'Scarlet Strings Of Destiny.'
Night Fourteen...
For the second time that week Brave woke up after having blacked out.
She set up breathing heavily her eyes wide as she looked around.
"She's awake now I suppose..."
Brave jumped slightly when she heard the voice of Cov. She turned looking around the room she was in. She didn't really recognize it. It was just a simple wooden wood like one an inn might have. Sitting next to her bed in a chair was Fate and standing in the corner of the room playing on his gaming device was Cov.
"Cov? Fate?"
"Oh good you're awake." Fate sighed. "Brave... What happened?"
"I... I'm not to sure but... I think I need to speak to Professor Williams now."
"Right. Him and Professor Sigmore are down stairs right now." Fate said standing up. "I'll take you to them."
Meanwhile downstairs in the lobby of the simple inn four people could be seen.
"I hope the brat wasn't any trouble Mr. Sigmore Senior." Harrison Black stood, holding the suit case Williams had, had earlier. He wore a simple white lab coat like always.
Williams, and Sigmore, were both with him as well, as was the tiny old man who was also named Sigmore.
Defiance Sigmore scratched at his chin as he stared at his father. "I can't believe you got stuck with him, and that girl dad..." He hummed.
"It's no issue." Sigmore chuckled covering himself up with his beard more.
"Of course it is." Cliff Williams said letting out a heavy sigh. "Kale is my responsibility. So is Mary. I am the one who adopted them after the incident after all. I'm sorry I had to have you watch them for me while I was in town with Fate."
"Speaking of kids..." Harrison hummed clicking his tongue as he rested back in his chair. "I found a New Blood that wanted to go the Heaven as well. His name is Orion. How about you Cliff, Sigmore? You guys find any New Bloods you managed to trick into going to Heaven?"
"I wish you wouldn't say tricked but... Yes." Williams nodded. "Mine is named Brave Larison."
"Larison? Like Darvin and Leena Larison?" Harrison frowned.
"Yep."
Defiance frowned for a moment. "Hey... Isn't the Larisons the people who took Ace's-"
"Don't say his last name..." Williams sighed. "You know as well as I do that he'd murder every single one of us if he thought we told his daughter who he is. Even if it was on accident."
"O... Oh right I totally forgot... Yeah that man is scary... He's batshit crazy sometimes" Defiance said shuddering.
"Yeah he is..." Harrison frowned. "Hard to believe a guy like that one Serena's heart..."
"W... Well the New Blood I found is named Cov. He's a little weird but his hearts in the right place. I hope." Defiance chuckled giving a half shrug.
"I should be going." Harrison said slowly standing up. He picked up the suitcase. "Got to get this thing back the Ms. Aka or she'll bust my ass for sure. Plus I'd like to get back to my experiments. I was just about to see if I could replace the brain with a car engine and see if it would still work."
"Hmm. I'll come with you." The eldest Sigmore hummed sliding out of his chair due to him being so short. "It's best if two people guard the thing in that suit case after all."
And with that both Son Sigmore, and Harrison Black, did not meet Brave Larison today, as they both left the inn.
Right as they exited the building Brave, Fate, and Cov, all came down stairs.
"Oh. It seems you are finally awake now Ms. Larison." Williams hummed.
"Yo teach I need to talk to you." Brave said frowning.
"I assume it has to do with why you blacked out?"
"Thats right..." Brave was silent for a moment but finally she began to speak. She told them everything. About the man in the top hat named Tik at least... "He... He said he was the one who took F... Father Darvins arm."
"I see..." Williams sighed but nodded his head. "Well... The good news is that your answer seems to have made him a little happy and he should leave you alone. At least for a little while. That Mare is honestly a pain in the ass... What you saw was an Alpha... Mares eat Imps and Blanks to evolve. Whenever they eat their power will go up slightly. Usually by a small amount but it'll go up. Around 100 Blanks will increase their power by 1% but Imps... A few dozen of them is enough to double their power and thats the weaker ones... The stronger an Imp is the more power that Mare gets when they eat them... And when a Mare gets enough power it evolves drastically changing... There are several stages of these... You'll see more of them... All you really need to know is that most are Barons... However what you saw was an Alpha class Mare... Saying they're dangerous is an understatement."
Brave gulped but nodded her head. "Okay... Then whats the plan?"
"No plan."
"Right. I'm sorry what?" Brave asked realizing what he said.
"As I said before your answer has seemed to tame his curiosity for at least a little while." Williams hummed. "All thats left to do now is wait till the day of the test comes."
"Thats it?" Brave asked frowning.
"Thats it." Williams nodded. "That being said... As you are now you'd have some trouble... The test is a little hard for New Bloods and thats on purpose. If you don't know how the very basics of aura work you're a dead girl."
Brave once again gulped. "O... Okay... Then whats the plan with that? And you better have one."
"Relax I do." Williams nodded. "You're gonna get some training in before the test."
Brave let out a sigh of relief at that. "Oh... Cool. So you're gonna train me. From what I saw you were pretty good-"
"No."
"What?"
"Sorry." Defiance said sheepishly. "But well... You see... Um... I'm kind of terrible at training students since I'm still so new to this and all and well um... I promised I'd do all of Williams paper work in exchange for him training the recruit I find. In this case Cov."
"You're out of luck I suppose." Cov hummed.
"S... So I'm screwed?" Brave asked with wide eyes.
"Not exactly." Williams said shaking his head. "We Teachers find Imps we think could work in the test. Usually we find a few dozen or so but we focus on the ones we think need the help. As such those ones usually get the biggest chance of passing while the others that were found usually fail. There are around ten teachers in total give or take a few depending on Ms. Akas mood, and each one will find about five to ten students meaning that at most there will be around one hundred recruits taking the test to get into Heaven, out of them only about twenty will pass, with more then half either dying or simply failing."
