The scholarly youth never understood why the helmeted spearman was blaming him for so many unrelated things. It was only after the glowing sphere of light entered his body did he start to understand what mysterious person meant.
He could feel his soul tremble as memories he never knew he had came streaming into his mind all at once. The spearman holding onto Alex threw him at Lily after he fell into a trance-like state.
"Lie him down on his bed and wait." The mysterious spearman spoke sternly to the only one left standing, speaking in an authoritative tone despite being the assailant that attacked them.
"Why should I listen to you?" Lily was angered by the man's arrogance as she clenched her fist, the green Spades Symbol embedded on her knuckle started to glow as she was ready to activate one of her Spell Slots. Who did this man think she was?!
If you were to measure her as a Noble Ranker, then she'd absolutely be a Level 4 Marquis Rank with four Spell Slots. Each one of those four suit playing card symbols on her knuckle held elemental power.
"Don't bother..." She felt a suffocating amount of power release man, then realised his status as a Lord Rank. His two words were filled with dominance as he looked at her clenched fist.
"..." She silently watched the spearman with her hairs standing on end, making her really alert.
"You won't beat be able to bridge the gap between us even if you somehow used Transcendence Burst right this very moment. Calm down. If I wanted to harm you guys, you'd already be dead." These words actually did manage to calm her a little.
"How confident..." Even though she said that, her heart was well-aware that he had the ability to back up his words. Though she felt it was unreasonable for him to look down on her so much.
A Transcendence Burst was, simply put, what happened when someone with multiple Spell Slots were able to enter a state similar to 'The Zone' that Internal Martial Artists of Earth sought obsessively over their years of training, which was akin to going into a Super Mode that heightened their skills. A strong boost in power with all-round enhancement.
An Ascender's equivalent to Transcendence Burst of Gaia, 'The Zone', was similar, yet different.
'The Zone' was derived from the mental state of being 'in the zone'. Although titled fully as 'Zone of Optimal Functionality', falling into it while using martial arts allowed on to fight at a capacity beyond the norm. The only drawback to this being that actually entering The Zone was easier said than done, as it took multiple factors to achieve.
Similarly, Transcendence Burst was the highest state of Mana Burst that allowed one to optimise their strength in different ways depending on what Mystic Race they were. For Humans, it would allow them to perfectly gather the Ether (External Energy) in the atmosphere through their Magic Pathways and allow them to utilise them in their fullest potential. Rather than mimicking the Lord Rank by giving an infinite reserve of Spells, it instead focused on utilisation of all abilities.
Those entering this state would find that they would be able to pull off feats of strength normally impossible due to their lack of understanding in how to apply their skills. Once entered, even a Baron Rank could potentially fight off a Lord Rank.
Though entering it was the same difficulty as entering 'The Zone' in all aspects. Right down to how it was impossible to think that anyone could enter Transcendence Burst of one's own will.
Despite how such a state meant that his opponent would be able to display their maximum potential in personal strength, the mysterious spearman seemed to dismiss its legendary effects before nonchalantly continuing what he was saying:
"If you listen properly, I can help you master how to properly use your 'eyes'. You will be able to visit your clan with pride. I'll even help train your little 'test subject' over there so he won't ever run away from you in future." The helmeted spearman's tone seemed to soften considerably as his dark eyes seemingly narrowed in mischief. The wolf girl before him momentarily flushed red, giving away her thoughts, but was able to regain self-control.
Lily's mixed emotions looked like this: o(>﹏<)o
She didn't know if she should smile or be offended by his tone, as he clutched a hidden side of her.
It was almost like he knew about her inner desires...
"He's not my test subject anymore..." If he hadn't seen the way she reacted, then maybe the helmeted spearman might have believed that she wasn't feeling guilty and ashamed for what she did in the past due to the calmness in her tone as she spoke. The spear user snickered inwardly as he watched her drag the two inside their new home.
"You two should also come inside and rest. I'll go make something to eat." He spoke while treating Alex's house as his own. The other two stunned individuals behind him stiffly nodded their heads before following him inside for different reasons.
For the former Priestess, you could say one half of the reason was a bad habit she got from following the orders of a mostly invincible being all her life thoughtlessly. She even forgot there was no need for her to bow her head in obedience to someone who claimed they had a higher authority anymore despite having escaped the Demon Lord's grasp.
The other half of the reason why she followed his instructions was because she trusted him. He helped her escape the Radiant Sword Mirror Cult and assisted her in finding a place to stay after all.
As for the doubtful Vhalen, his thoughts were simpler. Well, mostly because it was cowardly.
