Soren and Akyo, after following them for several hours, had finally decided to step out of the shadows. They entered the vast chamber, both stunned by what they saw.
'What is this place!?' Soren wondered.
Akyo was observing the room closely. 'I can feel this place is linked to gods, but it looks unusual. The architecture is undeniably Nordic, yet this mural looks more like Greek art… And who are those two figures depicted?'
"Hey ! who are you?!" Sosuke shouted. "Spencer, who the hell are these guys?" he asked, turning to his friend.
"No idea," Gellahan replied. 'How could anyone be here? I kept everything absolutely secret… Government agents trying to stop me from uncovering the truth? Maybe… They want to eliminate me before I reveal everything to the world.'
he felt both anxiety and fear. Gellahan was certain those two men were here to silence him.
"Sosuke! Don't let them get close!" he yelled.
Sosuke turned back toward the two strangers. A good fifty meters separated them. He cracked his knuckles. 'Guess it's time to go.'
Akyo and Soren watched him from across the room.
"Can I take care of him?" Soren asked.
"If you want…" Akyo answered, studying Sosuke. 'His looks is kinda strange, almost out of place for our era. But I don't sense anything divine about him..'
Then he added, "Soren, for now nothing proves Gellahan is right. Start the fight without using your power—use it only if needed. Consider it training."
"No problem," Soren replied with a wide grin and a determined look. 'My first fight against someone other than Akyo!' He was practically buzzing with excitement.
'What the hell are they doing?' Sosuke wondered, irritation rising. "Are you coming or not?!" he shouted. He started moving toward them and noticed that only Soren stepped forward.
' He's coming alone? They're gonna regret this arrogance.'
Soren approached his opponent. 'What kind of insane physique is that?!' The closer he got, the larger Sosuke seemed. But that wasn't what shocked him most. When they finally stood face to face, something else struck him.
"So… who exactly are you supposed to be?" Sosuke asked. When he smiled, his teeth were nothing like those of a human, each one triangular, pointed, like a shark's.
But that wasn't what stunned Soren. Something far more surprising did.
'Wait… no way… he's so tiny,"
Sosuke sensed Soren's judgement. "Got a problem ?"
Soren finally answered, "So you're Sosuke? I expected you to be… taller."
"You motherfucker, are you kidding me?!" Sosuke snapped. He threw an uppercut at Soren, who dodged easily. "And how the hell do you even know my name?!"
Soren landed several meters away, analyzing the situation.
'I managed to piss him off. Still nothing divine about him… but his strength isn't normal. I felt the air hit me even while dodging—just like Akyo's blows.' He thought. 'Alright… time to go for real, but I'll need to hold back a bit.'
Sosuke rushed forward again, far faster than any normal human.
'He's quick,' Soren thought. 'I should be able to tank a hit to test his strength. It's not like he's gonna destroy me, anyway.'
Soren braced himself. Sosuke reached him and drove a kick straight into him.
"What the—?!"
Soren was sent flying, crashing into one of the tall pillars.
Blood splattered from his mouth as he pulled himself from the crater and landed back on the floor.
'His strength… it's worse than Akyo's?!' he thought while getting back on his feet and getting off the blood on his chin with his hand. 'Didn't expect that… Guess I'll have to step it up.'
Soren concentrated his energy. It first burst outward from his body, forming his usual massive, turquoise, flame-like aura, before dissipating completely, proving he had it under control.
'What the hell is that?' Sosuke wondered as he saw a faint blue glow behind the thick cloud of dust where Soren stood. 'I must be hallucinating,'
Soren shot forward. Sosuke couldn't even react.
'That speed ! it's not human !' he thought, completely ignoring the fact that his own abilities were far from human as well.
Soren swept his legs out from under him , which made him fall, then he grabbed him by the foot, spun him around, and hurled him with full force toward another pillar. Sosuke dug his fingers into the floor to stop himself, literally tearing the ground apart.
But Soren was already in front of him again. For a split second, Sosuke noticed,
'His eyes, they're burning?!'
Soren tried to punch him in the face, but Sosuke managed to catch the blow.
"I'm not letting you smash my face in that easily," he growled, trying to hit Soren—but he caught his hand too. Both of them froze, locked in a pure contest of strength. At that moment, they were equals.
'I have to act fast,' Soren thought.
"You wanna stay like this forever?" Sosuke whispered , his jaw clenched.
At the exact same moment, both had the same idea. They roared, and slammed their heads into each other.
Neither backed down. They held their positions, glaring into each other's eyes, blood running down their foreheads.
