“Now then, time is gold in this situation.”

Miko opened the door and stepped outside of the apartment. This caught everyone off guard.

“Wait, Miko?!”

He ignored them and stood in front of everyone who surrounded the apartment.

“Ahem. Attention thugs, degenerates, scumbags!”

He called out towards the men and instantly drew their attention.

“My name is Gamiko Dragna the Third aka Miko. I’m sure you’ve all heard of me before.”

“?!”

As he expected, all of the thugs were either shocked or frightened.

“It’s times like this that having an infamous reputation comes in handy.”

Momo mumbled.

“I know who you all work for, and I want your help sending him a message. Hinami, Ace, and Sora are all under my protection from this moment forward. If you still wish to antagonize them, feel free.”

Miko showed a savage smile.

“But be prepared to be destroyed by me.”

“?!”

Shock spread to the crowd. The infamous monster of the Dragna clan was threatening the Crime God of the Dragna Empire. They all knew that this couldn’t end well if a conflict was to really occur between them.

“H-Hey, what should we do?”

“How would I know?!”

“I don’t want to mess with the emperor’s grandkid. Not to mention he has a crazy mother. I don’t have enough lives for this.”

“Calm down. I’m sure that if we back away now, everything will be alright.”

“What about the boss’s orders?”

“I’m sure he’ll forgive us when we tell him who stopped us.”

“Anyway, let's go! I don’t want to be killed!”

The thugs all started to scatter slowly. Some even broke out into sprints and shamelessly ran for their lives. It didn’t even take five minutes for them all to disappear.

“Wow. You just spoke and they all started running. Kickass man.”

Ace bumped fists with Miko.

“Miko, are you sure about this?”

Hina asked.

“Nebulous doesn’t like when anyone challenges his authority. I’m sure he’ll respond violently.”

“That’s fine by me. I wanted to go to war anyway.”

Miko was all grins.

“It feels like you changed more and more every time I see you. When we first met, I would never I thought you would do something like this.”

“Is that so? I don’t think I’ve changed that much.”

“No, you’ve changed alright. The Miko of the past wouldn’t do something as risky as this.”

Momo approached him.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Momo. I don’t take risks with a low chance of success. I only take risks that are sure to give rewards.”

“Then you believe you can win against Nebulous?”

“Who knows? But whether I win or not, I’m sure to grow from it.”

He chuckled at the bit.

“Alright, that’s a lie. I hate losing, so even if I can’t win fair and square, I’ll cheat to win. Either way, I won’t be the one losing.”

“I hope you’re not getting conceited.”

“Conceited, me?”

Miko laughed. His eyes then seemed dull all of a sudden.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“I’ll never be satisfied until I’m standing at the apex. So I’ll never be conceited.”

Momo and others didn’t say anything. It was Miko who broke the silence.

“Anyway, let's go. Many things are needed to be done.”

Back at the royal palace in Dragna City.

“Miko has picked a fight with Nebulous?”

“Yes, elders.”

A servant kneeled in front of a group of Dragna clan elders. He reported everything he saw in Gael.

“He bluntly threatened to destroy Nebulous.”

“Hahaha! This is great. This kid just knows how to dig his own grave.”

One of the elders laughed.

“Nebulous is a subordinate of Lord Krow, but not many know this. He’s the perfect candidate to get rid of Miko.”

“Not to mention Miko was the one who provoked him first. There would be no way to link his death to Lord Krow. It would just look like a dispute between the two.”

“Maybe we should assist Nebulous and supply him with more resources.”

“We’ll have to order him to kill Miko first.”

The group of elders discussed among themselves.

“That’s impossible. Nebulous only takes orders from Lord Krow and no one else. Everyone else will be ignored.”

“Also, we don’t even know how to contact him. We can’t just tell a random lackey to pass the message either.”

“That’s not that the biggest concern….How many of you know what he even looks like?”

“……..”

All the Elders became when they heard that question.

“Other than Lord Krow, none of us knows anything about him. In the first place, everyone just assumes that Nebulous is a male. He could be female or not even human.”

“The name Nebulous really suits them.”

“Then what should we do?”

“Let’s just watch and see. I’m sure that if things get intense, we’ll get the chance to meet with him.”

A few days later.

*Bam!*

On the outskirts of the capital city, Miko was engaged in battle with Darry. It was their usual sparring session.

Miko, who had activated Dragon’s Rage, was attacking Darry with swift kicks, punches, and palm strikes. Darry on the other hand would avoid them or block them with one hand.

