Slap! Slap! Slap!
Arya could feel a slight burning sensation pulsing on her cheeks. She slowly opens her eyes and squints at the bright light that shines in her eyes.
"Hoho. She's awake!" yelled a sweet voice.
"Hehe." A young man made a small giggle and walked towards Arya. Arya had her hands and feet tied by 2 pairs of handcuffs made from navy blue metal.
"Good afternoon to Miss Arya Levy. You really know how to sleep. It was supposed to knock you out for only 7 hours buts it's been 17 hours instead.
"Where is this? Who are you?" asked Arya softly. The blue-haired man and crimson-haired woman were standing above her, looking at Arya as if she was prey. They stared intently at her as if seeing through her soul.
The man says nothing and grabs two chairs from behind him. The girl sits on Arya's right and the man on her left.
"You really are not in the position to be asking us any questions." said the young man while taking out a yellow scroll from his pocket. "Arya Levy. Adopted and trained by the Manupus family at the age of 10. Now 19 years old, a Level 5 - Mid Grade Body Strengthening { FORCE } user. To prove her worth to the family, she was sent to her first mission at I Igrit City for evaluation. "
Arya's eyes were wide open in surprise. 'How does this person know so much about me? I thought that the family has kept all information about their cultivators under tight wraps?' she thought.
"You must be wondering how I know all this. You see, I have certain friends who have friends in high places. Those friends of his probably have tons of spies inside your adoptee's family. My friend's friends handed him the information and he gave it to me. "
Hearing this, Arya's eyes started to scramble around the room. She needed to get out of here, there were spies in her family. Her family of cute little pigs was in danger.
She tried to break apart the metal cuffs on her hand only to find that they did not show any signs of breaking. She was exerting as much of a force as she could but it was useless. This blue metal is impossible to break with her strength.
At the beginning of the Body Strengthening phase, a cultivator receives a boost of 2 times to the maximum possible strength of humans. This means their speed, muscle strength, reaction time, and hardness of the body are all multiplied by 2.
It is known that the most that a human can ever put into their kick are a force of 9000 Newtons. This equates to about 2023 pounds or 5453.5411 kilograms. Double that would be 4046 lb or10907 kilograms.
Cultivators would also be incomparably fast, have inhuman reaction speeds, and tough to pierce bodies.
Daren had taken all of this into account when setting everything up.
"There's no point in struggling with those," said Daren as a sinister smile appeared on his face. "The cuffs are made up of metal known as Purple Star Stream Alloy. Even a Peake Grade, Level 9 Core Condensation can't break out of those."
Purple Star Stream Allloy. This metal is what was used when building spaceships that could handle being right next to a star that imploded. . Daren was sure that even Elemental Cancelation Rank can't break out of these cuffs when.
The level of strength for Aura Formation and Divine Aura ranks is not something that Daren is aware of due to their rarity and the lack of records involving their fights.
(Force Cultivation Ranks - Body Strengthening, Core Condensation, Core Refining, Elemental Siphoning, Elemental Cancelation, Aura Formation, Divine Aura )
"You cannot be serious! Tell me it's a joke! Please tell me it's a joke! Please!!" Arya had lost her mind when she heard that even an Elemental Cancelation Rank could not get her out of these.
Those people could disintegrate or create any types of attacks that involved their element. This meant that this metal could not be could not even be destroyed by people who had godly amounts controls over their metal element.
"It's not a joke. This 'metal' is not actually metal. It is a combination of 3000 different, almost indestructible materials created from the cores of strange stars. The part where it says 'allow' is a joke from the guy who made it."
"Stars? You must be lying. No one can reach the stars and if even Elemental Cancelation cant control this metal, who in the world can make something out of it. " Arya's claim was logical but she was only able to come up with it because she was in the denial phase.
"Hahahaha. I wasn't even expecting you to believe me in the first place. I just wanted to see your reaction. Ahh, distraught. My favorite emotion to see on one face. " Daren's feelings of satisfaction poured out into his, making his creepy smile appear. "I have only one question for you. Do you like getting tied up tightly with a rope?"
