CHAPTER 5 -THE PAST-

VAMIR BAMFORD

It seems like Alter has not lost his power but gained more knowledge about his ring phases. For the Espions being outclassed but him only using 50 percent of his aura and not bloodlust. Alter is the one who saved Charlotte during the war, the least I can do is to give him his role back.

I opened a voice transmission to one of the Elven Captains. “Agis, can you bring the general to my office.” I said in a more demanding tone. “Yes Sir.” Said the elven Espion. Charlotte should be on her way here too so this makes it easier to explain to her who her savior is.

Several minutes later there was knocking in the door. “You may come in.” The door opened to reveal a thirteen year old dressed in black military attire, “It reminds me of when you were younger, Alter or should I say general.” I gave him a teasing smile.

“You should know more than anyone that I don’t like fancy military uniforms.” Alter sat down and proceeded to look at me like he knew why I called him here.

Fortunately there was knocking on the door. “You may come in.” Alter turn to see who it was. “Father, did you call for me?” Said my daughter.

“Yes and I have some news that will excite you. If I remember correctly, you are still looking for your savior right?” Charlotte’s expression was just like I had imagined, confused.

Charlotte came running towards my desk in front of me. “Have you found him, father?” Her eyes were filled with questions. “Yes, yes I have and to be honest with you I already knew who that savior was.” I stood and signaled my daughter to sit in front of the general which she just realized he was there.

I followed her and sat next to her. “The person you have been looking for has been in front of you all this time.” She was confused about my words but I still proceeded to talk.

I looked at Alter and I could tell that he also knew where this was going. “The person who saved you from those basilisk was the general himself.” I stretched my hand towards the individual. “Alter Violet.”

CHARLOTTE BAMFORD

My eyes widened at my fathers words. The savior that I have been looking for six years suddenly appears to be a boy that goes to my school. I knew that there was something up but I never have thought he was my savior. I turned my gaze and caught Alter’s gaze, “S-so you are the one who s-saved me from the basilisk?” I could feel like my emotions that have been piled up fall all at once. “Yes I am but this is not the form I saved you right?”

I nodded to his question. “You had white hair and red eyes.” I looked closer at his hair and eyes, ‘It seems like he doesn’t have any of those features.’

Alter looked at my father and I think my father knew what he meant when they looked at each other. My father nodded at his sight. Then Alter proceeded to close his eyes, the sudden chill that ran down my spine.

The mana was being pulled from the air into Alter’s body. I felt the sweat from my face drop down. His hair changed color and style, from black to white, from curly to straight. He then opened his eyes revealing a pair of snake red iris.

This is what the person who saved me looked like. My vision turned blurry, letting tears of joy leave my eyes. I stood up and went to Alter. I tried to hug him and thank him for what he did for me but my knees gave up in front of him. He tried to help me but I put my hand up.

“W-where have you been these past six years? H-how come you never came to visit me after the war.” I let my feelings take over my words. I felt someone walk to me but I couldn’t tell since my eyes were closed.This feeling of warmth, it was a hug. I opened my eyes, and Alter was hugging me.

He had a warm smile, his eyes looked like he knew what I was going through but all I did was cry in his arms for hours.

After our little ‘meeting’ me and Alter decided to excuse ourselves from father’s office. “You hungry princess?” said the general. I half-faced him, “Well actually yes I am and you are going to treat me for dinner.”

He stopped at my words. “And why is that princess?”

“Well because you never visited me for six years so you treating me for dinner should be somewhat to make it up to me.” I responded in a happy tone. Alter let out a sigh before making a decision. “Alright fine princess I will treat you to dinner but the place must be somewhere I choose.”

“I don’t have a problem with that… and also drop the princess and call me by my name.” My face felt hot after I said that so I kept my face hidden from his sight. It seemed like he didn’t notice but gave me another smile.

ALTER VIOLET

“It’s been a long day today.” I said opening the door to my room. It’s pretty big now that I look at it again, ‘these are perks of being a general huh?’.

I sat on my bed, took off my shoes, closed my eyes and thought of nothing. This emptiness continues to grow more and more. ‘Could this be the power that you have bestowed upon me, my dear.’ Were the words I thought of before I fell asleep…

“They couldn’t have gotten far, search for them.”

“This power that I bestowed upon you will have consequences no matter how strong you are.” A white haired with red eyes said before handing me a ring.

I looked at her with a scared glance. “W-what are you doing?” I stopped her from giving me the ring

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“I’m going to distract them since I don’t have enough time here.” Her face became pale as a ghost. “We need to get you to a healer quickly.” I said holding her in my arms.

I kept running and running until I no longer heard people talking. “We should be fine here.” I put down the red eyed girl. “You know we can’t keep running from fate dear.”

She placed her hand on my check. “The war will start soon and we both know we can’t stop it now.” She added, “you should leave me here and continue your life. My wound is getting worse every minute.”

“SHUT UP!” Were the words that left my mouth without me realizing. I will let my feelings take over my words, “I’m going to find a way for the both of us to get out of this situation alive.” I couldn’t let her see my eyes not while I’m vulnerable.

After two hours of wandering around we found a small village, “We rest there for now until you are fully healed.” But when I looked at her she didn’t say anything but nod.

It pained my heart seeing her like this but nothing else can be done in this situation. We both walked towards the village, it was a small village but the villagers welcomed us and gave us treatment. “It seems like we can finally talk, princess.” She turned her head to the side.

“What are we going to do now?” Her hand reached mine.