*Bam!*

Miko kicked at him but Darry caught it with his hand.

“Oh, the power behind your kicks has increased once again.”

Darry gently tapped Miko’s leg. Miko jumped with his remaining pivot leg and swung it towards Darry’s head. Darry blocked with his arm and grabbed it. He now held Miko upside down by his legs.

“Heh.”

However, Miko smiled.

“Hm?”

Darry saw the aura surrounding Miko form into fists and thrust at him.

“Woah.”

He released Miko’s feet and jumped back to avoid them. Miko stood on his hands for a few seconds and then lowered his legs with a controlled speed. His aura then formed a foothold behind him, which he used to kick off and shot towards Darry from below.

Darry saw that and pulled his leg back and kicked at his head.

“Hm?”

However, his foot only hit air. Miko formed an arm with aura and used it to pull himself out of the kick’s path and quickly circled behind Darry. Miko released his claws and pounced at Darry’s back. Darry jumped into the air to avoid it.

“Huh?”

However, he wasn’t able to get far because Miko formed an arm of aura and made it stretch and wrap around Darry’s leg like a rope, preventing him from escaping.

“Not bad.”

Darry smirked.

“But not enough.”

He covered his hand in bright light and swung it at the aura arm. It was severed before Miko could pull him back towards him. He pointed a finger at Miko.

*Bam!*

A strand of light passed by Miko’s ear and hit the ground. Miko looked down. There was a hole in the ground with smoke coming from it. All of the grass around that hole was burnt away and only the earth surrounding it remained. Miko gulped because if that had hit him instead, he wasn’t sure if he wouldn’t suffer the same fate.

“My win again.”

Darry landed beside him again.

“That makes how many now? 78-0?”

“79-0.”

“That much?”

Darry laughed.

“But I gotta say, Miko, your battle sense is pretty top-notch. It’s pretty hard to defend against your tactics without relying on brute strength. Fighting you is like getting entangled in a spider’s web, the more I struggle the more entangled I get.”

He praised.

“It’s meaningless if I can’t beat you.”

Miko sat on the ground with a frown.

“Not necessarily. You should be able to tell, you’ve gotten stronger since we’ve started sparring. In fact, it’s kind of scary how fast you’re growing.”

“Scary huh?”

Miko was silent for a bit before speaking again.

“I wanna try something. Can you help me out?”

“What, is it a new technique or something?”

“You can say that.”

“Alright, sure. If it’s something you’ve thought up, I’m sure it will be amazing.”

“Ok, but fair warning. If you’re not careful you might get hurt, and maybe even die.”

“Oh? Now I really wanna see it.”

“Your funeral.”

Miko took a deep breath and started to concentrate. He closed his eyes and reopened them.

“?!”

Darry felt as if the cold hand of death was digging into his chest and reaching for his heart. He looked at Miko’s eyes. They were now as black as the darkest night and had an otherworldly coldness to them. Darry didn’t know if it was his imagination or what, but the world around him seemed to be getting darker by the second.

“Here I come.”

Miko spoke.

*BOOM!*

A deafening explosion echoed throughout the area.

“Hah~! Hah~! Hah~!”

Darry stood in place breathing heavily with his body covered in cold sweat. Around him, the area was completely scorched and covered in flames. In front of him, Miko lay on the ground motionlessly. Where he laid was the area that was the most scorched.

“Dammit, I used my full strength on reflex.”

He mumbled.

He looked down at Miko and breathe a sigh of relief.

“Thank god, I didn’t kill him.”

He sat on the ground looking exhausted.

“I was caught off guard so I thought that I had killed him, but looks like he was tougher than I thought.”

He placed his hand on Miko’s head.

“What was that just now? A technique? It really scared the crap out of me. What makes it worse is that it didn’t seem to be finished.”

He became quiet.

“What if it had been completed?.....”

He looked around him again.

“This kid is really scary, to think he could survive such an attack. I wonder how long I can keep going easy on him?”

He suddenly smiled.

“Yet, I can’t help but want to see what he’ll become in the future.”

That’s when his phone started ringing. He took it out and saw a Caller ID. He frowned a little and then answer the call.

(Hello, Darry.)

A mechanical voice came from the other side of the phone.

“Who’s this? And why is your number stored in my phone?”

He got no response for a while. The moment he was going to hang up the phone, the voice spoke again.

(My freedom is cloudy.)

The look in Darry’s eyes suddenly changed. He then responded-

“But the sun must shine again.”

After that, he hung up the call and stood up. He looked at Miko and left without a word.