Arya: "Haaaaaaaah!!"
...
At the Manupus estate, there were tens of people surrounding a burned-down building. They were collecting the remains of the dead and placing them in one cart while placing the charred materials on another set of carts.
"We are going to need about 3 more carts for the bodies." said a servant.
"I'll go get them. Roy and Mat, come help me with bringing them over. The faster we get this done, the quicker we get out of this dreadful rain." said another servant.
2 other servants nodded to this man and went to get more carts from their warehouse.
Inside the main mansion, Frank was sitting down in Litus's study. "Did find anything out?" asked Frank.
Across from him sat Litus who had a deep frown plastered on his face. The wrinkles on his forehead had seemed to increase from 3 to 5.
"The city guard came personally to collect samples from the crime scene last night. They investigated some of the bodies they took with them and will be arriving shortly to give a report," said Litus.
"Did you do your own investigation?" asked Frank. He showed a displeased look as he did not like the answer he had just received.
'I did. My men found nothing. They have no idea what caused such an explosion. Some of them suggested it was the work of cultivator while." replied Litus.
"That's not what I want to hear. I want to know who is behind this all and why Arya is missing. If something happens to her, I will set fire to you myself." said Frank while furrowing his eyebrows and showing the anger that was ablaze in his eyes.
"Heh. Just because the patriarch likes your tactics doesn't mean that he would kill me because of a single, low-level cultivator going missing. The family has many more like her to spare." said Litus. He was clearly mocking Frank but deep inside, he feared this man.
These words made Frank snap. This fat pig in front of him gave no regard for the life of his friend. Frank got up from his seat while punching the table down. He grabbed Litus's collar and lifting him slightly in the air.
"Unhand me you imbecile. I will report your rudeness to my great grandfather. He will not spa... ack! Ack! Cough! Cough!. " Litus was chocking on Franks grip, who tightening was tightening his giant hands around the neck.
Bang!!
The study door flew open and crashed into Frank's back. Frank made a small grunt of pain as his back shattered the door and he let go of Litus. Litus was now sitting on the ground, looking towards the door.
Standing there was his savior. A medieval knight with silvery-white armor that covered his entire body and a helmet that covered his face. You could only see the man's eyes out of a thin slit. The weight of his armor did not seem to bother him one bit as he smoothly walked towards the men.
He pulled out a chair and sat on it. The chair started glowing as the knight had imbued his own {FORCE} into it. A regular wooden chair could not hold his weight when wearing the armor.
"Gentlemen, sit down. I have something important to discuss." The man said. his voice had nothing but pure authority and he was exerting large amounts of force into his surroundings.
Litus and Frank showed no hesitation in listening to the knight's words. They quickly took their won seats and waited for the man to continue."
"Mr. Litus Manupus, I would like to ask you to answer the following questions as honestly as you can." Litus nodded quietly and softly to the knight's request. " We believe that the act of terror that was committed yesterday on your workers was done by the demonic sect."
"What!!" Frank and Litus yelled out loud in response.
The knight looked at them with his scary eyes and the two instantly calmed down. "What I want to ask you is if you have been planning on committing a crime or have been committing any crimes recently?"
Litus and Frank's faces both froze in fear. They were deliberating if they were going to tell the honorable knight the truth or risk getting found out and punished by the knight.
"Tell me the truth. I am not here to punish you. The demonic cult projected their symbol into the sky with some unknown method and I just need to know if the demonic cult has a valid reason for doing so. They have been mercilessly and gruesomely killing thieves for the past 3 weeks and only had calmed down recently. They suddenly then pop out and slaughter 98 of your men. There has to be a reason."
"Honorable Knight Felix Durant, I will admit that I had invited these men over to hunt down a cultivator and his wife. The wife had insulted our family and with our honor on the line, we could not let it slide.
They also have special umbrellas that have been selling like crazy. The entire city has demanded for it but their supply hasn't been able to keep up.
We made an offer to buy the production method for the product and its material and we were rudely rejected. I then called for a hundred mercenaries and 1 cultivator from my family to steal the production method and kill them in the process."
