Chapter 23

Yumi’s face turned pale, her gaze was unwavering focused on the person who was standing outside, she was frozen with fear, Aster looked over at her dazed from crashing through a wall, he swore he could see her small frame shuddering and shaking,

‘from how shaken she is he must be really bad news to us’, he thought to himself, Aster shook his head as he tried to dispel any worrying thoughts at the moment, he began to move forward back to the battle that raged on outside, holding out his hand as his warhammer peeled itself from the wall and flung itself into his palm,

As aster was about to step outside Polaris grabbed onto his leg,” don...don’t.....don’t let him touch you”, he struggled to say, as he passed out again,

Aster paused momentarily, ‘what could he mean by that, is it some sort of power he has, its probably why pol got beat and why lev is missing’, Aster’s head was swirling with thoughts as to what Polaris could mean,

“ASTER MOVE”, barak shouted, as both him and the assailant flew towards him, aster ducked causing both of them to crash into the wall the same wall he just pulled himself from, though now it had a thorough hole in it, the assailant got up from the rubble, pushing a slab of the wall off of himself,

“Now that he’s out the way for a while”, aluric started to say, but then he paused to dust off himself,

“Right where was I, ahhh yes, yumi, how has my favorite rebel been”, he finished saying, his gaze fixated on her, she stood there silent, every step forward, she had taken back, she glanced at the hole made in the wall, focusing on outside, she was ready to run if the opportunity presented itself,

” Aluric my pain in the ass, to what do I owe this displeasure”, she said trying to put on a confident facade,

“tsk, tsk, tsk, why would it be a displeasure, think back to all the good times we had, while we were playing for the same team”, Aluric said,

“exactly, we ‘had’ good times, that’s all In the past, especially after you and the prince got greedy”, yumi said,

“now why did you decide to come in person, couldn’t you have sent one of the pillars”, she said,

“oh no, You earned this visit, a pillar just wouldn’t suffice, you attacked the guild hall, killed or injured quite a few of my adventurers, and then when I and the others showed up a chased you out, you ran and hid, which I can only imagine was due to that pitiful leader of yours”, he said, Yumi stepped back once more, this time her back touching the warm hard surface of the wall,

“plus having pix or any of the others do it wouldn’t have been fun, all four of them are too serious and would’ve just killed you on the spot”, aluric said, placing his hand on the wall next to yumi’s face, his other hand gently resting under her chin, as he leaned into her face, she jerked her head out of his fingers, her eyes reflecting a mixture of fear and anger,

“Though I am disappointed now, pix had found out about these four young talents, but they turned out to be disappointments, I would kill them, but they aren’t even worth that much, hell, they don’t even appear to know how to sense or detect divine energy, all four of them just a complete waste of time”, Aluric said, taking his hand from the wall and standing upright again,

“actually no, I shouldn’t say that they are a complete waste of time, they at least have way more potential than you or the others that are leading that pitiful rebellion”, Aluric said, his gaze moving up and down Yumi’s body,

“if I had enough time they would surpass even you aluric”, yumi said, her breath still holding a feint quiver of fear,

Aluric mused, he folded his arms and held his chin, a wicked smile appeared on his face, “ luckily for you, because of who your leader is I gave him three months to get his affairs in order and disband the rebellion, but knowing him, he going to use it to attack and make one last stand, so I give you until then, get these four up to par by then and bring them with you, if you can they just might be your saving grace”, Aluric said, his wicked grin turning to a pleasant smile on his face as if he wasn’t threatening people,

“they just might even be enough for the catalyst”, He continued to mutter, Aluric opened his eyes and stopped smiling,” so you better not disappoint me, it would be a shame if it’s your fault all of them end up dead”, he walked through the hole that was made by aster, walking past aster as he was frozen in complete disbelief,

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“Now if you don’t mind bring me back my guild member if you will”, Aluric stated, however this did not feel like a request, more like an undeniable command, yumi pulled her back from the wall, making her way through the rubble and down the corridor, after a few moments she reappeared with her attempted captor, his face was bloodied, his nose crooked and blood ran down his face, his body rested on Yumi’s, one of his legs limped, he was so battered he was unable to walk by himself, Aluric looked on at the beaten and battered member of his guild, unlike earlier his piercing green eyes had a softness to them as he took them off of yumi’s shoulders and rested them on his,

“I refuse to believe that that was all you came here for”, yumi said,

“It wasn’t, I had planned to try and sway those four into joining me, and if refused, I had planned to kill them, but even if you help them, they would take a while before they could even catch up to me”, aluric said,

