"The tournament of power ha?" I've just heard rumors about it, from what I have heard it's a competition where the world's top fighters meet to put their skills against one another to decide who is the strongest. The kingdom holds these tournaments to enlist new power under their reign; to strengthen their military power, which they use to extend their territory, at this point the Sword Saint family is genuinely only one step away from becoming dictators of this world."
Pleiades thought to himself, with only the rain to hear what he had just said. On the other hand, he began to think about what he should do next; he wanted to enter the competition because it seemed fascinating enough at the time.
According to the publication, that would be impossible because it isn't for another two weeks.
So, with nothing else to do, Pleiades began to think to himself, wondering if he should go somewhere else than Altchare and simply enjoy new experiences. Or maybe he could wait the two weeks and do something else till the competition starts.
However, it didn't take him long to figure out what he wanted to do right then and there.
"No, let's not do the former; the other kingdoms didn't have anything worthwhile to do anyway, and Altchare might have more fun things to do." Yeah! Maybe I'm not looking hard enough; let's go tour the kingdom a little more; I'm sure I'll discover something intriguing to fill my time wisely."
Pleiades said as he returned to drink his cup of coffee he recently bought from a local cafe down the lane that was open early in the morning, and it was so that he was left alone.
On the other hand; someone else was watching the sage from afar; the person in question was looking at him with a confused eye.
"How come he looks so familiar...?" No! I'm not familiar with him, yet I'm pulled to him for some reason.... Why am I this way?.... I don't know him, but my inner self tells me I do. I'm at a loss; it's as if my soul is urging me to approach him, but my body is telling me to flee, what should I do?"
The voice of a woman wrapped in a grey cloak remarked as she looked at Pleiades from afar; just her mouth could be seen from within. Her hands are pale grey, almost as if she doesn't have enough blood in her body.
To her side was a normal-looking long sword that was properly sheathed, and when she moved, you could hear rustling from within, indicating she was wearing loose armor behind the thick grey cloak she wore. It would be loud if she were close, but she was a long way away, no more than two kilometers, and yet she could see the man clearly with her eyes alone.
After all, she'd been keeping a close eye on him for two days and couldn't figure out why she was so attached to him. No, she knew why, this man was the answer, the person who could assist her... to...to well, find herself, yes he was something she had engaged with before but couldn't remember when.
However, her attention was drawn back to him. As she spoke, the man stood up and tossed his newspaper and empty plastic cup into a garbage can near the bus stop before walking in the rain. But what caught this mystery off guard was the man's quick disappearance from her sight. Of course, she thought to herself.
'*Sigh!*... He did it again; honestly, tracking a man who can teleport is difficult; if it weren't for this strange body of mine, there'd be no way I could track him down when he vanished like that.'
But the instant she began to think about it, her nose immediately went off as she began to smell a familiar smell all too vividly, it was the smell of blood, to her it smelled sweet, delicious, and breath-taking, but she only knew one person who made her feel this way. But instinct took precedence over logic, and she drew her sword and performed a vertical slash while whirling around to dispatch the person behind her.
The blade's edge was so sharp and rapid that it cut right through the wind, sending a big wind blade to scatter everything in her route as she cleaves the wall edges with deep insitions, blowing everything away in her path. Even the dust off the ground caused a massive dust cloud to develop, and she instinctively sprang high in the air, no more than sixty to seventy meters in the air, to get away from the creature behind her, which was certain death.
Her wind blades were powerful enough to cut practically everything she aimed at, and she made it obvious to her fellow hunter man in the guild not to sneak up behind her because she was incredibly sensitive to danger, and her body acted on pure impulse. It was a bad habit of hers that she couldn't break.
So the likelihood that the person, beast, or thing behind her would be cleaved in half was high, but as she jumped mid-air, now landing due to loss of momentum, she noticed something. The dust, in particular, made it easy to distinguish, since the light was either curved around it, remaining invisible, or it was some form of projectile force field.
"What the...
The lady murmured, with a shocked expression under her cloak, since what she saw coming straight at her scared her to death, a giant hand covered in dirt that let her clearly see the invincible image that was swiftly approaching, it was so large to point, that when it opened wide fully. She swore it was too big, to the point that it had enough space and physical strength to take up an entire skyscraper and treat it like an ant in its palms.
"Im... im going die am I?"
Those were the last words the mysterious woman spoke before being grasped within the palms that instantly balled up into a fist. Of course, it was only one of seven thousand invisible providences that Pleiades could freely modify the size to, and each could travel at the speed of light regardless of its size, and it could even phase through objects and interact with invisible forces that are by right spiritual or mildly conceptual.
The woman from within, on the other hand, was frozen in place, she couldn't move an inch, happily, she didn't need to breed, it was one of the many benefits of her messed-up body. However, the worst-case scenario was approaching, since, just as she had suspected, the person sneaking up behind her was the person she was stalking.
Because a figure was levitating in mid-air, surrounded by the darkest of shadows, and the figure gradually began to drift towards her. And she wanted to beg for her life, but she couldn't genuinely die either way, so there was no purpose in doing so.
After all, she was accidentally sliced in half, burned alive to the bone, ripped to shreds, and atomized down to the atomic level within a particle accelerator in the Mathers domain. And yet, as long as a single particle of her exists, she will always return; at this point, she has no idea who or what she is, and hoping that this man might know of her, seeing she felt so close to him.