Soren could see the raw fury burning in Sosuke's expression. 'He's small—but he's strong!'
He pulled his head back, shifted his grip on Sosuke's fist, and quickly moved into a position where he could kick into his stomach. Sosuke's grip broke from the pain and he coughed a large amount of blood.
But he reacted quickly and managed to block Soren's next attack.
With the strike failed, Soren backed off.
"Well then," Sosuke said, spitting blood from his mouth. "Is that all you've got?!" he roared, spreading his arms wide to show he hadn't fallen yet, even though his body clearly showed otherwise.
—--------------------
Gellahan watched the fight, speechless.
'There are more people like Sosuke?? he thought.
—--------------------
About six years earlier, Gellahan was in Japan, following the trail of a supposed demon child. He had heard rumors while doing researchs about Shintoism. He lived , during a small period, in some isolated villages across the countryside, that's where he had first heard the name "Akuma no ko."
The locals told him a demonic child had been born in a nearby village. His teeth, they claimed, were proofs. The evidences he had come to tear the villagers apart. Out of fear, they had imprisoned him from a very young age. But as the child grewand eventually , recently escaped and fled deep into the forest. He lived alone—as a pariah.
Gellahan couldn't accept the villagers perspective, but he couldn't leave without seeing this "inhuman" child with his own eyes.
So when night fell, he went searching. He went through the forest until he reached its deepest point.
There, he found a makeshift camp: a recently extinguished fire, a horrible looking bed of branches and leaves. That was all.
At that moment, he heard a branch snap behind him. He turned and saw a young boy, already scarred by life. His left eye was shut, sealed by two large wounds that hadn't heal. He was filthy, painfully thin. Dragging behind him was a massive dead animal, likely a boar, which he dropped instantly when he saw Gellahan.
The boy rushed behind some bushes.
"Hey, kid! Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you," Gellahan said. He had no answer, so he tried another approach. "Your eye, did the villagers do that to you? It must hurt… I have something to ease the pain."
"Leave!" the boy yelled. "I'm a demon! I'll kill you! Fear me!"
He tried to sound threatening, but his voice clearly sold his fear.
"That's not true. It's what the villagers are thinking, and they hurt you because of it. But they're wrong. Come here, I'll take care of your wound."
The boy didn't reply at first. But eventually, he peeked out from the bushes, covering his injured eye, refusing to meet Gellahan's gaze, ashamed.
Gellahan noticed the wound had begun bleeding again, it needed treatment. He set down his bag and pulled out medical supplies.
"Come here, sit down," he said gently. The boy obeyed, sitting in front of him. Gellahan grabbed a cotton pad and soaked it in disinfectant.
He asked questions to distract the boy from the stinging pain.
"What's your name?"
Softly, the boy answered, "Sosuke…"
"That's a beautiful name. Was it your mother who chose it?"
The boy didn't answer.
"Forget that," Gellahan said.
"She's dead… I don't remember her…" the boy murmured.
"I see… Tell me, Sosuke—this boar. Where did you find it?"
"I hunted it. I was hungry."
'What?! A child hunted a boar? A little child like this?' Gellahan thought. "You hunted it??"
"Yeah, why?" Sosuke asked. To him, it was normal, he simply didn't know how much strength someone needed to achieve that.
'Maybe this child is what I've been seeking all these years… the first proof, a descendant of the gods!' Gellahan thought, excitement rising.
The boy asked, "What's your name, mister?"
Pulled from his thoughts, Gellahan smiled to him. "Call me Spencer." He finished disinfecting the eye, then treated several smaller injuries. "And there, all done!" Spencer said. "Tell me, Sosuke, are you planning to live here?"
"I don't know…" the child answered, lowering his head.
"What if you came with me? You'd be free, far away from the people who hurted you!"
The boy's face lit up. "Really??"
"Of course! Sosuke, I'm sure you're special. You're not a demon. If fate brought us together, it wasn't by accident!"
After that, they left together. They stayed in Japan for a month, during which Sosuke demonstrated time and time again that his abilities were far from human. Spencer never brought it up, it was too soon for Sosuke to understand those things.
He waited several years, in which their bond grew stronger, before sharing his theory: that gods existed, and Sosuke's extraordinary abilities were proof of some divine heritage.
Sosuke didn't believe him. He thought Spencer was a bit crazy… but he was deeply kind, so he didn't pay that much intention to it.
And even while believing Sosuke to be the perfect proof of "divine blood", Spencer never once considered using him for his research. He would never risk the boy's life.
So he sought an alternative, a proof that would be irrefutable, yet endanger no one.