As Shin continued on his journey to the kingdom of hierodulus, the kingdom from where Leo came, he left a trail of blood, defeating every warrior who crossed paths with him. Rumors of an unknown mage strong as a demon traveling along the international eastern highway spread like wildfire. He was known as the phantom because of his illusory ways of fighting and the fear he induced. All the villages surrounding the highway were on guard, being on the highway for a village in this world of war only meant being the first ones to be devastated during a battle, This had led to strong warriors and strategies of protection by the villages.
"Why do we have to go around the village?! There's no way we can use such a roundabout way and make it in time!"
"We can't let you through the gates, the village is on a complete lockdown due to recent rumors." A feud had broken out between the traders and the village guard.
"Don't you have a superior we could talk to?" The village administrators showed up and they let the traders in after thorough inspection, only because those traders used this route regularly. However, the traders were transporting weapons, so they had to lock the merchandise down and assign guards so that no smuggling would take place, also they didn't have enough people to wield so many weapons either way,
"How come the village is aligned dead center with the highway even though that attracts way more attacks, Couldn't they shift it elsewhere?"
"These villages were only set up as a way to slow down the enemy, you see, all these people are just rag dolls, to weaken the enemy. Anyway shut up now, as if it would be that easy to move an entire village!" The traders conversed as they moved through this small village, the only people who looked well off staying in the village were soldiers, fighters, hunters, the people who needed to be strong to do their jobs, and that's the kind of people the village was brimming with, everywhere they saw. As they were passing through the village the traders saw a little light red shining through the crevice in the closed container and quickly started trying to hide it, there was a nervous murmur among them, the slaves looked surprised too. But the light was noticed by the village assigned guards and had gotten a reaction out of them as well. "What was that light, Sir? We need to recheck what goods you are transporting."
"You already saw the weapons, didn't you?" the traders tried to stop them.
"The weapons aren't supposed to shine like that, also you need to back off away as we open the container." the guards were adamant about this, but for the traders, this meant no more passage through the village, if anything suspicious was found.
"Alright we admit it, we were transporting magically forged weaponry, and we are ready to pay the extra taxes so leave the boxes alone!"
"You need to take up the taxes and punishment issue with the administration, for now, we need to confirm you speak the truth at least now."
But the traders were just as relentless as the soldiers
The feud kept going when suddenly a man with one of the cursed marks right on top of his forehead, broke through the box which was shining. The rubble and goods of the nearby crates were all sent flying as he caused an explosion while breaking through the box.
"Come on out already! Phantom of the eastern road. Isn't this the reason for the fights you've been picking?"
No wonder the traders were so persistent about not opening the crate, there was a man bearing a cursed mark hidden with their goods. The guards didn't understand how they could have missed an entire human in a crate of weapons during the inspection.
--
"I knew this would happen! Ughh" the traders regretted their actions as they remembered accepting the magical weapons from this man in exchange to smuggle him through the highway.
The man somehow telekinetically manipulated the weapons and directed them all straight towards another wagon in the lot. From the top of the wagon, Shin jumped to dodge the weapons and landed down. None of the traders or the guards had noticed Shin until now, but how, both his wagon and he himself were completely discrete from the traders', yet he managed to blend in with them, his illusions were clearly at play here.
"Look at what you did to my ride, you looking for a fight!" Shin's lifeless eyes glimmered teal again, his curse mark which was on his chest, was also glowing red, visibly so, even through his robe.
"I am Astra, Asura's candidate, and the future ruler of the worlds both this and that. Who are you?"
"Cliche," Shin laughed at Astra "You talk too much!" as these words came out of his mouth he leaped towards Astra as Astra pulled all the shields and spears together again with his telekinetic ability.
This is what the competition was about, Astra recalled Asura, a scary demon with sharp fangs extruding from it's mouth and yellow eyes with the tiniest pupils explained the competition to him when he first arrived in hell, leaning over Astra's shoulder he spoke in a sly, coarse tone, "That's right, all you have to do is cover the whole world in a bloodbath, brutally KILL all the candidates, then you can do whatever you want, then it wouldn't matter when or who, you can bring them back. You should redeem them, shouldn't you, those who suffered, because you were just too powerless. Claim the power for yourself, if you can" he laughed menacingly
--
Astra grit his teeth and formed a barricade with the shields while using the spears to poke through small gaps for offense as Shin charged head-on and ran straight into the spears head first.
"Is he an idiot?!!" Astra was confused by Shin's action.
As the spears pierce and blood spills over what will happen of these two in the heat of battle and how will the villagers act. Has Shin's fate been sealed by all the spears running through his body?