After the Zadia, Dana, and Julianne had killed the dragon the kingdom threw a festival. The group however wasn’t in much of a cheery mood. Instead Dana went to report everything that went on in the mission, and Zadia went back to sparring with Julianne.

It might have been a great victory for the kingdom but it was an eye opener for the group. Since apparently the dragon wasn’t much older than Zadia. Ray had kept this information from Zadia and the rest so they wouldn’t have underestimated it. Dana was the only other person that knew and had told Zadia and Julianne afterwards. Julianne was shocked to think that the dragon they fought wasn’t a fully grown one.  

“Cling” “CLANG”

Noises echoed into the halls of the mansion. The sources that made the echo came from Zadia and Julianne who had been practicing harder than before. They swung their blades at one another metal against metal. The clashing of their blades created sparks, their slashes became flashes and their sweat became the meaning of hard work.

“Good job Zadia. That’s it for today.” Julianne pats her on the back as she makes her way to the weapon rack.

The two had trained endlessly for eight hours for three weeks now since the fight with the dragon. They not only trained harder but they trained longer as well. Zadia was making her way back into her room tired from the long day she had. She not only trains with Julianne but trains by herself as well. She had also upped her solo training realizing her weakness.

“Good night.” Zadia mutters to herself.

It had become a habit for Prina to sneak into her bed, since Zadia was always tired it was easy to do. So Zadia became use to waking up next to Prina, she had better things to do so she just ignored it.

As she closed her eyes and went to sleep. She yet again became surrounded with a familiar space.

“Welcome back.” Earth waves as he greets her.

“What is it this time?” Zadia responds with dissatisfaction.

“Ahh…I was going to personally train you too.” Earth responds shrugging his shoulders.

“T-train me? How? Why?” Zadia asks suspiciously

“Well, the other gods have gotten worried. Since my hero drew first blood. Which is fantastic for me but bad for you.”

“W-wait what do you mean bad for me?” Zadia questions in a worried tone.

“Well. I’ll tell you later. Don’t worry about it for now.” Earth responds with a friendly smile.

“Fine. Anyways why do the other gods hate you?” Zadia probes giving up on her previous question.

“Hmm… Well I own over 200 worlds and they own none. That could be a reason.” Earth replies tilting his head.

“No wonder they hate you.” Zadia gave a deep sigh.

“Well. I have my reasons…Anyways this contest started thirty years ago. So you have competitors that have lived eighteen years more than you in this world. You are actually the youngest hero.”

“Wait. Thirty years and I took first blood?” Zadia asks in confusion

“They were all preparing their heroes to fight mine. Since I have won this kind of thing over 200 times in a roll. The only reason you lived this long is caused I hid you and I am still hiding you.”  Earth stated with a mischievous smile.

“I-I see. Wait. Does that mean you let me get spotted by the dragon hero guy?”

“No. Well not the dragon hero. The god that was overseeing him, was the one who I purposely let spot you. He had knew you had more potential than his hero as soon as he saw your soul. So naturally he tried to get rid of you as soon as possible.” Earth replied uninterested in the topic.

“So. You can make me stronger than the other heroes with this training?” Zadia focuses back on the real issue.

“I’m not making you stronger. You’ll be doing that on your own. I’m just providing you the means to do so. You will decide whether you want to be stronger than them or not.” Earth correcting Zadia

“Uhh…okay?” Zadia tilts her head in confusion.

“Well. This training will train your mind solely. It will unlock your use of potential.” Earth mentions.

“Then I can use the crimson like armor from before? How did I change into that?" Zadia asks in interest.

“Well. That wasn’t your hero form but it was the hero form of that women warriors’ soul you had absorb. You have yet to learn how to activate your form.” Earth replied

In actuality the women warrior was the one to have activated the hero form. Zadia didn’t know that the soul still had a will before it became a part of her. The 30 percent from Zadia and the 120 percent from the women warrior allowed Earth to enter her body. The reason why the full potential of each soul was activated was because the souls were clashing with each other.

“So does that mean I can activate her form again?”

