The day after Lucas and the villagers left the village, Ryle finally woke up. Holding his head with one hand as he slowly looked outside the carriage.
"Take it easy, you used too much mana back there." Ryle heard a voice from outside. He looked and saw Lucas sitting down near a campfire with the others eating. Ryle slowly stumbled out of the carriage and walked towards them, when he saw Ter, Lilly and his sisters, he could finally take off the weight from his chest.
"Ryle, come eat. " Kent said as he sat there eating a soup made of a mix of meat and vegetables. With the care of Lucas and his potions, everyone in decent shape again and all of them sat there. He went and sat beside Lisa and Lyn as he took something for himself to eat.
"I am glad you are safe." He said as he started eating. The whole place was quiet with everyone eating. After they finished and just sat there, Jorden was the first to break the silence.
"Jack, Remi, go get some sleep." He said as he looked at his two children leaning on him with tired eyes. When his eyes landed on Remi's missing arm and fingers, his heart ached with grief.
"Go with them and get some sleep, Lyn, Lisa." Lily stood up and brought them to a carriage and tried putting them to sleep.
After Lily came back, Mae was the first to speak. She looked at Ryle and did a slight bow.
"Thank you for saving my life." which in turn made Lily flick her head as she reprimanded her.
"What are you saying, we are a family. There are no thanks needed."
With that everyone was silent again, Kent released a soft sigh before he started speaking.
"We have lost many friends and family yesterday... We all suffered from that, but, we will not let them get away with it. We will find who they were and take revenge for our fallen family. But for that we need strength...." As he said that he looked at Ryle expectantly "and talented individuals."
"You think too much, it was the City lord and a few other families and organizations that were there."
Lucas said as he stood up, preparing to leave.
"So what!? Do you expect us to not avenge our family!" Jordan said in a hushed scream as he tried not to wake the kids up.
"Not really, but what will you do? go against the Empire? The situation of Ultimum is more complex than you can imagine, a civil war can happen at any time." Lucas said and left.
Left behind were Ryle, Lily, Ter, Jordan, Mila, Kent, and Mae. Mila excused her self and left saying she was tired, Lily and Mae went to watch over the kids leaving behind only the men and Ryle.
"Who is that man?" Ryle asked as he looked at the others.
"Our savior" Ter spoke.
"For what reason did he save us?"
"We don't know." Jordan shook his head.
"Then why is he here with us, how can you trust him!"
"He is escorting us to the capital, as for trusting him, he saved our lives, if he wanted us dead he would not have saved us. And we have nothing to offer him and he knows it." Kent also shook his head.
"There is nothing free in the Grudour Continent!" Ryle shouted a bit before clenching his teeth as he held his head with a hand.
"Grudour? Where is that?" Lucas murmured to himself, his hearing is strong enough to hear the conversation even if he tried not to.
"Are you alright Ryle? Go take a rest." Ter held his shoulders and tried to help him stabilized himself.
"Trust no one, that is the law of Grudour. Your wife will kill you for your riches, your son poison you for your position and your friends sell you for your secrets. The only one that you can trust is yourself. That is the law of Grudour, Nothing is free, everything has a price. For those who not listen to this law, they pay the price in betrayal, For that is the way!" As he spoke till there, Ryle's body felt limp.
"RYLE!" Ter held him in his arms seeing if he is oke, the others also rushed to them. Lucas who heard that was there the moment Ryle fell limp.
Lucas put his hand on top of his head and sent his mana through Ryle's body, after checking for a full hour, he found nothing. Shaking his head at the others, he gave his assumption.
"Most probably is fatigue of overusing his power, he only needs rest to get better again." With that, they brought him in a carriage.
Before, when Ryle was speaking with the others, out of nowhere, a massive headache assaulted him, making him blank out. a bit later images, sounds, feelings. many things flashed into his mind. Unaware of what was going on, he saw himself as a child, playing outside with other children, he saw giants, monsters, flying birds so big that whole cities were covered. everything flashed by his eyes in a flash.
From a young boy, he went to a teenage boy, training and getting stronger. with his body maturing, he started training. a normal village boy. In just a few years he reached 40 compressions of the mana core, it did not take long for him to reach 100. in exactly 10 years of his training. At the age of 50, he was already above 300 compressions of his mana core.
Ryle relived all that, but many things were obstructed as if intentionally blocked, or deleted. Not overthinking it, Ryle kept living the life of the young man. When he was 100 years old, he was already at the top of the world he originated from, with having a bit more than 500 Compressions, nothing could challenge him there anymore. The youth felt lonely, everyone was scared of him, he had many friends, but as he grew strong, they either got scared away or tried to exploit him.
behind him were 4 people who never left him, 2 girls and 2 boys. they were also 2 couples that helped him the most and he considered as his true brothers and sisters ever since his family died.
Knowing he won't find happiness here, the mana thought of an ambiguous idea, he and his friends channeled all their power and broke the fabric of space for just a bit. and unknowingly created a link between a different plane. The man quickly bid farewell and left, leaving behind his homeworld.
With the place the man appeared in, The man was unaware, but he had high hopes. he started searching with great expectations.
Sadly, nothing worked as the man hoped, everything was too powerful, even the smallest insect there could kill him easily. Not knowing where he was, the man started having trouble just survive.
And it did not take long for him to be on the verge of death. Just 3 hours after his arrival.
On the verge of death, the man exploded his mana core to create another hole through the fabric of space and left. with all power lost, the man was not aware of where he was. All he saw was endless space and in the distance, he saw a strong force coming towards him in two different directions. Knowing he would most definitely die, the man Took out his sword and gave the sword spirit a command that Ryle was not able to understand the language, but he did not need to, he knew what was meant by the order. "Find my successor and warn them of the danger!".
As the sword spirit flew off in the distance, the man looked behind him, the passage that was supposed to be closed, was not.
It was then that Ryle slowly woke up. As he walked out of the makeshift tent, he saw Lucas sitting at a campfire. 'Is this how I wake up now? Fall asleep and wake up to people around a campfire....' Shaking his head, Ryle went towards him.
"You oke? Your parents were worried." Lucas said as he poked the fire with a stick. Ryle slowly went and sat opposite to him.
"I am fine, just some headache." Ryle picked up a stick and went to poke the fire with it as he said.
"That's good." Lucas nodded and ignored him.
Both were silently poking the fire with sticks, after a few minutes Ryle broke the silence.
"So, why did you help us. " Ryle said as he looked at him
"I was wondering when you would ask." Lucas chuckled. "Do you want the truth or the 'truth'?" He said and looked Ryle in the eyes.
"The truth."
"You are not ready for it, you know. You remind me of someone, He was very distrustful of everyone, even his brother could not get his trust."
"I trust those that earn my trust, you have not earned it." Ryle furrowed his brows as he stopped his motions with the stick.
"Haha, you are very mature for a 13 years old. But that is good. During these times trusting any random person is fatal. There are fates worse than death." Lucas stood up and walked towards his tent.
"Oh, and what would that be."
Lucas stopped and looked him in the eyes.
"Trusting someone so much that and then being betrayed, seeing someone like your brother but having him stab you in the back. Losing many of your family members before your eyes, not seeing how your only child has grown up due to circumstances, many, many things are worse than death."
He took a deep breath and walked towards his tent again.
"What is your goal!" Ryle growled at him.
"I want to take you and your sisters as my students. I finally find my successor, I won't have anyone harm you now, you are the watch for tonight. We start our training at 8." with that he entered his tent, leaving behind a stunned Ryle.