If such was the case, she would approach the man in a more acceptable manner next time. Only this time, instead of stalking him like a creep, she would try to engage in a proper conversation and ask him the question she needed to know. She knew it was bad, but she couldn't stop herself.
And now that she had a better look at him from such a close distance, her body ached even more; she knew the man, at least her spirit did, and her body seemed to start slowly recognizing who it was too. And then it happened: a series of memories flashed before her eyes like a recollection; she didn't know what it was, but she knew it was essential to her.
Yes, she remembers it very clearly, as the solitary memory returned to her; it was dark, early in the morning around three or four, she couldn't remember, but it was still night. Because everyone sleeps in the luxury of their own beds. Her fellow soldiers were at war with a monster like no other, everyone was scared by the look and capabilities of the white whale, which she and many others came to kill. She herself felt as if she was on the verge of succumbing to fear, and in that instant, the weakest moved forward with absolute confidence. That was the only way to characterize him at the time: he was like a hero in an exaggerated fairy tale.
In every way, those remarks are unmoving... courageous... and selfless. And there he mounted a black dragon, commanded by a blue-haired maiden.
"Let him have it Remu."
"Hmmm.... UL HUMA."
The maid yelled, unleashing a barrage of enormous ice sickles at supersonic speeds, breaching the sound barrier. The force behind the attack was so strong that the beast fell back in anguish, blood dripping from the wound bathing the battlefield with first blood, a trophy he claims by all right of being the raid's commander in that regard.
Her eyes widened in disbelief, then in rage, not at the youngster, but at her own incompetence. If the weakest man, as delicate as glass, could roar like a lion, how could she, the greater lion, quiver in such a way, it revolted her, why was she terrified, then it hit her; she had power and charisma, but that man had something she didn't. He had no idea of the dread of death, which even the toughest of animals had, and in his eyes, he could never lose, was it confidence, was it madness based on prior experience of being close to death, or was it something else entirely she wondered. Well, either way, It didn't matter because he was a better leader than she was, and that was an undisputed fact she had accepted.
But the boy did manage to reawaken something in her, and that was the will to never give up in the face of despair, which she expressed in a speech to improve the morale of her men.
"Stand up! Stop Staring at your feet, take up your weapons."
"Look at that boy, he is so weak and fragile a breath could blow him a way, and he is unarmed."
"He is powerless, I have seen his defeat with my own eyes, he is weaker than anybody else on this battlefield."
"Yet! He is shouting louder than anyone, that we can still come out victorious."
"How can we sit around, hanging our face in defeat, if our weakest man hasn't given up."
"How is it acceptable for the rest of us to kneel, as if we already loss."
Her eyes were filled with admiration, respect, or something else at that moment. The youngster was weak and frightened, yet he was braver than everybody else at the time on that very battlefield leading the charge like a madman, and she couldn't help but smile at such energy worthy of praise. They'd backed themselves into a corner, and the white whale would soon claim them.
And yet, at that very time, the boy's smile and positivity moved her beyond words; the person she was today had no idea when these events occurred. She did, however, know one thing. That this was the cause for her secret affection; she doesn't know what defeat she refers to in this memory, but one thing was certain: the youngster was no longer alive, nor did he shine as bright as he did then, like her, he was nothing more than an empty husk.
He was happy and full of optimism, but when she had a good look at the same individual, his entire aura and demeanor changed totally. And all that seemed to remain was sadness, loneliness, longing, and the entire spectrum of negativity that lies behind those lifeless eyes.
He's lost his smile.
He's stopped laughing.
What was once the embodiment of drive, to inspire confidence in the weak-minded was now nothing more than a dreary existence with no justification for the power he now wields.
At that time, as the man got closer, she forced herself to speak, but couldn't due to invisible providence holding her in place, and then something unexpected happened from the enemy who was following him.
[Cor leonis]
For the first time in ten thousand years, Cor Leonis re-activated, at the last minute, seeing Pleiades was aware of some shady person following him. And he was about to get rid of the annoyance since he didn't take kindly to stalking.
But with Cor Leonis, an ability that was meant only for those close to him, so he could take their burdens as his own, now registered this person as someone important, and because he was stronger than he was ten millennia ago, he instantly knew who this person was but refused to accept it, but his authority never lied to him, as a result, he had to accept it, despite questioning it.
"Ha... what... no.... no... nononononoNOOOO!... What is this feeling, wait is this; no it can't be, you should not be alive, so why... how are you here?!"
Pleiades spoke, his eyes filled with genuine emotion for the first time in a long time. But he'd soon answer his own question, for he grabbed the hoody from the cloak and pushed it away, and what he saw stunned him.
It was a woman with long, silky, and beautiful dark emerald green hair, however, her eyes were not the same golden color it once was. Instead, it was blood crimson and nocturnal, with a cat eye slit. Her most notable traits were her vampiric fangs and her complexion was eerily pale, to the point that she could have been a corpse.
Despite this drastic transformation, her appearance and facial features were identical to that individual, so he had to inquire.
"C-C...Crusch..... Karsten is that really you?"
Pleiades asked in disbelief.