It was because the young prince feared the helmeted spearman and his lawless way of doing things that decided to obediently walk inside Alex's home with him. His senses were sharp and could tell the person before him was truly powerful.
The only thing that made him confused was how this strange guy was actually going to cook for them. Only he himself knew the kind of anxiety he was feeling from having a 'Lord Rank' be his cook...
But enough of this, let's go back in time and see the events that were most important to why people had 'ascended' to Gaia... and how it involved the scholarly youth in particular. What mysteries had been answered after having eaten that 'marble'?
Alex felt like his memories were expanding rather than being taken over by another consciousness from somewhere else. It was almost like these memories had been a part of him all along.
He started to 'remember' a different world...
In the modern era of Earth, there were many who considered martial arts to be fossils of warfare now that artillery and explosives have entered the picture. Who would want to increase their physical strength diligently when they could just pick up any random firearm and learn how to shoot with it instead? Even a child can beat an adult with a gun!
It was unquestionable that firearms and nuclear bombs have alleviated humanity's war tactics to a level where one man's prowess in martial arts meant nothing. However, although martial arts created by ancient grandmasters of the past are now ineffective against those wielding firearms, the 'modern' grandmasters of the current era had never given up! Their 'Arts' only grew stronger...
There are many grandmasters hidden throughout the concrete forest of the modern era, but this story will be focusing one one man in particular... A freakish, shockingly powerful genius among revered grandmasters who shocked the world of martial arts with his absurd combat instincts in his prime. (You definitely already know the man I'm talking about, right?) This one particular old man was the only well-known and famed 'External User'.
In much simpler terms: He was a Super Badass!
In the wooden architecture built to form a dojo, one aged old man with wrinkles on his face sat in from of his disciple, who was peacefully positioned opposite him while sitting down formally in seiza.
A square table separated them as they casually drank tea as they relaxed on this fine and sunny evening. The sun was shining and flowers were blooming... but the tranquil silence was what made the meeting between them more meaningful.
"Hah... It has been a long year..." The woman who seemed to be no older than twenty spoke with a smile towards 'Alex' in this memory. The silence between them was broken but the atmosphere they gave off was still as calm as water.
"Indeed, isn't it nice to just sit down and relax once in a while...?" Her master, who was none other the older version of the teenage 'Alex Stuman' in the first chapter, asked with a slight smile on his face.
He still remembered the time when he first met the blonde-haired woman before him. To him, she was the daughter he never had... Someone who he taught martial arts to out of a whim. You readers probably have no doubts now... 'He' DIDN'T die from bullying from in his youth, instead, there was something more to his 'death' that meets the eye.
Was death the end of one's memory? Perhaps, as Alex would have known after attaining all his memories that he didn't die young in his past life as a fighter. He survived all until he became an oldie...
But let's get back to my main point: The old Alex Stuman never expected that the young girl he had taken in who was once bullied by her peers at school would one day grow into a grandmaster who rivalled or may even have surpassed him even in his wildest dreams... She was the pure definition of a freakishly talented 'monster' of a fighter!
"It is..." The woman who inherited both his last name and teachings in martial arts, Rosetta Stuman, nodded her head with a similarly nostalgic expression. Her hand traced over her cup as if she was trying her best to remember the good times they had when she first started training. She tried planning her next words as she was sitting there.
Alex didn't interrupt her as she did and instead opted to keep his silence at this moment...
An ominous cloud entered his heart...
He could tell there was something wrong with his disciple... That 'something' hidden in the way she acted felt unsettling to him. He didn't rush though and brought up his thoughts without trying to make it seem like he was trying to pry into her private life.
"Do you have a purpose for visiting this place after leaving my tutelage for so long? I's almost thought you had forgot this old master of yours." The benign old man asked after she had finished the tea he had made with his own hands.
The aroma of the simple tea leaves of eastern origins helped to calm her mood as he carefully tried to not trigger the rage she bottled up. The dark clouds in her heart started to move around...
"My husband had been killed in a shootout a few days ago. I had given him a proper funeral before coming here..." The cup in Alex's hand hit the ground, the tea he carefully brewed spilled onto the floor after he heard her sorrowful voice.
"What happened...?!" He ignored all decorum and stood up as soon as he heard her words. There was anger and despair in his eyes as he kneeled down to grab his disciple's shoulders in confusion.
"Tell me who they are. I'll massacre them without exception! Whoever did this will pay w-"
"No need." She interrupted him with a cold voice.
"I've already killed them all." There wasn't a trace of joy in her eyes as she turned her head to look at the infant child besides her with a melancholic expression. She was unable to make eye-contact with her master after speaking those words...