"S... So dark..." Brave winced. "But I think I get what you're saying. There are so many recruits right. But each teacher will only train one... Since Defiance can't do that since he sucks I guess, that means only nine students will actually get extra training in before the test right?"
"Thats sort of true." Williams nodded. "Your math about the teachers and each student being trained was right. Each teacher is allowed to try and train one student. However that would mean that only ten students have a hope to get in while the other ninety wouldn't. The Imp world has never been that fair being a dog eat dog world, but even that is a little extreme. As such students that can't have a teacher train them have two options. Option one is to self study and try to find a book on the basics of aura and try to master some fighting styles. Options two... Is to find a Cultivator."
"Cultivator?"
"Kind of like a teacher." Fate responded. "Its a certain rank of Wakes."
"Thats right." Williams nodded. "And it just so happens that I know one."
"Seriously. Thats great."
"Father you don't mean..." Fate frowned.
"I do... Brave... Starting tomorrow for the next one month you're going to be the student of Hero Laws."
***
"Hero Laws huh..." Brave sighed as she stared up ahead her eye twitching slightly.
She was at the base of a mountain. She had been dropped off by Williams with the only simple instructions of making it to the top alive if she wanted to meet Hero Laws.
Also she would apparently know what he looked like when she saw him whatever the hell that meant.
Brave was dressed in a new get up. It wasn't the black fancy suit she had gotten to wear earlier. Rather this was more like a normal outfit. Black sweat pants and a black tank top. She had no shoes on and the clothing was thin. Normally this wouldn't be an issue but it was snowing! Also they took any supplies away from her and Williams just gave her a knife!
"I swear that man is trying to get me killed." Brave shivered walking up the snow covered mountain as she shivered.
If the cold didn't kill her, which was honestly a possibility, then chances are a rouge Mare would.
'He's at the top of the mountain but... Well he can be a bit difficult you know... He trained my daughter Fate once but it didn't go well. She nearly died. Now yours shouldn't be to bad since its only a month but getting to him will be hard. You still have no clue how to mask your aura so you're basically screaming at any Mare in the area to come eat you. Why don't I just take you there myself? Do you seriously have to ask that? If you can't even make it to a teacher who can teach you the basics then you're better of just dying. You'd only endanger your family.'
Brave gritted her teeth as she began to move through the snow. "I... I can do this." She announced through chattering teeth. "No matter what I can... I can do this for sure."
The trip was going to be long. She was sure of that. She had been expecting it to be hard. Maybe the hardest thing of her life.
What she wasn't expecting was the random house that was on the side of the road.
"This isn't even halfway up the mountain..." Brave frowned. "I guess its like a break... For people trying to climb the mountain it would be basically impossible in one goal what with the weather and the steep hill... After all this mountain is nearly 9000 meters and is the tallest mountain in the Nation of Red... This would be like a resting place where you can take a break I guess. Am I allowed to use it or do I have to-"
Brave's eyes went wide as she crouched down and her hand went to the knife at her belt.
Her village as stated before had been a simple hunter village. She had gone on many hunts with them for fun as there wasn't a lot to do. One thing you'll be used to is the smell of blood. Either from the animals, or the accidents that happen to the hunters.
And right now Brave could smell blood.
The cabin door slowly opened and she felt her eyes widen when she saw it.
"I... Imp... You look tasty..."
"God I hate how they can talk..." Brave shuddered.
It was a Mare. This one was odd though. It was tall and thin. Nearly nine feet tall. It had pale white skin and pitch red eyes rather than the blacks skin it normally had. Its arms were thin and tentacle like but what made her shudder the most was its mouth. The thing was more like a slit and was circular with all the teeth twisting around inside of it. Like a blender. It was covered in blood and just behind the creature several bodies of humans rested having been torn to bits and devoured by this thing.
Brave gulped slowly drawing her knife. "I... I can do this." She muttered. "I just need to use this knife like a fist right? Father taught me to just keep punching people till they don't get back up so if I just keep stabbing it then-" The Mare flashed forward suddenly appearing in front of her from seemingly out of nowhere as Brave's eyes went wide. "Ohmygoditsfast-"
The tentacle of the Mare slapped out slamming it across Brave's face and busting her lip open once more sending her flying back through the snow as she tumbled through it. Her head slammed into a tree and for a moment she saw black as white hot pain exploded through her, her injured head getting worse as she felt as if her skull would once again crack open.
"O... Ow..." She gasped dropping to her knees and grabbing at her head wound.
The Mare began to move towards her as the slit on its mouth began to rip open and several tendrils began to seep out as its mouth formed into its entire stomach and the thing opened up to the point of having a single massive mouth with tendrils coming out that began to wrap around Brave and pull her forward...
It was going to swallow her whole-
"First Dance. Lightning Strikes Thrice."
The Mares eyes went wide as soon as it heard the voice but before it could even turn around the sky split apart as three bolts of lightning blasted down bending and twisting together. It let go of Brave and attempted to jump back but the lightning blasted through it blowing its lower half into a smoldering messy as its upper half slammed into the ground rolling across it and howling.
Brave stared ahead with wide eyes at the man who had saved her. He wore long white robes and had on a white wizard hat. He seemed to have a long grey beard but he wore a black bird like mask. In his hands he held a slick black wand.
The Mares upper half twisted up as it let out a loud growl using its arms to balance up. The stranger didn't even bother looking towards it as he seemed to vanish and reappear from behind the creature its head flying off as a white aura covered him.
"W... Wow..." Brave said with wide eyes.
"You there." The man said pointing his wand at Brave and making her jump. "Are you here to become one of my students?"
"Y... You're Hero Laws I take it? Y... Yes sir."
"I see... Go home. You failed."