Hello again everyone. Here's the second chapter.

There is some gore? content. If you thought that I put the mature tag for fun, well, it was not.

Edit: Essentially for those who already read the chapter.

I apologize for the huge amount of mistakes I made. The tense I used for Chelsea's POV were completely messed up. Strangely, I tried to edit a maximum before posting but each time I was rereading my chapter on this site, I could find another error. I'm still editing the chapter and I will continue to edit it in the next few days. Once again, I am sorry.

Also, I realized that I used a lot "to be" verbs...If someone could help me and tell me how to not use it too much, I would be eternally grateful.

Before reading this chapter, I'd like to add more informations. I wanted to do a special page for that kind of informations but I wasn't sure if I was going to do it right now or after several chapters.

Furthermore, releasing an interlude to give more informations just after the first chapter was kind of...Not good in my opinion haha. Anyway, here, just wanted to share the Hélenna calendar that I talked about in the first chapter:

Calendar of Hélenna (Kingdom of Licade, etc(to be revealed).):

7 months of 48 days, 336 days a year:

The months are:

Malekus

Isor

Vinne

Ether

Chorus

Gevur

Hodus

The summer Equinox takes place the 24th of Ether. It represented the middle; the half of the year. It is some kind of religious celebration as well as the day of graduation of all "magic" academy.

By the way, Chelsea was born the 14th of Ether.

Now, the chapter.

English is not my native language so I hope that people will correct the mistakes that I make.

(Hoping that I did not make a lot of them)

If you have any tips for me to improve my way of writing, please, feel free to give them.

Enjoy.

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Chapter 2: The meaning of One's swordsmanship

____*Chelsea's Point of view*____

(Author's note: Frankly speaking, it was hard writing her POV when she is 'that' young. A naive and innocent girl trying to be mature is what she is in the first chapters. Hoping that I succeeded more or less in trying to write her POV)

I lost sight of my brother. Where was he? I started to panic. I looked at my surroundings trying to find him, then I heard his voice.

"Chelsea! Chelsea! Where are you?"

Ah, this was his voice. I needed to reply. I needed to quickly go back to where he was. We've been separated for only a few seconds, maybe minutes but knowing him, I was sure that he was already quite worry.

"I'm here!"

—Is what I said. While I spoke those words, I began to ran toward where the the sound of his voice came from. After lightly pushing some people that were blocking the path, I finally spotted him. I dashed as fast as I could and bumped into several people in the way.

Continuing to run, I saw another man racing trying to go under the barrier. Without even having the time to realize that he was already near me, he bumped into me, and, because of his stature—a quite large build, I fell on my bottom.

Ah, the pants that brother bought me are now soaked and dirty. I started wonder if he was going to be angry at me? Mom was always angry when I dirtied my clothes. Not wanting to pay attention to the man who pushed me, I got up and continued to run toward where my brother was. It appeared that he was also dashing in my direction.

While running, it looked like I was bumping into many people. It was weird though, I tried to not run near them as much as I could. It was almost as if they were closing the distance between them and me themselves. Suddenly, I saw an elbow coming toward me. The nudge hurt me and once again I fell on the wet floor.

"People in the slums should stay in the slums!"

Not having the time to do anything, I heard the loud voice of the man, who just hurt me with his elbow, echoing. Ah, I knew it. I knew the consequences of living in the slums. That's why people wanted to send us to an orphanage but, being separated from my brother... I did not want that.

I thought that it would not be that terrible to be in the slums. Mom and Dad didn't have any prejudice, they were even helping when they could these people. Maybe I thought that their action was the norm. And I was hoping that some people would help us... But it was not the case.

I did not moved. I was afraid, my eyes were looking at the floor. I wanted to disappear, I wanted to hide but I couldn't move, my legs were trembling, I couldn't stand up at all. After a moment, I realized that my brother was near me. He was kneeling on the humid floor, trying to help me. Afterwards, I heard a voice from a certain distance.

"Yuha! Wait!"

Not understanding what was happening, I tried to raise a little my head to access the situation. A woman wearing luxurious weird clothes was now standing near me. She bend herself to see if I was alright. Then she looked in the direction the man who pushed me was.

"What are you doing?"

She was shouting. But, even though it was a shout, her voice was quite beautiful, it resembles a little like mother's. It had a nostalgic feeling. Reminiscing mother, I started to hold my pendant very tightly. At this moment, a dazzling blue light emanated from the necklace. For a moment, I could only see white but when my eyes started to readapt themselves, I noticed that the stone from the pendant was now emitting a faint blue light. I was surprised and what just happened was a mystery for me.

