"We're climbing the mountain of Columbus next week."
Nath's eyes widened with surprise. He couldn't figure out the motive behind Tenzou's words. This was because Tenzou's behavioral pattern drastically changed throughout the past year. After the wall was built, day after day, Tenzou displayed a significant growth of ataraxic behavior, strength and wisdom. He would spend most of his time alone; either meditating or enjoying the moonless night sky.
"Huh? But why?" Phyo asked with a rather contentious tone.
Tenzou looked at Phyo with amusement. Then, he stood up and exited the room through the opening that led towards his backyard. There was a beautiful fountain standing at the middle of the yard, and a trail of stone pavement that led towards it. A wooden bench sat right beside the fountain that underlooked the majestic mountain. There were also moist, green grass and colorful flowers that blossomed across the yard.
With his hands behind his back, Tenzou walked towards the bench and gestured the group of younglings to follow him. The teenagers followed the old man and stood behind him, waiting for an explanation. Tenzou pointed at the peak of the mountain, where a sparkle of light comprised.
"I've noticed that light ever since that night. We might find answers after we climb the mountain. We need to be ready for everything in case anything happens." Tenzou explained, staring at the mountain.
Lin nodded and replied, "In that case, we need to be familiar with our own powers. We haven't sparred in a while. How about a battle royal?"
Nath felt thrilled, but questioned with slight confusion, "Battle royal?"
Lin replied, "Yeah, that way we can get familiar with our powers."
Then, he created 4 balls that were the size of golf balls from his palm. "Each of us starts off with one ball. The last of us with all 4 balls in their possession wins."
"Huh? Only four balls?" A figure commented from behind.
"Your late, Swe." Hin said, as she subtly smiled with a slight blush on her face.
"Sorry I'm late. I had to take care of something in Hades." The figure said as he took off his mask.
Lin grinned as he created another wooden ball from his palm, and passed it to Swe, "Come to training ground 3, tomorrow at 7 a.m."
Nath had a restless night. He was devising strategies that he could implement during the battle royal. He had dismissed his thoughts and forced to sleep, after overthinking much. When he got up in the morning – around 6 am – his first thought was to go back to sleep. Nevertheless, he forced himself out of bed and got ready for the battle royal. He left his house at around 6:45 am, expecting to arrive at exactly 7 am.
As he walked past, he realized the people of Sylvie enjoying their lives. During the past year, Nath was too busy training, he didn't have enough time to appreciate the beauty of Slyvia. Even though the night was everlasting, Slyvia had beautiful lights that shined across every building in the city.
The pedestrians waved and greeted him, "Hey, Nath. Have a great day!"
He thought to himself, "I need to protect these people." The thought gave him incentive to train even harder, and protect the people of Slyvia. Before he could finish his thoughts, he had already reached his destination. It seems like a year of hardcore training wasn't for nothing.
He saw Lin and Phyo sitting and chatting while eating their breakfasts. Meanwhile, Tenzou stood a few feet away from the two teenagers with his hands behind his back. He had a neutral expression, but this time, with a hint of excitement.
Nath approached his friends, "Where's Hin? She was supposed to judge our match. It's unusual for her to be late."
Phyo finished his sandwich and replied, "We take those."
Nath looked at Phyo with slight abhorrence and asked, "Take what? You've been saying that ever since we met."
A couple of minutes later, Hin arrived, looking moderately exhausted. She chuckled as she scratched the back of her messy head, "I'm sorry for being late. I overslept."
Then, she took out 4 circular bells from her pouch and handed them to each of her friends. "It wouldn't be fair if you guys used Lin's wooden balls, since he can create multiple of them and confuse you guys."
Lin giggled but thought to himself, 'This bitch figured me out.'
He checked the time on his phone - 7:25 a.m. – and complained, "This guy still isn't her- "
"My bad, guys. I had to take care of something." Swe shouted as he ran towards his friends, with a sword attached to his hip.
Nath rolled eyes and said, "You're always taking care of something."