“So you just had a change of heart out of nowhere”, yumi said,

“No, believe it or not, putting aside the whole war business, I haven’t forgotten what we had”, aluric said,

“And I do still miss you, you know”, he said to yumi, as he walked off, leaving the house and disappearing into the woods,

Moments later Levant came stumbling out of the woods, heavily injured, he barely got any further before he fainted, Aster and Yumi rushed to him and carried him inside, after wards Aster dug barak out of the rubble, all three of them were carried into their separate rooms to rest and heal for the time being, Aster and yumi spent the rest of the evening repairing the hideout, eventually night fell,

Aster was outside sitting at a fire he had struggled to start, since Levant was out of commission, yumi approached him and took a seat,

“Well today was fucking devastating for all of us”, she said, she looked on at Aster, in his hand he held a stick, poking and prodding at the base of the fire, he hadn’t even looked in her direction, his eyes seemed far away, as though he was looking off at something in the distance,

Aster sat there his head filled with thoughts, he couldn’t make sense of, his mind repeatedly replayed the events from earlier, his body felt stiff and labored, his hands shook uncontrollably, he didn’t understand, he had been in countless fights since he was young, and yet this was like he was in his first fight all over again, his anger flared, his eyes reflecting the fire, he was angry, angry at the man who had injured his friends, angry at the woman who had roped them into this, an angry at himself for letting his fear control him, but, he knew, it felt like a lump of rocks in his throat as he though on how powerful, this new found enemy was, what he found wasn’t anger, but awe, he wanted that for himself, he wanted to be able to walk into any situation knowing he nothing to fear from the people around, he wanted more power, he wanted the thrill of the fight

“In the end I’m not so different from Rak, I also turned out how the elders wanted me to”, aster said, letting out a sigh,

“What do you mean by that”, yumi asked,

“I’m sure that even you noticed by now but barak, he loves the thrill of battle, the thrill of testing his strength against stronger opponents”, aster said,

“I thought I was different from that, I thought that I only sought strength in order to protect those I care about”, aster said,

“And what’s so bad about wanting to fight”, yumi said,

“your kidding right, all immersing yourself in fighting does is bring unwanted enemies, and gives you a craving for unwanted destruction and chaos”, aster said,

“hmm and yet you’re an enforcer for your clan, seems hypocritical”, yumi said,

“that’s why I can say what I said, I know from experience, and I’m barely twenty-one”, Aster said,

“hahahahahaha, you’re most definitely still a child, there are people in this world who have lived hundreds of years, and experienced countless things more than you have, don’t go around drawing conclusions about yourself just yet, when you haven’t even lived a third of your life yet”, yumi said,

“ though I am curious on how you turned out just like your clan elders wanted”, yumi asked,

“that’s easy, the three closest people to me are in this house severely injured, and all I can think about is how I want that man’s level of strength, not to make sure nothing like this never happens again, but because I want to tower over my enemies with overwhelming strength, and that is exactly what the elders wanted from us, to be nothing but beasts who focus on fighting and growing stronger, all the while knowing that we have allegiances to them”, aster said,

“well then I don’t think you’re going to live up to that fear, from what I’ve seen you four, have you own goals and aspirations, but if you’re so worried why not become the next head of the clan or a clan elder”, yumi said,

“can’t become an elder, that position can only be held by the women of the clan, as for being the clan head, you have to be voted to be a nominee, by the other clan members, and then chosen by the four of us and the elders”, aster said,

“Wait, why the four of you”, yumi asked,

“Well I guess you wouldn’t know, but the four of us, are considered ‘special’, all four of us have been given our powers by the gods, they weren’t inherited”, Aster said,

“oh, well direct blessings certainly are uncommon, most people have natural or inherited blessings, but it is rare to have four individuals in a clan have direct blessings, being given so close to each other, this is a game changer, I had hoped to get you close to the level of the pillars, but I could, theoretically get you each close to the level of Aluric”, Yumi pondered,

Aster looked around at yumi for the first time since she sat down, she was now lost in thought, muttering to herself, “I had been thinking to bring you guys back with me to the shadow continent and have you slowly get stronger while you helped us hold off Dracht’s forces, but since he gave us three months, we can just train here instead”, yumi said, looking around at Aster,

“well I’m all for it, after today, I realized that we only thought we were at the peak of our strength, but I guess that’s because of this small island we live on”, Aster said,