"What? It's..."

The young woman trying to help us came out with these words. It seems like she was as stunned as I was.

"Run Chelsea! We need to run! Quick!"

Suddenly, Ashul started to yell. He was already standing. I did not understand what happened nor why he was saying this but he was the only person that I was trusting. Besides, he promised me to protect me after our parent's death so I had to follow his words. In any case, I got up with his help and we started to run in the direction of the slums.

Not stopping, we already ran for more than a dozen of minutes; we were currently in the middle of the slums. I was already exhausted, my head was spinning, my legs hunted so much, I was started to lose consciousness when, finally, I fell. I was having trouble to breath, my heart was pounding so hard, I thought I was going to die. I wanted to throw up but I didn't ate anything since yesterday, there was nothing to throw up.

I sense my brothers arms that were now supporting me. He cried several times my name, he seemed to be anxious, he had this worry look on his face. No, I didn't want him to have that kind of look. I wanted to become stronger, strong enough to help and not worry my brother anymore. I gathered all my strength and tried to tell him that I was alright.

"I...*huff huff* ...okay."

I said to him. After saying this, it seems like he was relieved to see I was okay. Afterwards, we stayed almost a minute like this without moving. He was waiting for me to catch my breath. But as more time passed, he became more anxious. Because he feared that some people were going after us? Or maybe because he saw that I caught a fever while staying so long under the heavy rain?—That, I did not know. Maybe it was both. I was clenching the bluish stone from the necklace mother gave to me very tightly. I was praying, hoping that everything was going to be alright.

Then my brother got up while holding me with both of his arms. I did not understand why he suddenly got up and started to dash but after a moment I began to heard voices behind us. Seems like some people were sent after us. Was it because of me? No, I'm pretty sure it was because of the necklace. Everything happened after the blue light appeared. But why are we running? Couldn't we just give the pendant to these men? I couldn't understand. Was it because it was a memento of our parents that Ashul did not want to give it?

Then, abruptly, a sound resonated.

*BANG*

Just after the sound, Ashul right arm was no longer holding me and we both fell on the humid floor. Because brother was running when such event occurred, I was ejected a few meters in front of him.

What my eyes could now see was the state my brother was in. He was no longer standing but kneeling, both of his knees on the floor. I couldn't see well because of the rain and my feverish state but strangely, the rain around his right arm was red. Red like his eyes; it was a darkish red. Soon enough, I started to lose consciousness.

____*Change of POV*____

The young boy was now kneeling in front of his sister. A projectile pierced through his right shoulder. Blood was spurting from his wound. Soon, his right arm was recovered from his blood, but it was only for a moment. Indeed, the rain was washing the blood that was flowing on him and what became red was the wet floor he was kneeling on.

Ashul did not move. He was looking at his now unconscious sister. At least until he heard:

"Hey, you could've killed the girl. We need her alive.", a man behind him said.

"What about the boy?", replied another adult.

"Just kill him, we don't need him", answered the first man.

It seemed that they were just two of us. Two pursuers only? That, Ashul did not believe so at first. But, in the end, why not? They were only children, they were underestimating them. Ashul stood up with his still fresh wound. He did not scream because of the pain. In fact, he stayed emotionless, as if the pain from his fresh wound was not existing. He turned around and looked at the two men.

In front of him were two tall adults, they were wearing simple clothes and simple light armors. Their clothes' quality could be pretty much found everywhere except that it was the uniform of the royal guard. The light armors were only a plate for the torso, some gauntlets and some leg protection. It was really a light equipment, without any helmet.

In fact, most of the time, the guards did not wear their armor because they had absolute confidence in their attack power, because of the item they were using as weapon. Each of them had a sword but, truth is, the sword was more of a decoration than anything since they were both holding a weird shooting device—a gun.

This gun was mainly made of Mana-ite and was only used by the royal soldier of the kingdom. With the power of Mana, a projectile of metal could be launched at high speed. Truth is, these gun were still prototype; even so, they were still very dangerous.

The amount of mana needed to launch a single bullet was enormous for the prototype version. Yet, they were using it. In fact, knowing the power of these gun, all citizen from the kingdom were afraid and they no longer dared to do anything against the King because of its royal guard's equipment.

However, the bullet was only a simple projectile launched by mana, it couldn't do anything against a magician. That's why the upper class, the nobles, the only one that could supply themselves with Mana-ite, and the royalty were the ones running this whole kingdom. That's also why they treated commoners, and people in the slums, like low-lives.

