In the temple of the Dark Lord, where the unbeatable team of Yi Gon and his wife Yan had defeated and sealed away an ancient evil twenty years ago, a young girl arrived in the main hall. Meixian walked slowly towards the thorne before her, bowing her head in shame as she quickly knelt in front of the main sitting before her.

“I am sorry, father, I failed. I didn’t expect them to be so strong, but I won’t make that mistake again!” she apologized to the Dark Lord, who stat motionless in his black throne.

To each side of him, his remaining generals stood. The injured gunner, Raolan, had made a surprising recovery, replacing her lost arm with a puppet like machine of her own design. It moved through her manipulation of her Chi, and allowed her to continue to fight.

The mysterious Zhenya stood opposite of her, his featureless black armor showing no emotion as usual.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve to come crawling back after such a failure, girl!” Raolan spat her words out, placing her remaining hand on her artificial forearm. “Because of you, I…”

“Enough, Raolan.” the Dark Lord Yi Gon stood up, slowly walking down the steps leading down from his raised throne. “Your failure has only yourself to blame… as for her failure to kill either Yi Zen or Xuan Yan, to return without the Crimson Dragon Emperor… I will make sure she’s suitably punished for these.”

“Yes, father, I accept any punishment you shall inflict on me.” Meixian replied, her head still bowed.

“Stand up.” he instructed her as he stood directly before her. She obeyed and rose to her feet, looking up at her father’s cold, stern face. The face she had known for twenty years, the only face she could trust.

His fist slammed into her face, knocking her to the ground. Her Skills were useless against him, turning her into nothing but a small girl next to the legendary swordsman. The shock from the punch ran through her entire body, and she could hardly move. Next to her head, a formerly invisible blue orb shattered, becoming visible to the naked eye for a split second.

“You foolish child!” he shouted, pulling her up by the collar of her shirt and lifting her off her feet. “You’ve led them straight to us, did you not think you might be traced?!”

“I-I’m sorry… I didn’t know what else to do but to come back…” she cried, tears flowing from her eyes freely. “They told me so many things, I was so confused… forgive me!”

Her pleading was cut short, as his fist once again collided with her body. His punch landed on her stomach, forcing the air out of her body. But she didn’t fight back, she just bit her lip and endured the pain, allowed the abuse to continue as his rage exploded.

And by the time he was done, she lay on the ground, half broken and unable to stand.

“Our uninvited guests will likely be here soon… Raolan, greet them at the door and perhaps… you can erase your current dishonor.” he returned to his throne, leaving the half conscious body of his daughter on the cold stone floor.

And he waited for them to arrive, so that his revenge would finally be complete.

The Yi Zen party arrived at the site where my mother and father fought an unleased evil years ago, what a stupid place to hide yourself dad… somewhere mom knew about. I guess it worked, as nobody found him here, maybe she ignored it because of how obvious it was? Whatever it was, inside this old temple was a cavern, where Meixian had run back to.

And we were here to bring her back, and if in the process I broke that asshole of a father’s nose, then so be it. Despite her better judgement, my mother had come along.

“Zen, are you sure about this?” Xinyi asked me, looking concerned for some reason. “Even if he’s become the embodiment of evil, isn’t he still your dad?”

“Nah, screw him.” I replied, heading for the entrance into the temple. “I’m a momma’s boy anyways.”

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With a group this large, the only threat was him. He had Zero, like me, so mom’s Skills were out. Thankfully, even without Skills, everyone here was quite formidable.

As we walked into the front hall of the temple, a woman waited for us, matching the description I was told about the woman who fought Xinyi. Her missing arm had been replaced by some sort of advanced contraption, and if it was anything like her cannons it would be well above the technology of this country.

“I’m glad you came as well, girl.” she addressed Xinyi, pointing one of her cannons towards her. “I was hoping to get my revenge on you!”

But before a fight could break out, a new figure emerged, clad in black steel from head to toe. Six different swords hung from his belt, three on each side. The last of the generals my father had recruited, according to the small bits of information Yan had extracted from Meixian before she had run off back here.

He removed his plain, featureless mask and threw it aside. He was a young man, not much older than I was. His face was honestly very ordinary, compared to his armor. He stepped towards the woman with white hair.

“I’ll hold them off, so you should go somewhere safe.” he addressed the woman, who looked at him confused.

