Bam!
A huge gate was suddenly opened roughly as they slam on the wall. A giant ogre enters a castle as many men crowd around him, trying to stop him from moving further, amongst them was Aioel who had a nervous smile on his face.
“Please sir Vajra, let me announce you to teacher before you enter, there is no need to be so hasty,” Aioel says as he tries to stop the ogre from moving further.
“No need, let him enter, you guys leave.” A voice suddenly echoes around the castle as everyone except for Vajra stops. They bow solemnly towards the direction of the voice before promptly leaving the castle, Aioel was the only one left standing.
“Teacher, we tried to stop sir Vajra, but it seems there is something very important he wishes to talk to you about.”
“I know Aioel, I have been expecting him, you may leave as well.”
“Yes sir!”
Aioel leaves the castle before the gates close behind him, he takes a deep look towards the highest point of the castle wondering what was happening.
“To actually make sir Vajra behave like that, it seems something big has happened.”
Vajra swiftly climbs the stairs of the empty castle with a heavy face. He quickly reaches the top and opens the door gently. His old friend was sitting down on a sofa while looking with interest at a magic screen that was floating in front of him.
“To be so agitated when visiting me, that’s not like you, old friend.” The white-robed man, Reign, speaks as he looks at Vajra with a slight smile on his face. Looking at his face Vajra simply gets more agitated as he sits down across from him.
“He has the same name as yours, how is that possible?” Vajra speaks with a deep voice as he looks his friend straight in the eyes.
“Same name, Vajra, there is an uncountable number of different beings in the universe, it’s inevitable that some would have the same name.” The man simply shrugs his shoulders while smiling innocently at Vajra who was clenching his fists.
“Your true name, he has the same true name!” Vajra suddenly shouts as the thunderous roar echoes throughout the castle.
“I felt it, I felt mana itself responding to him saying his name, I know he said his true name!” Vajra continues while looking at Reign with a serious expression on his face.
“You know damn well as I do that this has never happened before, every time someone enters the realm of an Ancient One then he gets a unique true name, nobody in the universe has the same true name as an Ancient God, not to mention supreme and above.”
“Oh, you meant that.” Reign continues looking at him innocently at Vajra as he beckons him to sit next to him.
“I’ll explain later, lets’s watch this first.”
“What are you talking about?” Vajra asks him with confusion while sitting next to him. He looks at the screen in front of them and widens his eyes as he sees Reign being impaled by a bone spear through the chest.
“Just what are you planning, old friend?”
“Me?” Reign points at himself as he asks.
“Nothing, I am simply an interested observer right now.”
Back to Earth Reign coughs out blood as he steps towards the group who immediately go towards him. Shadow holds him by his shoulders while the others attack Aethion who simply smiles dangerously towards them.
“I wouldn’t do that if I was in your shoes, boys.”
Wolf’s sword stops a mere centimeter in front of Aethion’s forehead as he looks at him with fury. Shadow holds Reign as he looks at his friend, he could feel death mana being emanated by the spear as he calls out to Laura and Tank. ｂｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐
“Tank, get the spear out of him, Laura start healing Reign immediately!”
The two nod as they quickly do what Shadow told them to do. Shadow holds the unresponsive Reign as Tank swiftly removes the spear from his body. Blood gushes out from the wound before Laura starts healing it while sweat falls down from her forehead. Everybody was completely focused on Reign while Wolf and Beast were right in front of Aethion.
“What did you mean by that, you bastard?!” Wolf shouts as he puts his sword right at Aethion’s throat while Beast was aiming straight at him with his bow with an enraged face.
“Move, and I’ll kill you.”
“Hehehehe, you won’t kill me, boys.” Aethion mysteriously smiles as he looks at Beast and Wolf who were completely enraged.