"Now that everyone's here, I'll tell you guys the rules." Hin announced.
"All of you guys have one bell each. You guys will have 2 hours to get as many bells as you can from the other participants. The person with the most amount of bells in their possession after the timer ends, wins. You guys can do anything you want during these two hours. Also, please make sure I don't get caught in your attacks." Everyone nodded and jumped away at great speed. It looked it they disappeared into thin air.
Training ground 3 was an area of land dominated by giant trees. There were also hills that only had a couple of trees, but those were rare. A significant landmark was a giant cave that led from one end of the training ground to the other.
Nath positioned himself on a hill that overlooked an area of trees. Suddenly, from a moderate distance, he saw wooden bars, as big as the trunk of a large sequoia, following a figure. The figure gracefully dodged the planks at the speed faster than a bullet.
'I don't have to worry about those two. They'll keep themselves occupied. But, if this keeps up, Phyo's at a huge disadvantage.' Nath thought to himself, as he turned around and scouted for Tenzou and Swe.
A loud noise occurred from the direction Phyo and Lin were fighting in. Nath turned aback to check what caused the noise and was bewildered by what he saw. A humongous rectangular barrier made out of wood formed. It was at least 200 meters long, 90 meters wide 30 meters high.
'I guess Lin's found a way to stop Phyo from running away. A barrier that big needs a shit ton of yin. He's gotten stronger.' Nath smirked as he internally complimented his friend.
Nath knew he wouldn't stand a chance against Tenzou. Tenzou could easily beat Nath, Lin and Phyo combined. The best chance they had to take Tenzou down was Swe, the only one who rivaled Tenzou in yin abundance.
Nath laid low for the first 60 minutes. He changed positions occasionally while keeping an eye out on the battle between Lin and Phyo. As he sat down and checked his watch – 60 minutes remaining, a beam of light reflected from the bottom of a nearby tree. He got closer to get a better look, and was surprised to see a bell lying on the ground.
His eyes widened as he realized that it was a trap. He tried to jumped back, but unfortunately it was too late. Hence, he knew that all he could do was block and bear the pain. As the kick landed on his stomach, Nath was lifted into the air and sent flying backwards on to a tree with great force. He would've passed out if he didn't block at the nick of time.
"You got faster." Swe said, as he picked up his bell and reattached it to his waist.
Nath knew Swe was stronger him, but instead of retreating, Nath decided to engage.
"You're planning to cut me down?" Nath asked as he eyed Swe's katana.
Swe calmly replied, "Relax. If I wanted to, I would've done that instead of kicking you away. I brought this in case I had to fight the old geezer."
Then, black yin engulfed Swe's fists.
"What did you do?" Nath asked in curiosity.
"Yin manipulation. After I land my blow, the yin on my fist deals extra damage. It's a great asset for non-elementals." Swe explained.
Nath nodded in envy and got into his fighting stance, simultaneously thinking of a plan. Luckily for him, there wasn't much killing intent from Swe. It seemed like he was having a good day.
Nath leaped towards Swe with great speed, and threw a punch at him. Swe easily dodged and immediately retaliated, with a powerful punch to the ribcage, that sent Nath flying backwards, ramming him into a stone wall. Before Nath could steadily hold his ground, Swe jumped towards the unbalanced Nath, and threw a punch right at his face. Nath closed his eyes, blocked his face, and gritted his teeth.
After a second, Nath didn't feel the attack land, so he opened his eyes. His bell was gone, and Swe was retreating. Without much hesitation, Nath thought to himself, 'It is time.'
"Wait!" Nath shouted at the fleeing Swe.
Unexpectedly, Swe turned around as his curiosity got the better of himself.
"What do you want? I'm not giving you the bell back." Swe said, as he crossed his arm and irritatingly looked at Nath.
"When did you get your bell? I didn't see Hin giving it to you this morning." Nath said as he grinned and looked at Swe with teasing eyes.