Ashul was standing still and was looking at both of the men. When looking into the boy's eyes, the two guards became afraid. His eyes were deep and you could lose yourself if you looked too much time into them. Panicking, one of the two men moved his right arm and pointed his gun toward the young boy.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

At this moment, Ashul started to remember his promise with Chelsea's parents. No, his promises, they were two of them. Firstly, that he would never use his competence to hurt people anymore and secondly, he would protect his sister as long as he lived. Reminiscing this, he began to think to himself.

'Sorry Lailah, Reed. It seems that to keep one of the promise, I need to break the other one.'

Before letting the man, who was pointing his gun in the direction of the young boy, shoot; Ashul used a technique he did not make usage since a long time, a technique that was once lost.

Transforming Kite style, 3rd path: Illusion under the water, Ren

Instantly, Ashul found himself near the two guards—No, in fact, he was still standing in front of them, unmoving and he was also, at the same time, near the two men. Without realizing what happened, both of the soldier didn't move when Ashul unsheathed one of the solider's sword from its scabbard with his left hand.

When the two man finally realized what was happening, it was too late for one of them. Ashul already began a slashing motion with his left arm. His right arm did not move since the beginning because of the injury, he only moved his left arm.

Furthermore, he did not make any unnecessary movement and quickly, the slicing motion cut through the flesh of the man he took the sword of. Because the guard were mainly wearing simple clothes and light armors, Ashul pinpointing his slash where there was no armor, just under the belly of the man, under his torso plate.

Abruptly, the man who received such sword's slashing motion was now in half. Blood were coming from his torso and what served as below body. Scared about what just happened, the other guard took one step behind and tried to shoot the young man that was now just in front of him.

But that also means that the man was also in front of Ashul; the young boy used again the third path: Ren, and found himself just behind the remaining guard a fraction of second before he could shoot with his mana gun. And once again, with a clean slashing motion, this time, he separated the head of the guard from his body.

All these action were done in a few seconds. Not even a minute passed. The now bloody scenery showed a young man holding a sword with two body cut in two near him. People in the slums that witnessed the show were now running as fast as they could.

The gruesome performance wasn't something they were used to see nor they wanted to see. In the end, under this downpour, only the siblings remained as well as what was left of the two men.

Ashul started to move toward his sister that was unconscious while still holding the sword he just stole. Before even reaching where Chelsea was, he then heard:

*clap clap*

Clapping sounds could be heard behind him; the spacing between each clap was quite long. He turned back rather quickly to see who was this person. What he saw was a hooded figure that was slowly walking toward him. He could not see the person's face but judging from the stature, it must have been a man. Ashul started to put himself into a stance with the sword he was holding. However, this stance had many flaws since the young boy couldn't use his right arm. Slowly approaching, the hooded man then talked:

"Young boy, you are quite interesting."

At this declaration, the young boy stayed silent. From the voice, this person was, as he thought, a man. He was standing in front of his sister that was lying on the floor and did not moved at all. The man stopped walking and was standing still, looking directly at Ashul. A tense atmosphere surrounded both of the mysterious man and Ashul. The young boy was thinking: who was this man? Did he saw what just happened? If so, why didn't he make an appearance? Why did he not help the guard?

Furthermore, the hooded figure saw the bloody show that Ashul took part in. But the boy did not felt any more presences that the ones of the now dead men. Indeed, this hooded man seemed to not be an ordinary man.

And yet, when the male adult in question started to walk once again toward the two siblings, Ashul launched another technique of his. Mixing with the third path: Ren, Ashul used, this time, a sword technique.

Transforming Kite style: 4th form, Hin'rui

Like earlier, Ashul could now be seen at two places at the same time. He was in front of the mysterious man and also behind him. Knowing that he was just near the man, he started his slashing motion. But this time, even before the image of sword touched the man, a metallic sound could be heard. Ashul, hearing this, jumped backward and was now in the opposite direction from where he was at first. Now, the hooded figure that—in truth not moved—was now between him and his sister.

Hin'rui was also an illusion technique like Ren. The technique could be explained by altering the current image of the blade and the creation of a fake image of the sword moving behind the blade itself. Doing this made the people think that they still had a second left before the blade touched them when, in reality, they couldn't evade it anymore.

This technique was rather powerful against the people that were using their vision to evade the attack and, truth is, quite a lot of people were only using their vision to adapt themselves, evade an attack and judging the distance.

