AUthor's notes: I came down with a pretty bad and itchy rash the past few days and didnt write anything. Pretty sure my cat is to blame. I really need to give him a shower. . . .Anyway, im fine now and spent the first few hours of my morning to make this. If there are any flaws in the story, tell me. I think im geting better at making filler information, hehehe.
Not much happening in the chapter, sorry 'bout that. Im gonna try speeding up the story. Feel it has gone too slow. Also, I updated a few earlier chapters. Didnt change much though, dont worry. Still, take a look. I will try keeping any changes to a minimum. Tell me if you think the new versions are better.
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Roland went back in a slightly sour mood. The walk he had wanted to enjoy was completly ruined. He did get to have a bit of fun, but merely torturing a few weaklings did little to appease him. Roland had always been a slightly sadistic individual but not to the extent where something like that would make him truly satisfied.
In actuality, Roland was quite bloodthirsty at times.
Sometimes, he wanted to run wild and kill everything in his path. It was a dark part of himself that was tightly controlled and locked away, but he could not deny the feeling was there. He was a person that could either have a lot of patience and forgiveness or snap at any moment for little to no reason at all.
Today, the little incident from a while ago had shown that his more violent nature had, for a brief moment, taken over as he would not usually go to such extents. Normally, he would only cut them up a bit and leave them to die.
But his mood did improve as he breathed in the cool fresh air. He thought back to the old man he had met, Leylin.
He seemed a bit strong and a looked like a fairly interesting person. Roland knew how he looked when he butchered the bandits, but the old man had seemed only a slightly disturbed by the sight.
Roland why Leylin had bothered talking to him at all though. It wasnt as if it was necessary. What's more, he even explained a bit about himself to Roland. The contents were definitly not something that one would say to a stranger they just met.
Well, it was a bit odd but it was not to a substantial degree.
Yet, Roland wondered if him meeting the old man was some kind of karmic intervention.
Naturally, he didnt think things like fate were involved. However, Karma would be a different matter. Fate was something that was predetermined to happen, something that was usually unchangeable and already planned out.
However, Karma was a much more profound and mysterious force that even Roland was not completly free of.
Karma has a direct influence on things such as time, dimensions and planes. In fact, "Karma" and "reincarnation" are two of the most fundamtental laws since universal order and are much more powerful than destiny or fate.
Not something Roland could go against.
Perhaps, meeting the old man Leylin was something Karma had influenced. Maybe, Roland was meant to help Leylin with his problems.
The reason he thought that Karma was involved, was because the meeting between him and Leylin was a bit too coincidental and the problems the old man had were a bit special.
Roland, a mere few days after being called to a world where four cursed mortals needed his help, just happens to meet a person with circumstances such as Leylin's?
And all resulting from Roland's sudden decision to take a walk outside the barrier, and a mere few minutes later hearing the disturbance?
If Roland had come a few minutes later, the bandits would have already been taken care of by the old man. If that happened, the two may not have ever met.
Really, what are the odds of Roland coincidentally meeting an old man with a complicated past like that after simply deciding to take a walk?
And it wasnt like he couldnt help the old man. He may not get directly involved, but if he examined Leylin's injuries, he could likely cure them. Roland was no doctor, but he understood organic bodies quite intimately. Repairing one would be relatively simple to him.
But in the end, Roland knew it wasnt his problem and that Leylin and his grandchildren were probably much safer staying in hiding.
Though, if they ever really met again, perhaps he would choose to help out. Afterall, he couldnt say for sure that Karma wasnt involved, and if it was then he didnt want to bring about its wrath by choosing to simply mind his own business.
Had Loki been there, he would tell Roland that he shouldnt have ignored such an obvious event flag in the first place.
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It was a lot darker when Roland arrived back at the dormitory where he and the other four stayed.
He found the two brothers inside the living room, lazing about in boredom.
"Hm? Where's Reina and her sister?" He realized he didnt really know what they usually did around this time.
James answered him. " Reina has been in her room all day. As for Lilith, i think she's out back doing some training."
"Speaking of, Reina seemed different today. . . More graceful? Brighter? I dont know. She just gives off a different aura from usual. " Saren commented.
"Ah, yeah, I noticed that too. Actually, I saw that Lilith asked her a lot of questions today. She seemed a bit cross."
"I dont know about Lilith, but Reina has gotten a bit stronger. I gave her a bit of special training early in the morning."
The two seemed interested. " Special how?" They asked.
"I used a certain method." Roland said. " In short, her curse prevented her from practising martial arts and magic, but i went around that. Basically since her own learning abilities were blocked, I had her share a bit of my own. Well, that's the gist of it." Roland didnt have a need to keep things from them, and told them a bit about what they did.