Swe's face visibly turned red as a flood of memories rushed towards him. He answered with embarrassment, "I- I- I got it last night. After we left Tenzou's house."
He replied, "Oh? But how did Hin get the bells AND give them to you at the same time? Unless you followed Hin to her house!"
Nath added, "Hin also looked rather tired this morning. It looked like she was up all night. She isn't the type to stay up late. Unless- "
"It wasn't anything erotic. We just watched movies and played games." Swe said, with a psychotic smile, while a murderous amount of killing intent oozed out of him.
He turned around and prepared to head towards the direction where Phyo and Lin were fighting, "If that's all you have to ask, I'll be on my way."
Swe looked like he disappeared into air. He leaped towards the direction where the giant wooden barrier was.
'I don't have to worry about anyone interrupting me anymore.' Nath thought to himself as he headed the opposite direction. He reached the giant cave and entered it. He used the flashlight on his phone as a source of light, and travelled deeper into the cave. He checked his phone – 45 minutes remaining – and thought to himself, 'I still have plenty of time.'
He sat and closed this eyes, face scrunched up with full concentration. When he reopened his eyes, a giant blue lake greeted him. Lush greenery and cultivated fields of flowers filled the landscape. There was an oak tree that stood on top of a small hill. Below the tree, there was a person sitting in peace.
The person turned around and greeted Nath, "Fancy meeting you here." The person was Nath, but with pitch black eyes. He wore a collar which had the word, 'Seal' on his neck.
"What do you plan to do now that your bell is gone?" Demon-Nath asked.
Nath answered, while creating a bottle of juice out of thin air, "I came here to learn mana manipulation to use it against Swe. I was hoping if you could help me with that."
In the course of the past year, Nath learned to suppressed his negative emotions. His inner demon only acted violently if he felt negative emotions. By learning to suppress his negative emotions, Demon-Nath calmed down, and even became a great asset. He helped Nath get stronger by expanding his yin reserve by an exponential amount.
Nath passed the bottle of juice to his counterpart, and sat down beside him. D-Nath looked at the bottle of juice and complained, "Is this orange? You know I don't like orange."
"Of course. My bad, dude." Nath replied, creating a bottle of lychee juice.
"There you go." D-Nath said, as he smiled at his doppelganger.
He opened the bottle of juice and took a sip. Then he added, "Yin manipulation requires a shit ton of precise yin control."
Then, he pointed at the giant lake that was three times bigger than a football field, "That's your yin reserve. For reference, you need to be able to consistently control a precise amount yin if you want to make this work. If you use too much yin, it becomes too hard to control and you'll get caught in your own attack. If you use too little, your attacks won't be as powerful as it's supposed to be."
Nath nodded and stood up. He walked towards the lake and said, "I'll give it a try."
He closed his eyes and intensely focused. His hand got engulfed in golden yin.
D-Nath's eyes widened as his jaw dropped. 'Golden yin?!' he thought to himself in utter amazement.
He approached Nath and suggested, "CAREFULLY concentrate the yin onto your dominant hand, and shape it into a gauntlet. If this goes well, you be able to beat Swe."
Nath did exactly what his counterpart told him to do. He opened his eyes, and realized he had successfully manipulated yin! He looked at D-Nath with contented eyes and exclaimed, "I did it! First try as well!"
Things were going well for Nath until the yin on his right hand started to increasingly overflow. It poured out of Nath's hand onto the ground.
"STOP! BLAST IT TOWARDS THE LAKE! RIGHT NOW!" D-Nath shouted as he jumped as far as he can from the lake.
Nath blasted the yin towards the lake, and got blasted backwards due to the opposite force. The beam of golden yin travelled as fast as lightning, then exploded at the middle of the lake. The explosion was so substantial, the shockwave sent Nath and his counterpart flying.
"Holy shit! What the fuck was that?!" D-Nath asked in awe.
"Uhh... Yin manipulation?" Nath replied as he awkwardly smiled and raised his shoulders.
"What do you mean yin manipulation? That wasn't even your yin!"