But in this case, the sword collided itself with a sturdy armor and crack started to appear on the blade. The sword itself was, at first, only a decorated item for the guard, its quality was rather low. It was already quite weird to see such a poor blade cutting through human flesh so easily.

Analyzing what just happened, Ashul started to panic. He underestimated his opponent—no, he was being too confident after killing these two men. He should have been more careful, the man figure was hidden behind a cloak. And there was surely a reason to it.

He should have guessed that the man was hiding something. After reforming his stance, the boy felt a cold shiver. A cold aura coming from the mysterious man was now expanding its domaine. Ashul then realized that the man in front of him was too powerful for him, that he didn't stand a chance.

"Oh, that's some interesting swordsmanship.", the man said and then paused before continuing with a colder voice: "But don't even try to fight against me, you won't win."

When the man spoke those words, he looked directly at Ashul. Even after saying this, he was still looking at Ashul and not his sister. The boy was perplexed. From the looks of it, it seemed like the man wasn't there for Chelsea contrary to the two other man. Or was the man going to kill him before going toward his sister? Ashul did not know. But what he was completely sure of was that man's strength. He needed to find some stratagem to run away once again with his sister but he was completely blocked.

"Oi, can't you at least say something?", said the man interrupting the thinking of the boy.

After a silence between the two of them, with only the sound of the unrelenting rain, a voice pierced through the water drops. The voice was clear but was also hesitant.

"...Can...You let us be?", replied Ashul, surprisingly enough.

He knew that there was no escape route. He knew that whatever he might do, he might either be captured or killed so he spoke those words. He was gambling. By the looks of thing, the man wasn't with the two guards. Ashul thought that maybe—and he hoped that was the case—this man wasn't there for Chelsea. Besides, he had nothing to lose, he was in a position in which he couldn't do anything more.

"Haha...Hahahahahaha! Hahaha...*kof kof*", loudly laughed the man before starting to cough. He then continued: "Ahem...Well, I can let both of you run away without a problem...That is if you can stay conscious."

Immediately after saying these words, the man rose his right arm and pointed his hand, opened, toward Ashul. Then, a huge amount of informations came into the boy's mind. So much that his head was hurting, almost as if someone was opening and cracking his skull.

Ashul was once again on his knees and, dropping the sword he was holding, had his left hand on his head. He started to scream because of the pain. He was screaming so loudly that even under the rain, some people that were in the slums but were at least a kilometer from where this event occurred, could hear his voice.

The pain was unbearable, his head was splitting apart. The pain was so intense that, he almost fell unconscious. In fact, it happened several times but each time he was reminding himself about the words the man spoke of—that he was letting both of them escape if he stayed conscious.

Finally after a moment, the pain faded. Ashul that was holding his head with only his left hand since his right arm couldn't move because of the wound tried to stand up but, not having the time to do anything nor think about anything, a fist collided into his stomach.

The young boy flew a few meters before crashing into the ground. He started to lose consciousness but before losing it, he realized that while he was enduring the pain, the rain had stopped.

He was now, lying on the ground, unconscious.

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Ulzreg's journal (part 2):

I realized that the slow aging was due to the wakening of some kind of power flowing inside my body. It seems like in everyone, there is some slumbering power and the tower environment was wakening it. I tried to use this force. I realized that it was thanks to this unknown strength that I could more easily differentiate the aura surrounding me.

This power could be felt as a flux inside my body. I decided to call this somewhat divine power En'ra. From the racine of the ancient language en meaning flow and ra meaning god. The discovery of this power could change once again the state of the world. Everyone would be able to use this divine flow contrary to Mana. I need to absolutely give this information to the people outside the tower.

Tales of Erebia (part 1):

Long ago, there was a battle of swordsmanship style. When swords were the main weapon of each kingdom, empires, and others; it existed several styles that were well known. One of them was called the Transforming Kite style. At first, people were thinking that this was some weak, unknown style because this swordsmanship could be used with every kind of sword. But, truth is, this style was made to be used with all type of sword.

Soon enough, the few people that could use this style were becoming famous. They were becoming the strongest of the whole continent. Unfortunately, with the appearance of the Mana-ite, this swordsmanship started to disappear like almost every other sword styles. Even though the sword techniques were now becoming more popular in the last decade, no one knows if this legendary sword style still exists.

(Author's note: I realized that I did not introduced any continent name. The current story takes place in the Kingdom of Licade, situated in the continent of Erebia. I will put all the information into a interlude page, don't worry. Also, I'd like to remind that Chelsea is the MC...)

Thank you for reading.