James looked rather interested. " Can we do that too?"
"Unfortnately the method i used has a special reqirement you two dont fullfill." He said. Their faces showed a hint of disappointment. Well, with James it was a bit hard to tell though.
Saren noticed the sudden odd expression on Roland's face. "Is something wrong?"
Roland frowned a bit. "It might be nothing, but when we finished something strange happened to her body. I think the curse acted up but i cant be sure."
Saren regretted he asked. He remebered what he and his brother's curse was said to be, and now he was worried their own might activate sometime soon.
Saren didnt really want to ask, but he did anyway. " Exactly what happened?"
Roland wasnt quite sure he should tell them, but since it was kind of related to them, they should know.
"When we finished, a malevolent aura sprang from her body. It was corrosive, eating away at the life energy all around her at a fairly rapid rate. It seemed like her body was absorbing the energy.
Where that energy went though, im not certain of. It was like something else was interfering, trying to break free. Im not sure if this was truly the work of the curse or some other entity though. In the end i had to expell the excess energy.
The method i used causes energy overflow in the first place, but the curse made her body exude much more than it should have even then. Once i took care of that, the malevolent fore subsided but it was still present for a while after." He didnt say anything about that strange bead to them, or about how Reina's eyes had changed color. He wove a spell around her so it would look like normal. Since it wasnt related to the curse, he wouldnt tell any of them.
He didnt know if there were any other changes in her due to drinking so much of his blood, so for now he would just hide it. "Also, remember not to tell Reina or Lilith about this. I dont want them to worry and if Lilith found out, im not quite sure what she'd do." Lilith didnt seem to like Roland all that much for some reason. He knew she respected his strength but that was all. She hasnt opened up to him at all. She wasnt exactly cold though. More like, guarded.
If she knew about this, she would probably blame him and that would just get annoying. He only told these two because although their curses' nature was easier to understand, he couldnt be sure they didnt have any hidden traps and whatnot.
"Reina doesnt know what happened to her?" James asked. Roland shook his head.
"She was unconscious at the time. So, remember to not tell them. We dont need to worry them when I have so little information to go on. I dont know what exactly caused that reaction. Once we get the girls' adoptive parents here and explain the situation to them, I intend to take the students on a little trip to gain some combat experience and such.
I hear a few of my old friends are on the planet and so I'll use this trip as an opportunity to find them at the same time. I have one in mind who might know a bit more about whats going on with you four. I'll look for him first. Until then, dont worry about anything. We need more information about those curses first. "
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The two boys nodded in understanding.
Until they knew more about what was going on with them, they should just keep calm and wait.
" What's the name of the guy you want to look for?" Saren asked.
"Since the inhabitants of this world knows about the Pantheons, you might know him. His name's Solomon, of the Solomon 72 Pillars Pantheon."
upon hearing the name, their faces turned pale.
Solomon!
Who wouldnt know about him? He was a very mysterious and powerful figure who had even gotten 72 strong demons of hell to serve him! A person known as quite a whimsical individual, doing whatever he pleased.
He held immeasurable power and wisdom that earned him the right to be called the King of Magi, one who has unlocked the vast mysteries of magic. He is said to be the wisest and most powerful of all the mages in the world, a person in a league all his own.
Solomon was said to have been give the ability to destroy any demon long ago by some powerful god, but he instead chose to seal demons in "pillars" and befriend them.
They were not mere demon-kin either, but true-blue demons of Hell, beings that were capable of wiping out cities!
What kind of person would it take to befriend such monsterous people?
The person himself must be quite freakish indeed!
In time, his power grew until he became so strong that he was able to create and rule a Pantheon of his own, becoming a major figure that couldnt be ignored!
Indeed, Solomon was perhaps the wisest and most powerful human mage in existence. . .
Yet he was also one of the most terrifying!
He is said to have dabbled in many forms magic, some of which are truly dark and gruesome! The stuff of nightmares!
He was what can be called a "mad scientist" who was more demon-like than those he commanded!
Saren and James had heard many stories about Solomon. A person like that seemed both a saint and a devil at the same time, comepletely unfathomable.
" Hm? What's wrong?" Roland asked them, noticing their expressions go through a series of shock, admiration, and terror. He suddenly understood. "Ah, I suppose you guys have heard a bit about him then?" Roland let out a wry grin.
Solomon, that frivolous guy, was a pretty unique individual, after all. He caused waves everywhere he went.
" Of course. That guy is the monster mothers use to get their children to listen." Saren explained. "Everyone is scared of being used in one of his experiments." Remembering the stories they heard regarding said experiments, the two shivered slightly.
Roland let out a smile upon seeing their reactions. Exactly what kind of grief has that guy stirred up that could cause such a reaction?
