*"Strong.. Strong… Stronger!"* The word has been constantly stuck in the head of Faust as he pushes his body up from the ground, fast and heavy gaspings sounds he makes resonate around the whole area, his shirt totally drenched with his sweat and his whole body lets out hot steam as he does push ups on the ground.
"200!" The muscles of his arms twitches and shivers, his wrists felt constant pain as if they are put under a moving bulldozer. His palms have turned numb minutes ago. And he has lost the count of his pushups.
"200" Is the only number he has been repeating from the past hour. His chest muscles felt as if they are falling off.
*"More… more.. just a bit more."* The red bruises on his knuckles shine brightly as if someone has painted them, after a bit more of his trembling pushups, Faust falls on the ground not being able to move a muscle in his body.
As time passes Faust wakes up in a whole.new different world. The sky looks pleasant with pure white cotton like clouds. The whole sky is reflecting on the land.
Faust gets up on his knees checking his surroundings. "You!" A voice is heard from his right and as he turned his face to his side a guy is standing really close with his face in Faust's.
It was the same person as him, Faust is basically looking at himself, but the eyes are filled with blood.
"You cannot be strong with just this training. You need me eventually." Faust with demon eyes tells to Faust.
Back in his house, the sword of Ares slowly starts to vibrate and the handle of the sword shines in bright golden color.
"Wh-who are you?" Faust asks as his voice trembles and stutters. It was the second time for Faust to meet with himself.
Last time when Lucifer pierced Faust's heart. Suddenly the demon Faust in front of him disappears.
"It's ok, I will always help you." He reappears on the left side of Faust and says as he rests his hand on Faust's shoulder.
A dark shadow like mist appears beneath the golden color emitting from the handle of the katana. Slowly the dark mist overwhelmed all of the golden color leaving only the dark mist swirling around the handle. It looked as if a bright star just fell into the never ending pits of a blackhole.
As the dark mist too disappeared slowly, a brief change happened to the handle. The whole pattern of the handle and the pure white color turned to black with red carvings.
The signature of the sword 'The sword of Ares' written in Japanese Kanji has also turned from Golden carving to red carving. But the name of Ares remained in Golden color.
Faust is startled with this. *"Did he just teleported?"* He thinks and suddenly he wakes up in the snow in his village.
Faust notices that the soreness in his arms and fingers is completely gone as he tries to get up. "What the hell was that?" He felt as though he has once again woken up from the same nightmare as before.
He picks up his belongings and heads towards his house. He finishes his dinner with Gus and helps Gus with packing clothes.
On the next day, Faust goes to the port with Gus. But Gus insisted that Faust stayed back without coming all the way to the ship with him.
"But grandpa! I want to send you off! Why are you so stubborn?" Faust asks with disappointment written all over his face.
"Trust me, this is for your good. I can't let the soldiers find out that you are my grandson. So stay here." Gus says as he takes all his bags from Faust and really looked like he wanted m Faust to stay back.
*"Dammit grandpa! I wanted to send off Caitlyn with a bye. I want to see her one last time. What do I do."*
Faust is in a tricky situation. He cannot tell Gus the reason for wanting to come to port, nor can he put up with Gus's selfish request.
"This doesn't even make sense anymore! Why do I just stay here without appearing in front of them? Ughhh!!!!!!! This is making me so mad." Faust yells in desperation.
"Ok, i will see in a few days. Stay safe and take care of house and animals for me." Gus totally ignores him and continues to walk in his way.
Faust helplessly walks towards the edge of a cliff where he can watch the port from a distance. He sits on the edge with Bella settling down beside him.
"Ah! There he is! He really left me here to cry didn't he?"
"Ohh! Bella look, Nick, Tim and Roy are there. And that is the grumpy captain. I will one day become stronger than him." Faust watches Gus, his friends, the captain and also Barkha and Caitlyn making their way into the ship after taking their leave from Yang who is wishing them a safe journey.
"Woof woof" Bella instantly gets up and starts barking towards the ship as she too wanted to give a send off.
"Offff! Stay quiet bells. We cannot let the people in the ship know that we are here." Faust closes Bella's mouth and calms her by telling her different things.
The face of Faust displays different mixed expressions for every person he sees entering the ship.
In the end he did get to see Caitlyn but she had no idea that Faust came to watch her and give her a send off.
"Dammit man! She would think that I'm too gloomy to give her a send off. What do I do when I meet her one day? Gosh this is so embarrassing." Faust mumbles to himself. Not being able to give his grandpa a send off is not the thing that is bothering him, but the girl.
As he and Bella watches, all the contestants and Gus stands on the deck and waves their hands off to their families taking their farewell.
Suddenly curved lips of Faust comes back to normal and opens up. "I don't feel bad, but my friends are going far away from me and that thought is sort of making my heart to be in pain na." Faust places his palm on his heart while looking at the ship.
The ship slowly starts to move and the tears slowly rolls down the cheeks of Faust. "Dammit! My eyes are responding without my order. They are getting wet for no reason. I will go there soon too." Faust felt as though he was being left back alone. And it reminded him of his past with his cousin and his friends.
The contestants including Gus goes inside the ships from the deck except for one. And as the ship passes from the hill that Faust is on. He sees a girl in black clothes with her hand raised up.
"Huh?" He sees Caitlyn, looking towards him and replies with a kind smile to Faust's tears. Her smile immediately warmed his heart and Faust too smiled back and waved his hand.
"Give me the reports from our house." As soon as he enters the ship, Skiouros immediately goes into the control room to check the reports. His aura immediately changes from a cheerful elder person you meet in the park at evenings to a vile, ruthless officer.
"Contact the house and tell them we are coming there with Gus Hughes." Skiouros orders his men with an evil smile taken over his face. One can easily say that he is plotting something big in his head.