Litus spilled the story without much hesitation. Litus was aware that the knight already knew all this. The knight had shown no signs of surprise at the story and this only confirmed Litus's suspicions.
"Hmm. Wait. You said you brought over a cultivator right. I saw her yesterday. Where is she?" asked the knight. He wasn't sure that he did not feel the presence of a cultivator anywhere near this estate.
"She went missing right after the explosions," said Frank with sorrow.
"Missing!! You're saying a cultivator at the 5th level of Body strengthening just disappeared. How did this happen?" asked the cultivator. There was some confusion in his voice.
"The explosion caused our ears to go slightly deafened ring for about 3 minutes. Everyone in the estate was incapacitated by the loud noise but Arya was fine. She ran out to check what happened but by the time I got up and went after her, she was already gone." said Frank. His mood was only getting worse and his head was dropping lower and lower.
"Vice Commander! Vice Commander!" A young, skinny man yells as he runs down the corridor.
Frank turned around at the familiar voice and then said, "Calm down Bennett. What's wrong?"
"The com... the commander is dead," says Bennett.
Frank's brain goes numb when he hears this and he falls to the ground.
.....
The city of Igrit has two centers. The first one would be the literal center which is the city lords mansion and the park that surrounds it. The second one is the town square.
The town square is where every single government building was located. The city guards headquarters, the tax bureau, the anti-corruption bureau, and every other government office that has been issued by the royal family.
People would have to go through this part of the city many times a month to fill in all sorts of paperwork and to also enjoy the view of the decadent stone buildings.
Today though, the city square is closed. There are the troops of the city guard all over the place, making sure that no regular citizen witnesses the horror inside.
Hanged right outside the tax building, was hanged a skeleton. A skeleton of a tall human. The skeleton was wearing a black cloak with its hood down. It had long black, boots, black trousers, and a white shirt. On its waist was a sword.
A sword of the thin kind that is pointy and had around the hilt, was on its waist.
The skin and organs were spilling onto the streets as there was no blood in the body. It was a husk of a body.
The wall of guards spotted their commanding officer, the fully armored knight. The guards let both him and the 3 people behind him enter the square.
When Frank laid his eyes upon the corpse's attire and the beautiful rapier on its waist. His world was shattered. Frank had spent over six years training and living alongside Arya.
She was his best friend and his only friend. Everyone else is just his employers or colleagues. As an orphan like Arya, the only family they had was each other.
Now, Arya was gone and he had not only lost a friend, but he had also lost his sworn sister.
Frank broke into tears. This confirmed to the knight, that this was the body of the cultivator.
The knight drew his long sword and stabbed it through the ground like the stone pavement was butter.
"DEMONIC CULT!! YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES!" he roared. His shout sent shivers through the bodies of his soldiers.
One of the guards softly said to the guard next to him "It looks like things are about to get bloody in this city for the first time in three thousand years."
"It seems so. Hopefully, we won't have to do any of the bloodsheds ourselves." replied his buddy.
Overlooking this scene was a man in a bright red robe. His hair was a glistening silver and his face was devilishly handsome. It had the features of a demonic prince that would sweep girls into his bedroom with just one look.
His red eyes only added to his demon-like qualities. These red eyes were mocking the scene that was playing in front of him. He stood there, on a wooden roof of a residential building, there was an invisible force field of dense energy around him.
Even the rain avoided the energy that this man was surrounded in. In a town where going out without one of Daren's umbrellas would cause one to come back drenched, this man was staying as dry as the fiery hell.
"My father's plan has finally been set in motion. This is the beginning of a new era for our Empire. My dear sister, etch this day in your memories as it will be talked about for ages to come." said the silver-haired man.
Beside him appeared a silver-haired young lady. With her ethereal face and enchanting figure, she was like a celestial goddess that had descended from above.
"Yes, big brother. Our father really thought this through. I really want to see where this will lead the nation." said the girl. Her voice was just as enchanting as her looks. Each word was like a bird's melody.
"We will surely see. We will have to see." said the older brother.
As the rain continued to fall, what is in store for the fates of these men and women, and what does the future hold for this world?
Only time will tell.