“Reign, come on man, wake up!” Shadow shouts at Reign who was partially healed, the hole in his chest was almost closed and barely any blood was pouring out of it right now. Laura was pale as she had gone all out to heal him, most of the life force she had stored was gone while her mana was dangerously low as well. Still, she grits her teeth as she channeled more mana in order to heal Reign as quickly as possible.
“His heart is still beating, the spear missed it.” Shadow puts his head on Reign’s chest and breathes a sigh of relief. Had the spear penetrated the heart then there would be nothing they could do to save Reign.
“Well of course he isn’t dead, what good would that bring me?” Aethion suddenly says as he smiles towards them. Shadow looks at him with rage as he suddenly teleports behind him with both of his daggers aimed at his throat.
“If I die, so does he!” Aethion suddenly shouts out in a hurry as cold sweat trickles down his forehead. The daggers stop suddenly as a drop of blood runs down Aethion’s throat while he looked at Shadow with fear in his eyes.
“What did you just say?” Shadow asks him with a cold face as darkness shrouds him. His demeanor changes completely as he looks at Aethion with killing intent.
“Death Hex, the skill I used connects the user and the target, in short, if I die, so does your friend, the opposite applies as well,” Aethion explains while he points towards Reign.
“Don’t look at me like that, I don’t wish to die, that’s why I used that, even if you didn’t heal him he would have survived.” He shrugs his shoulders as he glances over them, suddenly he walks towards the corpse of the mini-boss before sitting on his huge body.
“Can you stop pointing the bow at me boy, it’s really nerve-racking.”
Beast simply stares at him while still having the bow fully drawn back. He looks at Aethion with confusion now as he didn’t know whether to believe his words or not.
“The boy will wake up soon, you will see that I’m not lying then.” Aethion simply states while resting on the back of the dead mini-boss.
Suddenly
Thump
Thump
A series of heartbeats could be heard through the cave. Laura suddenly jumps back from Reign as she starts blowing her hands.
“Hot, hot, hot!”
“What’s happening, you old bastard, what did you do to him?!”
“I, I don’t know, this wasn’t me.” Aethion suddenly stares at Reign with a confused look on his face as he truly had no idea what was currently happening. The others look at him with suspicion before diverting their attention to Reign who was currently emitting steam from his body.
Shadow runs to Reign but gets stopped by Laura.
“No, don’t touch him, you’ll only get hurt.” She shows Shadow her hands which were actually burned simply by holding onto Reign’s body previously. She was using the remainder of her mana to heal them as she had already finished treating Reign’s injury. He was going to survive, she was certain of that much, but the current situation made no sense to her, why was he suddenly being shrouded by steam?
Boom
Everyone suddenly gets blown back by a shockwave emitted from Reign’s body. Black and white mana burst out from him with incredible force as an overwhelming pressure was let off by him.
“Wha- what’s going on, Reign!” Shadow shouts as he tries to get close to his friend, unfortunately, the mana being released from Reign was simply too overwhelming as none of them could get close to him.
Slowly the mana weakens in force as it gets drawn back to Reign’s body, which again lets out loud thumping noises. Before anyone could even do anything Reign gets up from the ground. The white and black mana was gathering on his back. The right side had the white mana while the left was black, it looked like wings were formed on his back.
He looks straight at Aethion as his gaze was dull, his eyes unfocused and unclear.
“The hex, impossible!” Aethion shouts as he gets up nervously, he looks at Reign as if he was a ghost while his pale face was drenched in sweat.
“Where, where am I” Reign opens his eyes as he looks at a familiar room. He inspects the room as he sees trophies and pictures of himself with Shadow and four other people. He immediately recognized them as they were his parents together with Shadow’s.
“I, I’m home?” He utters the words with disbelief as the door of his room was suddenly opened.
“Reign, breakfast is ready honey.” A kind-looking woman with long black hair was standing at the door while looking at Reign lovingly. She was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a blue t-shirt that was covered by her apron.
“Mom?” Reign asks the woman as tears suddenly fall down his cheeks. His whole body shakes slightly as he looks at the woman that he lost months ago.