“I have a plan, it's going to require us to exchange rings but until then we wait for you to recover.” I held her hand with both of mine trying to comfort her the best I could. She no longer had a place to be. ‘If those bastards were to get close to here I would kill them one by one without mercy.’ I have to calm down before this rage gets the better of me.

“You should get some rest too, you know, you have not been sleeping for the past week because of me.” Said the White haired girl, her eyes had more guilt than they had before this all started. “You could leave me here and not get involved in all this, you still have your ring phase activated so all you need is to relea-.”

I flick my finger on her forehead making her stop mid sentence, “That is not the girl I married. The girl I married is the princess of the basilisk, Isabella Cinderhell. She was always cheerful no matter whether it's good or bad.” I gave her a serious look, looking into her eyes I said, “I won't give up on you whether it’s going against the whole continent or the gods themselves.”

Isabella just looked at me with an unreadable expression, then she started to giggle at the words I said. “Y-you really like to say cringy things don’t you Alter.” My face felt hot, I turned away from her sight. “But that’s the man I married.” The red eyed girl looked at her hands before looking up. “T-thank you for making me laugh like that, I really needed that.”

Standing up, I looked outside the window. “It’s already this late huh? Well you should get some rest before we start doing something tomorrow alright?” Before I opened the door Isabella muttered something, “W-whe-where is my goodnight k-k-kiss?”

I got closer to Isabella’s bed. “You said something?” Unexpectedly, my body reacted to her punch. “Damn that was close, Isabella you should control your strength a little more don't’ you thi-.”

Before I knew what happened, I felt my body fly backwards into the wall so hard that I went through it and landed into the hallway. Thank the gods I had mana covering my body before she landed a hit. “Dear, I think you should really control your mana strength there, you almost killed me.” I used my ring phase to get closer to Isabella, I leaned over her and did what she wanted before I left the room.

I kissed her forehead which she got so embarrassed that she covered herself with the covers. “There happy, now get some rest.” I said, waving my hand backwards.

I don’t know how much she is suffering but that is why I have to be strong enough to protect her at all costs. That is my sole reason for finding a way to be strong. If anything would of happened to her I would never forgive myself.

I should probably push away these thoughts before it clouds my thinking in battle. ‘I’m going to need some fresh air.’ Looking through the forest I found a pretty good spot to relax my mind. ‘The moon really does look beautiful tonight.’

But something snapped me out of those thoughts, It was the villagers' screams. Then I realized that the Village was being attacked by the people chasing us. Basilisks.

I activated my first ring phase, and started moving in the direction of the village. So many thoughts popped in my mind as to why the basilisk here. How did they find us? Never mind that I need to make sure Isabella is okay.

I entered the village only to find some of the houses being burnt while others were being raided by the basilisks and their group. Turning my gaze to the inn that Isabella was in, there were a couple of villagers equipped with armor and weapons fighting against these ‘monsters’. I saw Albert, the son of the chief of this village defending the inn.

“Albert” I yelled running towards the group of villagers. There were a couple of basilisk in my way that I unleashed a mana blade to kill them. The basilisk ran my way in a confident way, ‘that won’t stop me from killing you guys.’ I said to myself annoyed at the outcome of this situation.

I started attacking these basilisk but something didn’t seem right. These basilisk were so weak that even Albert could defeat them. What is their objective? If they are here, where's the high ranking basilisk? Before I could come up with an answer, something fast came towards me. I reacted fast enough to deflect the attack, but my mana sword couldn’t handle any more than two of those attacks.

“I see you block that attack huh?” Said an arrogant voice in front of me. I looked up only to see a bulky figure. ‘Now I see why my mana blade won’t last long’, on its head there was a pair of long thick black horns that resembled a minotaur.

The wanna be minotaur looks at me with bloodlust. “Where’s the princess, human.” My eyes widened at the revelation of their objective. ‘So they are here for Isabella’, I stood up from the ground and activated my first ring phase. “Sorry but the princess is in my protection,” and without another word I stepped forward pointing my blade at the basilisk. “So that means you are going to die here.”

I aimed my blade at its neck but the basilisk moved faster than my blade. In that split moment I felt the mana leave me, like a kid that had its toy taken away. My ring phase deactivated without my order, “It seems like you had a lot of mana to sustain that ring phase.” A smirk appeared on its face, I tried to attack it again but I needed to understand its abilities.

“Too slow, HUMAN!.” Said the basilisk as he appeared next to me and kicked me, sending me crashing through the inn building. I have to get Isabella out of here and fast, at that moment I felt a strong surge of mana being used on the second floor where Isabella was in. I have to use my Abeyance ability if I want to get there without no one noticing, but I hesitated at the thought. 'God dammit, why am I hesitating, Isabella is in danger.’

The usage of mana got stronger than it was. In addition the minotaur basilisk was already in front of me, ‘I no longer have a choice,’ “Aether Phase Activate” I muttered. The basilisk kept walking in my direction, “What did you say, human? Well it doesn’t matter since I’m going to kill you!” He raised the blade and swung down.

His blade shattered in millions of pieces before it could have reached me. I could feel his emotions through my Aether phase. Despair, confusion, fear, those were the emotions of the basilisk when he noticed my appearance change in front of his face.

“What were you saying, basilisk? I couldn’t hear you with all those emotions coming out of you.” My tone became colder, my confidence in mana skyrocketed. I was no longer myself but a person who’s only objective was to kill without mercy, a bloodthirsty killer.

An Ancient Walker.