“Huh, what are you talking about, Zhenya?” but instead of answering her, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into a kiss. “W-Wha..?”

She looked surprised, and the man separated from her and faced me.

“Yi Zen… I have no hope of defeating all of you, but will you go easy on me long enough to let this poor girl get away before she gets splattered on the floor?”

“And why would I do that?” I asked him, drawing my sword.

“She’s not a bad person, she’s just misguided. In the town we grew up in, she was a scientist, an inventor! But the townspeople got scared, called her a witch, and tried to execute her. He saved her and she swore loyalty to him, I followed with her because well… I liked her, and that feeling only grew stronger.”

“Zhenya… I, I had no idea.” the woman looked at him, stunned.

“As much as I thank our Lord for saving Raolan, he’s mad in the head… and I’m not about to watch him sacrifice her for his own ambitions!” the man named Zhenya drew one of his six blades and held it towards me, beckoning me to attack. The woman behind him backed off but didn’t leave, as the exits were all blocked.

I rushed forward with a burst of speed using the techniques of the Thunder school. His sword slashed at me, but I dodged it, smoothly sheathing my own blade in the same motion. I stopped next to him, placed my hand on his shoulder, and spoke.

“Keep her out of trouble then, and do something about her personality.”

“I’ll try!” the man responded earnestly, putting away his sword.

I continued past him, and following my judgement, my group let them leave. I had no reason to hate them, they hadn’t done anything of their own volition. Once I cut out the source of the problem, they would return to normal. At least, that was what I hoped would happen.

After avoiding an unnecessary battle that would have added nothing but to drag on this quest, we arrived in the main hall. At the foot of a massive, ridiculous throne was Meixian, her body completely naked, chained to a post. Her body was bloodied and beaten, and the sight of it made me even more furious than I already was. Even if this man used to be my father, now he was nothing but a monster.

“My son, how have you been?” Yi Gon rose from his seat, walking towards me slowly. “It’s been so long, you’ve grown into a fine young man.”

He showed no signs of hostility, but it was obviously an act. I could feel his bloodlust from here, the darkness inside of him had completely consumed his personality. He looked at Meixian, than back at me.

“Are you seriously angry, for her sake? She was the one who came back to me, said to punish her in any way I liked… this was what she wanted.”

I remained silent, though my hands curled into fists.

“And you’ve brought my wife with you, how wonderful! It’s a real family reunion now!” he looked at my waist, then back at me, and motioned for me to hand him my sword. “Ah, you brought my sword with you, how kind, hand it over and we can all walk out of here with our lives, as a family again~”

“Fuck you!”

I flew at him in a rage, my sword flashing from its scabbard in a way similar to Tatsuko’s flash cuts. The man that used to be my father deflected the blade with his own, his body moving so fast I hadn’t even seen him draw his sword at all.

In his hand was the sword Meixian had used, the Marine Dragon Empress. Sister sword to my own, they were nearly identical, and as such possessed the same potential for the style we both mastered.

And they had a hidden property, the original form of the Zero Skill.

When wielded together, they created a strange energy that cancelled out the Skills of others around them, something about the resonance of the metals. For this country ruled by Skills, the ability to defeat every Skill at once, at a much wider range than the personal Skills of myself or my father, it would be devastating.

It was for that reason the blades were separated, but I had brought them together. As our blades clashed, the power behind my attack created a wave of negative energy, and if I were using a Skill it would have been cut short then and there.

But I didn’t use Skills to fight, and neither did he.

“Mom, everyone, get Meixian out of here… I want to take this bastard down myself.”

“Master… is it really you?” Xinyi looked at my father, ignoring my order. “Y-You probably don’t remember me, but you saved me from some thugs, taught me how to fight…”

“Ah yes, the girl who made a living on the streets selling her body as a punching bag to lowlifes that enjoyed beating up the weak.” he looked at her, but he didn’t seem to care for the reunion. “I had hoped to raise you into a strong warrior for my revenge, but you were much weaker than I anticipated.”

“No way… you were just using me… b-but, you were so kind back then, you even told me to go to the capital if we were ever separated!”

“Idiot, I thought that by doing so, I would never see you again! Do you realize how many people die trying to become legends by going to the capital? You weren’t supposed to make it this far.”

Xinyi drew her nameless sword and stood back to back with me.

“Sorry Zen, I’m ignoring your request. This isn’t just your fight.”