He frowned.
Loki, Solomon, Mephisto, Aries. . .
So many of his friends were difficult people to handle. Really, they were all notorious troublemakers that were a pain for others to deal with. They never meant any harm, but still . . .
He wondered what that said about himself.
"Hey, you two. What type of weapons are you best at?" Roland called out to them.
Saren looked at him, a bit surprised at the sudden topic change. " We both use swords. Why?"
"Well, didnt you want me to teach you a few things? Since i have some time, why dont we head out towards the back and have a little spar?" Lilith was there already, so perhaps she would join in as well.
Saren liked that idea. " Sounds good. Ah, but, we dont have any. . . "
"Dont worry about that. Here, take these. " Roland held up his hands and gathered a bit of mana from around him, causing an ethereal blue light to gather around his open palms. Then he exerted his will and condensed the mana into two swords for them.
They looked almost exactly like normal swords, but thay had a bluish hue that made them seem beautiful and mysterious.
James let out a sigh of appreciation. " Such a powerful aura. They almost seem alive. How did you . . .?"
"Those? It's nothing. I just had to gather a bit of mana from the space around us and compressed it into the shape I wanted. It isnt anything amazing." Roland said dismissively.
The two nearly choked.
To explain, although mana was literaly everywhere, only trace amounts could be controlled properly. Strong mages could borrow the mana in the air or ground, but doing so was exceedingly hard and only few could manage it. Also, the mana would be wild, untamed. Pure and raw power like that would obviously be difficult to handle.
In this world, there exists places where the concentration of mana was exceptionally think, creating liquified mana that was highly prized. But such places were rare and the liquid would be only ever be at most a small pond. The uses for it was endless.
Now, other than liquid form, mana could also manifest as a metal-like substance. It happened when liquified mana, over the course of hundreds of years, hardened and became solid. The result was a special type of mineral, Etherium, that had many mysterious properties and was several times more precious than liquid mana, causing many metal workers from all over the world to dream of someday being able to use it.
However, Etherium was abnormally hard to work with. In the past, the wealthiest of society had painstakingly gathered Etherium and had the best, most skilled blacksmiths try to forge it into suits of armor or weapons.
The result was disapointing. That much Etherium was simply impossible to forge.
At most, only very small amounts of Etherium can be successfully used and even then only small pendants or such can be created from it. Still, they would hold many natural powers to such an extent that they were considered holy objects. Etherium itself was considered a divine substance.
But as precious as they were, they were likewise as hard to find. You could search for it you entire lives and never see a trace of it. The time it took for those in the past to gather enough to attempt forging it into weapons or armor was several centuries.
Of course, all those wealthy folks were either of the long-lived races or had reached a point in their cultivation where their lifespan was drastically increased. Otherwise they would have died long before gathering enough.
Today any amount of Etherium, even just a piece the size of a small stone, was enough to buy a good-sized kingdom. But of course, since Etherium was so prized and treated like a holy material, who in their right mind would sell it?
So if what Roland said was true, then he not only precisely gathered the mana in the surrounding space, he also quickly gathered it in such quantities and compressed it so fast, that the change from formless mana to liquid and then to solid, was almost instantaneous.
Not only that, he didnt just make it into a solid form within seconds, but he also manipulated the vast amount of mana and formed swords out of it.
The amount of concentration and control that required was astronomica!
Now, you could, if you had enough personal mana reserves and control over it, create swords out of your own mana.
But, it wouldnt be true Etherium. It would lack stability, substance. Seconds after it is formed, it would disappear.
You could tell the difference in a sword made from your own mana and anything made from Etherium.
Really, it was simple. See, Etherium had a solid form, but when making weapons from your own mana reserves it came out without that solidness.
It would look like holding fire in your hand that had the general shape of a sword. The edges would ripple and exude mana like fire.
The swords in their hands didnt do that, but stayed unchanging. Which meant . . .
That these swords were, without a doubt, made from Etherium!
They were, in essence, holding priceless artifacts!
The two looked at the swords in a worshipping light.
Roland had no idea what was up with them. " What has gotten into you two? Those swords arent exactly special or anything. I usually just throw them away once im done with them. Completly useless"
His words brought them back into reality, breaking them from their reverie. As the words sunk in, they almost wanted to throttle him.
Useless? He actually dared call such divine weapons useless?! The number of people who would kill their own families for these swords was simply countless!
He even threw them away like trash?!.
The brothers felt a sense of injustice well up within them.
They gave Roland a mean glare.
Roland spent the better half of an hour arguing with them. In the end he had to go to the school armoury and select some normal swords for them before they agreed to the spar. They kept the previous weapons though, not that he cared.
He could always create more.