seemed to grow colder, the air thicker, as if the darkness within the mirror was seeping into the very atmosphere around him. The darkness in the mirror was not just an absence of light—it felt alive, pulsating with a sinister energy.
The mirror changed again; shadows swirled and twisted within the glass, and in it was him. But it wasn’t him at the same time; it was like a monster that had been long corrupted and driven to madness.
Just as he reached out instinctively, his fingers trembling, a husky voice cut him off. It was abrupt, a gravelly whisper that sent shivers down his spine and made Ren's breath catch in his throat. He instinctively froze, feeling suffocated by the oppressive presence of the voice alone.
“Curious, are we boy?”