The old man calmed himself and let her go. A wave of sadness enveloped his heart as was unable to find the right words to express his sympathies towards her. He never expected that his disciple would one day experience such a tragedy in her life... There was nothing he could do but be there for Rosetta in these hellish, dark times...
"I thought revenge would make me feel better, but all I feel now is nothing... I find this funny..."
"Surely you still feel love for the only family you have left, right?" He tried to cheer her up.
"..." Rosetta didn't answer him. Her eyes looking at the infant in a little cot besides them with a hint of coldness he had never seen from her before. The small child himself didn't seem to understand her expression as he still reached out towards his mother cutely. One day, will this baby leave her side the same way his now deceased father did?
Alex also looked at her sweet infant child and found that the young baby boy had slowly fallen asleep...
"I have always believed that all children are born innocent... Why is it that the look in your eyes seem to beg a differ?" The benign old man wasn't able to hold back in his emotions as he spoke without caring for her whatever feelings were right now.
He couldn't help but feel disappointed in her after she stared at her child with such a dreadful gaze...
"I don't blame him..."
"Then what's with that look you're giving?"
"Like I've already said: I don't blame him."
"Then why...?"
"I... I just have no idea what to do with him anymore, alright!? Shouldn't I just give my baby away so he can be raised by someone else? He'll have a better life than staying with me anyway... I am not qualified!" She tried to speak emotionlessly while still keeping her eyes on her son. Alex could feel the turmoil that was going on in her heart.
"...He's the last living memory of your husband. Do you truly believe you'll be able to find happiness if you let him go?" He couldn't help but ask her disapprovingly. There was no way he'd be able to accept such an outcome. As a man who once a motherless child himself, he could never bring himself to see his 'grandchild' be like him in his youth! He wanted this kid to also get a motherly figure no matter how different from the norm.
"Than what do you expect of me!" The anger and frustration she had pent up burst out like a broken dam as she smashed the tea cup she held on the ground. There was a hysterical look in her eyes...
"Waaaah!" The child, who was only a few months old, cried in response. The sorrowful cries of her child seemed to awaken the maternal instincts as expression went from being ice cold to caring in moments before she gently held her little boy.
"Sorry, my baby~ Sorry~ Please.... please go back to sleep my little, sweet boy~ Mama won't be going anywhere. Please, please just go to sleep...!" She forcefully smiled and comforted her baby in an almost crying tone. Her emotions were unstable...
The infant child seemed to have instinctively understood her words as he yawned and went back to sleep obediently. Alex called over someone who could take care of the child in their absence.
He then held her by the hand and quickly got up to take her to another room. There was something he had to do in order to get her usually strong state of mind back to normal, like the her of the past.
He couldn't bear to see her in this state...
His Dojo might not have any students after his first batch of disciples left to live their lives on their own terms, but there were still hired hands who were professional in taking care of this place he used as his residence. He didn't lack money since he had a lot of money saved up from 'jobs' he took years ago. An Internal Martial Artist was well rewarded...
Rosetta has always been the cheerful and strong individual. Even when she was in her youth, there was not a single time she complained about the hard training he put her through to increase her survivability in this dangerous world of modern martial arts, firearms and science... A place where people made their own paths to obtain strength.
"Stand!" He strongly shouted in her direction despite knowing of her depression. This resulted in her instinctively back straightening by reflex after hearing such familiar words of the past.
"You seem to be unable to think straight after what happened... so let this be my last lesson to you in order to help you stand up in life by yourself." Alex got into his 'Mentor Mode' to help her out.
"Don't worry about your son. I had already prepared for this training session by hiring someone capable to babysit in your absence. It will be fine if you leave your son with that woman for few hours, no problem. I even prepared everything needed to take care of him until we've finished our session. Now: Let's skip all the basics...!" He didn't give her time to drown in her grief as he wanted to make sure his disciple was healthy mentally.
"Catch." He said before throwing a wooden buckler shield over to her, which was her standard weapon.
She caught the shield and used it to block the punch the benign old man threw at her face straight after she gained a proper grip on it. A loud bang resounded, but the strong impact didn't scare her child since the training room was a little far from the Dojo's guest room. She also didn't seem to feel tension after blocking that fist...
"What are you trying to do?" Rosetta asked calmly since she wasn't amused by how her master was practically forced her into this 'training session' of his. The punch he threw was only blocked by reflex... not one bit done consciously by her will.
She was a young Grandmaster martial artist of the modern pugilistic world with feats that rivalled her own master's. In fact, she could be counted as one of the number highest ranking geniuses in martial arts of this era considering how she reached the level of a grandmaster in strength roughly ten whole years before her Master did in his life!