“No. Which is why I went around as Earth instead of Zadia.” Earth replied naturally

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What Earth didn’t mention was the two reasons he enter her body during the merging. One was so he could stop the other soul from completely taking over of Zadias body, crushing her will. Earth was weakening the will of the other soul and watching over the merging of the souls to make sure Zadias soul remained. Zadias soul was merging with a stronger soul, she in normal circumstances would have been consumed.

Now that the soul was completely a part of her she no longer needed the ring which had contained the women warrior soul.  This also meant that she was no longer in danger of being consumed. Also she now had to discover how to activate her true hero form. All the power that belong to the previous soul belong to her now. Zadia has access to 50 percent of that power but wasn’t strong enough to bring it out.

A hero first needs potential they are either born with it or they can merge with other souls.  After potential has risen they then have to unlock that potential which is done through training your mind. To use it they will have to train their body to handle the power. Zadias body can’t handle the 50 percent that is unlocked. Her body can only support 25 percent.  Which is way the female warrior had activated her hero form to prevent her body from bursting.

The second reason Earth entered her body was to motivate her through the display of power. Of course Earth found it interesting to toy with Zadia. So he never tells her everything.

“Those suitors wouldn’t be a problem anymore in two years. At fourteen you will be a lot stronger than all of them, but I wonder… There is a problem… Your mother will think it is a good idea to send you to the academy if you win.” Earth replies crossing his arms.

“How is that a problem? Actually it makes more sense than anything else that has happen in my life so far.” Zadia replies not caring much about the decision.

“I need a hero not a schoolgirl. Anyways I already have a plan to get you out of that predicament.” Earth stated with a smile.

“I’ll train my hardest for now, but if she wants me to go I’m not saying no.” Zadia responds.

“Let us get started with your training.” Earth replied with a dark aurora.

“E-earth? W-what kind of training i-is this?” Zadia replied nervously

“Oh. It’s nothing much just hellish training, it’s really no big deal. You will just experience something similar to dying from extreme torture, but it’s no problem since you won’t actually die. Now let us begin I can only spare the next two years.” Earth responds casually emitting killing intent suffocating Zadia with immense pressure. Zadias knees began to tremble her body becoming numb.

“You crumble with this little pressure? We have a lot of work to do then. How will you protect your future sister?” Earth smiles

“S-sister? You mean Dana?” Zadia replies nervously, with her body still numb.

“Your mother may not have noticed yet but she is pregnant. Happened last week, well of course you wouldn’t notice. Since you’re always sleeping. With that amount of strength you can’t protect anyone.” Earth gives a shrug as he turns away. Still emitting pressure. After a few moments.

“Hey. Where the hell are you looking? I’m ready.” Zadia calls out to Earth. Earth turns around to see Zadias legs have stopped trembling and she had a serious look on her face.

“That’s more like it. Partner.” Earth changes their surroundings to hellish looking world. This world had many disgusting looking creatures that were extremely massive in size. The place was filled with hellish fire, dark demonic terrain and skinless impaled corpses. There was a road paved with disturbing disfigured faces stitched into it along with the hellish walls and blood ridden areas with slimy guts smeared all over. Screams were heard from all over, it practically filled the air with despair. The monsters tore into each other as they came across one another, ripping one another apart limb from limb their blood gushing all over. The air was poisonous and the sky roared scorching heat. This was a world that gave no luxury to neither weak nor strong.

“Every night you will train here. Don’t worry no matter how many times you die here. You would just wake up. So die to your hearts’ content.” Earth casually informs Zadia as she slowly suffocates from the poisonous air.

“E-earth…I c-can’t b-breathe…” Zadia calls out weakly.

“Don’t worry partner you will get used to it in a week. I think. Well… I’m not sure. We still have two years to find out though.” Earth casually scratches his head.

“D-damn…” Zadia slowly closes her eyes. Moments later she wakes up grasping for air.

“HUuGHgghH.” Zadia slowly starts to calm herself down.

“M-master? Are you okay?” A voice call out to her. It was Prina.

“I-I’m fine. Just a nightmare…” Zadia responds rubbing her head.

[Two more years of this…Damn it.]