"You seemed too depressed and looked like you were about to make a decision you would one dat regret." Alex spoke while hammering down on her shield with a few more fists without delay.
His movements were both explosive and fluid, but as someone on the same level as him, Rosetta didn't feel pressured, even as the cannon-like fists landed down with a bang. She wasn't really moved.
Rosetta trained in defensive techniques her whole life after coming under his tutelage, after all...
Even as he continued to strike at full strength, she was still able to block and parry anything he threw at her with ease. He punched, she blocked, he punched, she redirected, he punched, she redirected, he punched, she parried... Her physical defence was absolute, something that not even his powerful strikes like cannon balls could break...!
"I wouldn't regret anything at all." She shook her head while trying to counter his flurry of fists.
The old man's arms boxed like a machine gun!!
Her shield whipped around to hit his shoulder while 'reflecting' the force of one of one punch. Alex was caught off guard as he tried to block her counter in vain and took a few steps back after being hit. That swift strike felt like he was hit by a boulder...!
This is the first time the once benign-looking old man had actually been injured after crawling his way up to becoming a Grandmaster martial artist himself. The counter she threw was more graceful than anything he had ever experienced.
He glanced at his bruised shoulder quietly... This was the first time she actually ever hit him.
It looked a lot like she was venting...
"You taught me martial arts, but what you failed to teach me was that all my hard work would be for nothing in the end...! I couldn't protect anything at all! Nothing could be saved!!" The burning rage she suppressed once again exploded as she went on the offensive towards him. Her shield was like a circular blade as she grabbed its edge and swung it towards him without holding anything back.
This was part of the style she used to enter the realm of grandmasters, her arms were like water as the friction from the edge of her shield acted as a sharpened blade that could injure her enemies.
The old man knew for a fact that defending against her while she went onto the offensive would be counterproductive considering how she would be able to rip into his flesh and tendons with ease. His shoeless feet grabbed onto the floor before he redirected her attacks by slapping the 'cuts' away with pinpoint precision only he could produce.
"What do you mean...?"
"He was right next to when it happened. We were finally able to find time to spend with each other after I cleared my working schedule and delayed some important meetings. I was right there... but he still died!" She started shouting in derision.
"You were still able to protect yourself, weren't you? And what about your child, weren't you able to protect him by yourself? Can you really consider your strength to be useless?" Alex wasn't aware of what transpired but he was able to understand some of what she was talking about through her shouts. He imagined things she went through...
From what he could tell, there seemed to be a shooting that happened while she and her family were finally spending time together. As a working woman who provided living expenses for her family, he was aware that it must've been hard for her to interact with her husband much considering her position as a CEO of a large corporation.
He could just imagine the pain she must have gone through after succeeding to kill the perpetrators of the shooting that too place, but failed to protect the man she loved most... It must've been hard...
It was only natural that a person as strong as her would some doubts after going through that.
"It's not enough for me...! I'm so strong that killing the shooters only took a few moments, but what was the point of learning something as useless as martial arts if I couldn't protect my husband who was standing right next to me." Although her voice sounded calmer the more she spoke, the despair in her eyes only grew as she completely cornered her Master to a wall. Her wooden shield almost seemed to be much sharper than any blade as it actually to slice through the wooden wall, showing the other side of the dojo wall without slowing down at all.
This was the 'Mist Shield' style Rosetta was so proud of, a martial art so complex that even her experienced Master was unable to imitate it whatsoever. Unlike Alex, who was only able to use the flexibility of muscles to parry strikes, his disciple was someone who was practically able to turn her body into 'mist' by relaxing her body.
The human body had a natural tendency to tense up in response to physical damage. This was the innate self-preservation tactic inherent to many life-forms in order to deal with damage. However, the Mist Shield style Rosetta created took using flexibility to strike and take damage to a new level.
It took inspiration from various 'soft' martial arts in China to produce a technique that could allow those with weaker physical qualities to have the power to rival or even exceed those with stronger physical capabilities. A form of martial arts Rosetta created which was suitable for even children. Even without physical superiority, she was a scary girl...
The fact that she was considered a true 'grandmaster' at the young age of twenty meant that she was no pushover when it came to head-on close-combat. Even if her Master was to throw the strongest strike he could muster with all his physical strength, the end result would still be either having it nullified by her absolute mastery over borrowing force using her flexible body, and perhaps even having it thrown back at him...
The experienced old man couldn't help but admire the beauty of her devilishly strong techniques despite being cornered by her attacks... but this feeling quickly passed as he knew the first thing he had to do was find a way to make her accept the reality of what happened. As her one and only teacher in life, this was his responsibility alone!